Nisshin: Using its noodle on new packaging?

Seeking to take advantage of increased consumer interest in environmental concerns, Nisshin—one of Japan's leading instant noodle companies—last week released something completely new—cup noodle "refills."

Here's how they work. Consumers purchase a starter pack containing a reusable plastic cup and two shrink-wrapped noodle packets. From then on, they need only purchase the noodles, which come in several varieties. Simply open the refill, pop it into the cup, add boiling water and wait until the noodles are ready.

As far as the environment is concerned, this is a great idea with the potential to massively reduce packaging waste (Japanese consumers—especially the young—consume millions of servings of instant noodles each day). How well it will work in practice, however, remains to be seen.

The concept will certainly appeal to penny-pinching consumers who eat lots of instant noodles at home (these people will probably never buy the starter cup). However, countless servings are consumed at mid-day by students and young office workers who are after a cheap and convenient lunch. Few of them are going to want to go through the effort of carrying around and/or washing out a cup every time.

Nonetheless, trendy young kids and some IT types may get on board. Nisshin is clearly trying to connect with this crowd by tapping into Japan's design consciousness. In a clever touch, Nisshin has made the reusable cup with a double-wall that serves two purposes. First, it prevents the cup from becoming too hot to hold. But more important, it allows users to change designs by sliding in a label of their choosing. So far, eight types can be downloaded in PDF format from the brand's website—with more to come—and a number of consumers will certainly begin creating their own designs using the flash program available on the site. Who knows, if Nisshin is clever, they'll link this designability to consumer contests (think Doritos Superbowl commercial) that could sustain buzz that goes beyond the short term.

One thing they'll have to work on, however. The refill packs need to be rethought. Because they are vacuum-wrapped, they are inconsistent in size and shape—which makes them a nightmare for visual merchandising purposes (most existing products are very cleverly designed to stack at retail—these refills cannot be stacked—big problem!