Tupperware... Sexy?

Yes, you read it right. The makers of the little plastic boxes we keep leftovers in are rethinking their brand image, so now Tupperware is—I can't believe I'm writing this—Tupperware is sexy.

According to a NY Times article with the foot-in-mouth title, "Using the Kitchen as a Happy Place Where Couples Bond," the idea is that Tupperware products are so easy to use simple that anyone can use them—even men. And men would get a lot of credit with their women if they picked up cooking (wink wink). So Tupperware really is quite romantic.

This new initiative is intended to promote Tupperware's relatively new range of kitchen products. Over the years, the company has become a household name for its line of food storage containers, but, having gotten bored with plastic boxes, Tupperware has since expanded to food preparation products. The Tupperware-is-sexy campaign, with its focus on the romance of cooking, is one of the many ways the brand is trying to get people to think of it as more than just a storage container company.

But here's the catch: Tupperware doesn't run advertisements. Over the course of its 64 years, the main way it's reached the masses has been through "Tupperware parties," making clever use of research that shows that the main factor in influencing people's buying decisions is not the media (i.e., advertising), but instead a few influential people—usually people right in the community—who function as opinion leaders. It's kind of a bandwagon effect: "Hey, if she's buying Tupperware, if she really likes their products, maybe I should get some." Not only is this marvelously effective, it's also relatively cheap.

So how does a no-advertisement company go about quickly changing its brand image? Well, it sponsors a lot of parties, for starters. And it holds outdoor publicity stunts in Manhattan where famous guys are shown how to "prepare a meal using only food, Tupperware products, and a microwave oven." Interestingly enough, the press invitations to this particular event mentioned that most women find it more sexy when their men make food than when they take them out to eat.

"It would seem," writes Andrew Adam Newman in that article I mentioned earlier, "that Tupperware is making a typical marketing pitch to men, promising to help them seduce women." (Newman then notes that the real target audience is women: The plan is for them to see an event like this and think, "Wouldn't it be so nice if my boyfriend/husband did that for me!")

But that's not all that Tupperware is doing. It's also sponsoring fashion shows. Seriously, for fashion week, Tupperware connected with model Irina Shabayeva, capitalizing on the shock factor of having a kitchen products company involved in fashion. Oh yeah, and Tupperware also made parts for the dresses. Take a good look:
If I'm understanding this right, Tupperware designed and made the stiff part of this skirt, various pieces of most of the other dresses, all of the jewelry and accessories, plus room decorations (hanging strands of black plastic "feathers").

So. Tupperware is sexy. Now you know.







(For more on the fashion show—info and pictures—check out "BeautiControl and Tupperware Take Fashion Week By Storm" on Gary's Blog, from BeautiControl, one of the other sponsors of the event.)