O-I Glass’s innovative new Bistro Collection is designed to give wine makers a new way to reach customers who are looking to buy wine in smaller portions without sacrificing the premium experience that glass offers.
As part of the Bistro Collection, O-I is rolling out a 250ml bottle, which holds a glass and a half of wine – a first-of-its kind size for glass wine bottles.
The birth of the new collection started with the desire to innovate.
“We wanted to create something new,” says Sarah Brennan, O-I Category Director. “We wanted to design a bottle that our customers and consumers want.”
Brennan was part of a team that dove into research. They were looking for an opportunity to offer the wine industry something new, something that would excite wine lovers.
As they investigated consumers and purchase intent, they noticed a trend in non-alcoholic beverages, and even beer, where people are looking for trial experiences in smaller sizes; while drinkers don’t want to commit to buying a larger quantity of a product, they are overwhelmingly open to trying new smaller sizes.
“We talked with wine makers and asked why they hadn’t embraced smaller sizes in the past,” Brennan says. “We asked if glass could have a value in that space.”
Glass packaging itself creates a more elegant beverage experience, even when people are drinking at home. Not only is glass endlessly recyclable, but drinkers say glass maintains flavor better.
Wine makers signaled they’d be interested in a new smaller size glass bottle if it worked with their existing fill lines as well as hit a competitive price point. O-I was up to the challenge and got to work.
Armed with market data, O-I’s design team did extensive research into what wine drinkers liked and their lifestyles. The vision of creating something new energized the design team.
“This has been a really exciting project to work on because it’s an unexplored region of wine,” explains Paul Harris, O-I Concept Designer. “There’s never been a smaller portion size that plays to the premium in quality elevated experience that glass offers.”
O-I’s team initially created 10 new bottle designs, then the global marketing and design teams voted on their favorites. The top five went in front of consumer preference panels.
The Bistro Collection has five signature bottle designs—Paris, Madrid, Rome, Venice, Geneva. Each design is named for a city where people delight in the café culture.
The consumer panels had the most enthusiastic response to the Paris bottle design; even Millennial drinkers, who are drinking less wine than other demographic groups, selected the Paris design as their favorite. O-I decided it would the first produced out of the Bistro Collection.
Even though O-I originally intended the newly designed wine bottles to be small format, when O-I started talking to wine partners about the new 250ml bottle, wine makers said it was important for branding to offer that same design in larger bottle sizes as well. O-I listened and the Paris bottle will roll out as a family with 250ml, 375ml and 750ml bottles.
The Madrid bottle will go into production next. The other three designs in the Bistro Collection will be available based on client demand.
“We are listening,” Brennan says.
The Bistro Collection is designed with both wine makers and wine lovers in mind. The way people enjoy their favorite beverages and the places where they drink might be changing, but glass remains the most elegant, sustainable, taste-friendly packaging choice.
To learn more about the Paris Family and other options in our small format wine offering please use the following links to access interactive PDF’s providing more details.
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