Tupperware wants to get out of the Mad Men-era. Here’s how it plans to do it.
We are, in fact, in the early phases of the company’s conversion from the “Mad Men” era to the “The New Man” era.
Just like the people they replaced, the company’s new corporate identity, which they unveiled this week, is still largely a work in progress.
Some people might be tempted to view the transition as an act of nostalgia, the company finally settling into its original identity after three decades in the public eye.
In reality, the transformation hasn’t really taken place, or it hasn’t happened yet. We are still in the early stages of The New Guy’s rise to power.
Tupperware, now known as Tupperware Personalization, isn’t abandoning Mad Men, but it’s getting out of its time.
It’s also getting out of its business. The company, which has enjoyed success providing the nation’s most-discussed gift of the 20th century, has quietly changed its model of how it does things.
How Tupperware is doing that has little to do with nostalgia or identity. It’s purely about the way it has used digital technology to reshape the way companies do business.
It also has a lot to do with the way it views its business.
While Tupperware’s customers love the idea of personalized product-giving, the idea of a company taking on this role has been around for decades, but the company has never had any interest in doing anything of the sort.
“Mad Men” wasn’t always about Tupperware. It started as a marketing project that would showcase personalization technologies. But the marketing side of things was only a small piece of a much larger venture: making products that people could use to give their loved ones gifts the next time they see them.
In 1968, Tupperware founder Bob Tupper received a $200,000 check for his invention of the first plastic Easter egg. In 1971, he made his second-ever donation: $1 million to Stanford University Medical Center because the university was one of the first to use his invention.
That same year, Tupper created the company Tupperware Personalization to create and market its “Personalization for the Masses” program.
The company also made a name for itself by showing how personalization could affect the way shoppers approach their