Imagine a match box. Let’s name the sides below:
Side A: Brand name (top)
Side B: Bottom
Sides C & D: Striking surface (phosphorus coating)
Sides E & F: Sides where we push open the match box
Now imagine someone lights all the matches quickly, one after another. What happens?
Only half of the striking surface on C & D gets used. The top of C and bottom of D remain completely unused. Phosphorous coating on sides C & D contributes to about 10% of the total material cost. It can be brought down to half with almost no change in user experience.
Two of the more popular brands of ITC, namely, AIM and HOMELITE could potentially save about 5% of their material cost with this simple user insight. In fact they are already doing it with one of their seasonal offerings. Image Attached. For some reason it is not done for regular product lines.