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    ARTICLE - Corning Ware PDF

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    Leslie Martinez
    Corelle's Butterfly Gold dinnerware was the most popular consumer dining set in American history during the late 20th century. In 1970, Corelle conducted surveys of 8,000 housewives to understand what consumers wanted in dishware. They learned housewives wanted dishes that were inexpensive, functional, and durable. Corelle then launched its Livingware line including the iconic Butterfly Gold pattern. By 1971, Butterfly Gold plates and bowls were in over 35% of American households as their affordability and strength made them a middle-ground option between paper plates and fine china. The Butterfly Gold pattern helped Corelle increase sales from 425,000 pieces in 1970 to over 38 million pieces in 1971, dominating the

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    ARTICLE - Corning Ware PDF

    Uploaded by

    Leslie Martinez
    68 views2 pages
    Corelle's Butterfly Gold dinnerware was the most popular consumer dining set in American history during the late 20th century. In 1970, Corelle conducted surveys of 8,000 housewives to understand what consumers wanted in dishware. They learned housewives wanted dishes that were inexpensive, functional, and durable. Corelle then launched its Livingware line including the iconic Butterfly Gold pattern. By 1971, Butterfly Gold plates and bowls were in over 35% of American households as their affordability and strength made them a middle-ground option between paper plates and fine china. The Butterfly Gold pattern helped Corelle increase sales from 425,000 pieces in 1970 to over 38 million pieces in 1971, dominating the

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    ARTICLE - corning ware.pdf

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    Corelle's Butterfly Gold dinnerware was the most popular consumer dining set in American history during the late 20th century. In 1970, Corelle conducted surveys of 8,000 housewives to understand what consumers wanted in dishware. They learned housewives wanted dishes that were inexpensive, functional, and durable. Corelle then launched its Livingware line including the iconic Butterfly Gold pattern. By 1971, Butterfly Gold plates and bowls were in over 35% of American households as their affordability and strength made them a middle-ground option between paper plates and fine china. The Butterfly Gold pattern helped Corelle increase sales from 425,000 pieces in 1970 to over 38 million pieces in 1971, dominating the

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    68 views2 pages

    ARTICLE - Corning Ware PDF

    Uploaded by

    Leslie Martinez
    Corelle's Butterfly Gold dinnerware was the most popular consumer dining set in American history during the late 20th century. In 1970, Corelle conducted surveys of 8,000 housewives to understand what consumers wanted in dishware. They learned housewives wanted dishes that were inexpensive, functional, and durable. Corelle then launched its Livingware line including the iconic Butterfly Gold pattern. By 1971, Butterfly Gold plates and bowls were in over 35% of American households as their affordability and strength made them a middle-ground option between paper plates and fine china. The Butterfly Gold pattern helped Corelle increase sales from 425,000 pieces in 1970 to over 38 million pieces in 1971, dominating the

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    of 2

    Here's why these plates make millions of people

    nostalgic

    Chris Weller
    Jan. 24, 2017, 10:01 AM

    Maybe you picked baby carrots off the plates when you visited your grandparents' house. Maybe your
    parents used the bowls to serve soup on Thanksgiving.

    You wouldn't be faulted for not knowing the set by name, but its likeness is practically synonymous with
    dinnertime in late-20th-century America.

    I'm talking, of course, about the Butterfly Gold line of dinnerware from Corelle — perhaps the most popular
    consumer dining set in American history, and also the most mysterious.

    If you grew up eating meals on Butterfly Golds, their image alone probably causes intense nostalgia to rise
    from your core. They were first introduced in 1970, but hit their peak in the late 1980s. Around that time, the
    bowls and plates were in 35% of American households, Corelle says. That works out to about 75 million
    families simultaneously eating dinner on the same set of cheap, white plates, night after night.

    How did Corelle (then called Corning) manage to get its plates and bowls into so many households? It's all
    because the company decided to ask 8,000 housewives a few questions.

    In 1970, executives from Corning realized they shouldn't make assumptions about what people wanted in
    their dishware, and figured listening to consumers would pay off in the long run. Although it involved some
    legwork, they sent representatives into people's homes to spend time with them.
    legwork, they sent representatives into people's homes to spend time with them.

    They learned some crucial insights. For one, housewives didn't just want functionality out of their bowls and
    plates. They also wanted "good-looking, inexpensive everyday dishes" and "good strong dishes that don't
    weigh a ton," a Corelle spokesperson tells Business Insider.

    Wikimedia Commons

    Within a year, Corelle put out four designs of its so-called Livingware line. Set against "Winter Frost White,"
    the designs were Spring Blossom Green, Old Towne Blue, Snowflake Blue, and, of course, Butterfly Gold.
    The pieces were made of a specialized, hard-to-break glass called Vitrelle, and magazine ads highlighted the
    strength and affordability of the plates and bowls.

    When they launched in 1971, a 20-piece set retailed for $19.95, or about $118 today, adjusting for inflation.
    (That cost has come down considerably in the years since — a typical 20-piece set now retails for $40 or
    less.)

    The strategy worked, to put it mildly. In 1970, the company sold 425,000 pieces of dishware. By 1971, sales
    had soared to 38.9 million.

    The boom held steady for the next 15 years. Families bought the sets in droves, filling their kitchen cabinets
    with a long-desired middle ground between paper plates and good china — until Corelle discontinued
    Butterfly Gold in the early 1990s to cater to more modern tastes.

    It was only within the last several years, as 20- and 30-somethings began pooling their childhood memories
    on sites like Reddit and Twitter — "Only 90s kids will remember..." — that people started realizing their dining
    experiences weren't unique. In fact, they were quietly shared by millions of people across the country.

    Butterfly Golds, the great and unexpected equalizer.

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