Following our popular series on symbols on packaging, we will be focusing on brands with unusual and iconic packaging in the coming months. After taking a closer look at cylindrical shaped packaging in particular, we are devoting today’s issue to an unmistakable mountain range.

We hope you enjoy reading! Your Tightly Packed editorial team

In 2018, this internationally-renowned chocolate packaging with its prismatic shape and sweet triangular content celebrated its 110th anniversary. However, there is still some dispute over the real inspiration behind inventors Theodor Tobler and Emil Baumann’s creative packaging: Critics of the theory that the packaging is modelled after the Swiss mountains are quick to point out that the Matterhorn has only been printed on the sustainable cardboard packaging since 1970. And only few people truly support the theory that Theodor Tobler based the chocolate on the choreography of vaudeville dancers in Paris. One thing, however, is certain: From day one, the unusual idea of creating pyramid-shaped chocolate was a resounding success and quite deserving of a packaging icon. After all, even the best content can’t make it into the history books without an appropriate cover.

WHAT MAKES PACKAGING SUCCESSFUL?

Besides the shape and the material, a packaging’s layout also plays an important role. The inventors of Swiss export success Toblerone also managed to create a name with a high recognition factor. And “Toblerone” is indisputably a combination of Theodor Tobler’s surname and torrone, a nougat-like dessert.

The logo, however, has changed over the course of time...

• 1908: An eagle grips the Swiss and Bern flags in its claws, with scenic mountains in the background
• 1960s: The Matterhorn is printed on one of the smaller triangles at one end of the packaging
• 2000: The Matterhorn moves to the longitudinal side of the Toblerone packaging, with a bear symbolising the city of Bern, the chocolate’s production site

...and the colour range has been expanded – here a selection:

• From the start, this sweet temptation was available in milk chocolate and dark chocolate honey-almond nougat versions in yellowy-beige packaging.
• In 1969, these were joined by the black Toblerone version – known today as “Toblerone dark”.
• In 1973, the characteristic white cardboard packaging was added.
• In the 1990s, this was followed by blue packaging.
• In 2008, the purple Fruit & Nut version was launched on the market,
• in 2009, Honey & Crisp in white and yellow was launched and
• in 2011, the company released its Crunchy Almond flavour in white and blue triangular packaging.

The Toblerone packaging’s triangular cross section is still the most important element of the company’s brand communication. Customers immediately recognise the box’s striking shape, regardless of size, which ranges from “Jumbo” to “Tiny”. Which made past adjustments all the more difficult.

In November 2016, Mondelēz International enlarged the distance between the individual pyramids for the British market: Instead of the original twelve, the packaging now only contained nine chocolate “summits”, which in turn reduced its weight by ten percent. Shortly afterwards, the company reduced Toblerone bars distributed in Germany as well, from 400 to 360 grams or, to put it differently, from fifteen to eleven tines. The respective packaging sizes remained the same.

But after customer protests, Mondelēz International seized the opportunity offered by Toblerone’s 110th anniversary to relaunch the original shape in Great Britain in 2018, whilst at the same time increasing the size of the Toblerone bars from 150 grams to 200 grams. They also offered a 750 gram bar, a gift box with five different types of 100-gram bars of chocolate as well as the option of customising the 360-gram packaging format.

The Toblerone competition in the Philippines

Even though the originally Swiss Tobler & Cie company was taken over by US company Mondelēz International, the iconic chocolate bar is still produced exclusively in a single factory in Bern – the only way to ensure the packaging can still carry the claim “Swiss Milk Chocolate”.  Around 300 employees produce approximately 35,000 tonnes of Toblerone a year, which is enjoyed in 122 countries around the world – among them, with quite a long transport route, the Philippines. When their local 7-Eleven supermarket chain celebrated its 35th anniversary in July 2018, a total of 2,600 customers had the chance to win a 4.5 kg bar of Toblerone with every purchase of regular Toblerone products.

Toblerone: Secretly halal

Since April 2018, the Mondelēz group has produced a halal version of the Swiss chocolate according to Islamic food regulations – however, without corresponding information on the packaging.