Better, Stronger, Brighter: Lantern Gets A Make-Over

Why mess with a product famed for its durability and loved by consumers?

That was the basic question 19 months ago when the Wichita-based Coleman Co. set out to redesign its most successful product - the Coleman lantern.

Hundreds of decisions went into the remaking of this camping icon. The toughest question, however, was whether a redesign was needed.

The new lantern, christened the “NorthStar,” made its way to store shelves in January. It contains an array of features designed to eliminate the small inconveniences of Coleman’s classic gas lantern. The NorthStar sells for nearly $100, twice the price of its most expensive predecessor.

Think of it as the 21st-century version of a 19th-century product that Coleman has been making in one version or another for 95 years.

More than a few Coleman employees thought the company’s existing lanterns worked just fine. Why buy a Lexus when a Chevy will get you to the same place? After all, the typical Coleman customer was more likely to drive a Chevy than a Lexus.

But some Coleman executives are banking to broaden their market and increase sales by selling higher-priced products to well-heeled consumers.

With millions of durable classic lanterns stored in garages and basements, Coleman wanted to give people a reason to buy a new lantern - to trade up, so to speak.

Coleman’s marketing people knew from the first that a $100 lantern couldn’t look like a $40 lantern.

They sought to make the new lantern brighter, the globe more durable, the mantles easier to attach. It had to be easier to light and to pump.

Form had to mesh with function. A wire cage was added to protect the globe. A rubberlike base makes the lantern more stable and gives the appearance of being more durable.

The knob on the fuel cap is oblong instead of round, making it easier to twist. The pump is shaped like a syringe.

Human Factors, the firm hired to design the new lantern, came up with the glass globe that curves inward at top and bottom. This design touch was conceived solely for appearance.

But Coleman’s engineers noted that the egglike shape increases the globe’s strength.

The overall design, including the base, large knobs, wire cage, brass burners and curved globe sets it apart from lesser lanterns.

“It has a nice look,” one executive said, holding one up, then banging it against his desk several times.

The tubular shape of the new mantle is modeled after a fluorescent light. Because the mantle runs the length of the globe, the lantern is 20 percent more efficient than the company’s other lanterns, which have two short mantles.

The new mantle also attaches at the top and bottom, making it less likely to come off when the lantern is dropped or bumped. And it attaches with a wire clip instead of strings, which have been known to frustrate some customers.

One of the mandates given the NorthStar project engineers was to come up with a way to indicate when the lantern was properly pressurized.

The engineers first considered a gauge, only to realize, somewhat sheepishly, that people can’t read gauges in the dark. Eventually they borrowed the concept of the button that protrudes to signal when a turkey is cooked. The “turkey popper” juts out of the fuel pump, poking the operator’s thumb when the lantern is pressurized.

Coleman had added an electronic ignition to some stove models to its propane lanterns to make them easier to light. But the concept was trickier for the gas lantern. Propane ignites easily. Liquid fuel doesn’t.

A new electronic ignition was designed that, with the push of a button, converts 1.5 volts to about 12,000 volts, generating a spark capable of igniting gasoline or liquid fuel.

Once the features were assimilated in a computer-generated design, parts for the prototype were produced for $1,000.

The tooling cost more than $750,000, the largest expense in the project. The mold for the lantern’s collar alone cost more than $100,000.

Still, Coleman doesn’t expect the lantern to be a large seller, at least not initially. Each year, the company makes more than a million lanterns in about two dozen models. NorthStar sales are likely to be 50,000 to 100,000 a year.

Given the price, Coleman expects to sell most of the lanterns in Japan, where consumers prize high-quality products.