Episode Transcript
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Steven (00:01):
Welcome to the
Tomorrow's World Today podcast.
We sit down with experts, worldchanging innovators, creators,
and makers to explore howthey're taking action to make
tomorrow's world a better placefor technology, science,
innovation, sustainability, thearts, and more.
On this episode, host GeorgeDavison, who is also the host of
(00:22):
the TV series Tomorrow's WorldToday, sits down with Kevin
Thompson, brand director atNewell Brands.
Kevin shares the rich historyand enduring innovation behind
ball mason jars, emphasizingtheir proprietary sealing
technology that ensures superiorfood preservation.
He also highlights how evolvingconsumer needs continue to
(00:42):
shape the brand today and inTomorrow's World.
George (00:46):
Hello everybody and
welcome to another edition of
Tomorrow's World Today.
And today I have Kevin Thompsonhere.
He is a brand director forBallmason Corporation, the
Ballmason jar company, which isalso a part of Newell Brands.
Welcome to our show.
Kevin (01:03):
Thank you.
George (01:04):
So I was hoping you
could tell us a little bit about
the history of Ballmason.
Kevin (01:08):
Yes, I can definitely do
that.
And it goes all the way back to1884.
Interestingly enough, that'sabout 141 years ago now, because
we just celebrated our 140thanniversary last year.
But it all comes down to theBall brothers, who sort of
discovered this whole mason jarelement, which was going around
(01:31):
at that time.
And this was in New York.
And they decided they wanted toproduce these.
mason jars, which helped peoplepreserve their produce and
extend the shelf life of thefood and the crops that came in
on an annual basis.
And it really took off.
(01:53):
They moved that business toIndiana, actually Muncie,
Indiana.
And we actually, that facilitythat they developed there is
still in production today.
It still runs product today.
And they constantly constantlyinnovated around preservation.
And the biggest innovation thatcame about from that is just
(02:16):
the sealing technology that ourball mason jars have.
That allows us to really bebest in class and just be the
number one trusted brand when itcomes to food preservation and
just mason jars in general.
George (02:29):
You know, I remember
when I was younger and there
were glass jars.
They had two-piece lids.
And then there was a rubber...
like independent gasket at thetime.
I remember those back in theday and then they disappeared.
And now we have a gasket that'sactually like integrated into
the two piece lid.
Kevin (02:49):
Yes.
George (02:49):
This is some of the
technology that you're referring
to, right?
Kevin (02:52):
Yes.
George (02:53):
So earlier we were
chatting and you referred to it
as the strongest seal.
I thought that's a greatterminology, you know, so can
you talk a little bit about it?
Kevin (03:02):
Yeah.
And so there's this proprietarysealing technology that was
developed by And with that, andwith the two-piece lid, it
allows us to really up the anteand improve quality when it
comes to food preservation, whenit comes to just preserving
your food for long periods oftime.
(03:24):
And our quality standards atBall are quite high.
Our R&D team, they test ourproducts all the time.
They test everything in themarketplace.
And what we have come torealize realize and what we know
to be true is that we have thestrongest sealing mason jars and
you know this allows ourproducts and our consumers and
(03:45):
just the canning community toreally trust in us you know and
believe and know that you knowtheir products will be shelf
stable
George (03:54):
yeah
Kevin (03:54):
for as long as they sit
in our mason jars
George (03:57):
very nice so the problem
is you know you get your whole
foods you put them in there andthen you want them to last as
long as humanly possible rightso having a great seal is a part
of the process.
Kevin (04:10):
Yes.
George (04:10):
So, you know, just kind
of run me up to speed a little
bit on, you know, if I wasinside the R&D department,
right, and somebody said, well,is there any way to make a
better seal, even better thanthe really good seal that we
have now?
That would be part one of it,probably.
And maybe they got some ideas.
But then you have to scalethat.
You guys sell a lot of thesejars.
(04:31):
How many jars are we talking ayear?
Oh,
Kevin (04:35):
my goodness.
I It's hard to put a numberaround that, but it's in the
hundreds of millions of jars.
George (04:43):
So scaling is important.
So coming up with an idea isone thing, figuring out how to
make it scale, and then you needto be able to bring it to
market and tell the story of it.
Kevin (04:53):
Yes.
George (04:53):
And that's why I think
earlier you kind of captured my
imagination.
I love that strongest seal ideabecause it's a simple,
memorable thing.
It's like a noble cause.
How do I shoot for a noblecause that It'll help my end
user.
And if I have the strongestseal, I know their food is safe
and it'll be there when theyneed it.
(05:13):
Is that kind of how the mindsetis at your place?
Kevin (05:16):
Definitely that's how the
mindset is.
I think a lot of us that cometo work here and just have
joined this business, it's beenreally about, and you could say
this about a lot of businesses,but I mean, we truly believe it.
It's about delivering solutionsfor our consumer, meeting those
unmet needs.
(05:36):
and delivering quality productsfor the consumer that they can
trust and believe it.
And you asked about the day inthe life of R&D and the work
that they do.
They're constantly runningtests to not only ensure that
our product is the best and wecontinue to evolve and enhance
(06:00):
our mason jars and just theoverall process of food
preservation, but they work totest our recipes because that is
a big part of what we do.
We have a consistent andconstant dialogue with the
canning community where weprovide guidance and we provide
tons of recipes that are testedby our team.
(06:23):
We don't provide a recipe thatis not tested.
And from that process, once youfollow the recipe and you
follow it correctly, you'll befine with the product that comes
out of it.
And we stand by that.
And we live by that.
And it's all about justproviding good product, good
quality product, so that ourconsumers can extend the shelf
(06:46):
life of their produce.
They can have a stable foodsupply moving
George (06:49):
forward.
Nice.
Yeah, that's a good story.
I mean, back in the day, it's aglass jar with a lid, right?
But now, I guess somebody hadthe idea of, hey, let's stretch
ourselves out into the recipesand into the community that's
doing this kind of thing.
Give them these time testedproven recipes and you know
that's that's a really goodstory so I don't know who came
(07:13):
up with that idea over there butthat was a good one so let's
let's talk a little bit more Imean about good ideas I mean can
you project a little bit aboutthe future I mean what are you
guys working on right now that'skind of like secret but about
the kind of
Kevin (07:27):
well I think I think
there are different ways for us
to continue to delight ourconsumers I would say because
one thing that's happened with,and this happened as part of
COVID, is that people sort ofdiscovered or even rediscovered
preservation and mason jars.
(07:48):
And it became a, what we sawwas a big spike in just our
sales, a big spike in just theconversation around how to
preserve food, how to live ahealthier lifestyle, what are
the right ingredients forvarious recipes or just if I
(08:09):
want to promote a specificlifestyle and I want to teach my
kids about these things, whatis the right guidance for that?
So there's been a lot of thattype of conversation.
Also, with our products, we'vealso found that people are just
using them around the home foreverything, not just food
preservation.
They're using them asdrinkware.
(08:30):
They're using them for craftingwith their kids.
They're using them for justhome decor and all these
different things.
And we've really noticed this.
And so what we've done over theyears is we've provided more
variety within our jars so thatour consumers and our community
can use our jars however theysee fit because there's just so
(08:52):
much creativity out there andjust there's a lot of just
unique usage of our products.
And so we want to continue topromote that and continue to be
there for our community.
George (09:04):
Yeah, it sounds good.
I mean, so you've diversifiedthe line a little bit, right?
And you're welcoming other,actually, those are some other
bigger categories that you'rereally playing in.
Crafting's a big category.
So, you know, that's a prettygood business strategy.
I like that one.
There have been other, youknow, Ball's kind of done things
like that in the past, too.
(09:24):
When you guys, I was reading onsome of the history, and
whenever the Ball brothers werestill around, they wanted to
scale the glass manufacturingprocess.
They were actually the firstones in the US to scale
something so big that they couldbring the price down on the
glass jar itself, which gavethem a competitive advantage for
(09:45):
a long time.
So the idea of competitiveadvantages, innovation,
technology, now you're extendingout into other categories.
What other things should I lookforward to in the future?
Let's say in the world of foodpreservation.
Is there anything else that'sgoing to be coming out in the
world in the next decade, let'ssay?
Kevin (10:06):
That's a great question.
I would say the best way toanswer that really is as we see
the trends and as we see thevarious things that consumers
are doing with our products andthe questions that they're
asking, there may beopportunities that start to pop
up as consumers think more andmore about sustainability and as
(10:30):
consumers think more and moreabout just living healthier
lifestyles.
And I think some of it is howwe could help use our expertise
to be as big a part as we can bewith that dialogue and with
those conversations.
I also think there areopportunities for us to provide,
(10:56):
not necessarily new andimproved product, but new ways
of using our product.
And there may be someopportunities of that that in
the future remains to be seenand more to come on that.
George (11:11):
So is there a process
that you guys use in R&D?
Is there an observationalanalysis of end users that maybe
give you a feedback sensor asto what's going on out there
that can ignite conversationabout what we could do
potentially as something new?
Kevin (11:30):
I would say there are a
couple elements that we utilize.
R&D has some, the R&D team hassome great relationships with
some of the organizations outthere that promote canning.
And, you know, there'sdefinitely, there's a lot of
various conferences that occur,you know, around the world.
(11:52):
And there are universities, youknow, and professors at
universities that, you know,study this stuff.
That our R&D team stays and hasconstant conversations with to
make sure that, you know, we'resort of on the same page and
we're thinking about things inthe same way.
And if, you know, if we'reseeing different things, you
(12:13):
know, we can have thatconversation.
I would say from also from ourside of things, you know, the
brand management side, we also,we have a social media presence
and we, you know, we havemultiple conversations with our
Canon community.
You know, we have a Facebookpage dedicated to our Canon
community, you know, where it'sreally about people helping each
(12:35):
other, you know, and helpingnewbies to food preservation and
understanding and making sureyou're doing it the right way
and helping them with how tofollow a recipe and providing
guidance of things to thinkabout and tips and tricks and
things of that nature.
And so we sort of keep our earsto the ground there and we have
(12:57):
the dialogue with thatcommunity.
We also have various eventswhere we just talk to consumers
and get an understanding of whatare the pain points out there?
What are you guys running intothat we could potentially help
with moving forward?
We don't ask it necessarilylike that, but we try to get an
understanding of where there'spotential issues or potential
(13:21):
needs out there that we couldwork on providing solutions.
We're in the solutionsbusiness.
That's what we all came intothis business for.
When there's an issue out thereor there's a pain point, we all
get together, put our headstogether, and and try to work
out, like, what's the solve?
How can we provide a betterexperience for our consumers and
(13:42):
then run with that?
George (13:43):
That's great.
Well said, by the way.
Thank you.
So let's talk to our audiencefor a minute.
How can they, if they wanted todo canning for the first time,
what would you recommend?
How do they reach out to youguys?
Oh,
Kevin (13:55):
there's multiple
resources out there.
Obviously, there's our website.
Anyone can come to our website,and there's everything on there
from tips and tricks to how-tosand videos and tutorials.
And what's that address?
And that is ballmasonjars.com.
Very easy.
Ballmasonjars.com.
All right.
Ballmasonjars.com.
We also have a Ball Blue book,which we actually launched the
(14:20):
38th edition of it as of lastyear.
This book has been aroundessentially since the 1800s.
Wow.
And it has everything anyonewanted or are needed to know
about food preservation orcanning in general, it's in that
(14:41):
book.
And it has a ton of recipes inthere that our R&D team
validates and tests every singleone.
There's over 500 recipes inthat book.
And our R&D team has testedevery single one of them.
And so it's just greatguidance.
But it also provides tutorialsand help with getting started
when it comes to foodpreservation and canning.
(15:02):
And those are just some of theresources that we provide.
There's also resources by othercanning organizations that are
out there that we work with thatthat can also help consumers so
there's there's a wealth ofresource and information for
anyone who wants to get started
George (15:19):
well there you have it
that's another edition of
tomorrow's world today kevinthank you for coming on the show
Kevin (15:25):
thank
George (15:26):
you for having me bye
Kevin (15:27):
everybody
Steven (15:28):
Thank you for listening
to this episode of Tomorrow's
World Today podcast.
Join us next time as wecontinue to explore the worlds
of inspiration, creation,innovation, and production.
Discover more atTomorrowsWorldToday.com, connect
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