15/12/2025
The most ruthless power move in business history involved... Ketchup? 🍅
Rewind to the late 1800s.
The food industry was the Wild West. "Ketchup" back then was rarely made of tomatoes. It was usually a slurry of leftover turnips and potatoes, dyed red with coal tar and preserved with acid.
Because the product was so filthy, manufacturers hid it inside dark, brown, opaque bottles. If you couldn't see it, you wouldn't know it was garbage.
Heinz saw the gap.
He decided to make a product that was actually pure, using ripe tomatoes and vinegar.
But he had a problem: How do you prove you aren't selling coal-tar turnips like everyone else?
The Transparency Play. He put his ketchup in a clear glass bottle. It was a massive gamble, but it worked. The clear glass screamed, "I have nothing to hide." It built instant trust.
But here is where Henry went from "smart entrepreneur" to "absolute ruthless tycoon."
He knew the moment his clear bottle strategy took off, the fraudsters would try to copy him. They would clean up their act just enough to switch to clear glass, too.
So, legend has it, Heinz went on a shopping spree.
He bought up the entire regional supply of clear glass bottles. Every single one. But he didn't just stockpile them.
When he had more bottles than his factories could actually fill, he didn't sell the excess back to the market. He loaded them onto a barge, towed them out to the middle of the river, and sank them.
He preferred to destroy the supply chain rather than let a competitor look as good as him.
The lesson? Heinz didn't just compete on taste. He competed on perception. He controlled the packaging, so he controlled the market.
Today, you probably shouldn't sink your competitors' supplies in a river, but you do need to win the battle for attention on the shelf.
That’s where we come in.
If you have a great product, don't let it hide in the dark. We print premium-quality labels that build trust and grab attention instantly.
👉Send us a DM or contact us today. Let’s make sure your brand is the one people reach for.
info@labelprofi.com
