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Implications of a desirability-driven package design. Case study: HoviRuoka ready meals
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Perustieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
Electronic archive copy is available via Aalto Thesis Database.
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SCI3062
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en
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57 +57
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Abstract
As the packaging industry looks to join the trillion-dollar club in 2018, there is an increased focus and need to innovate in boosting effectiveness of the design and gain competitive advantage by meeting consumer demands. In the cluttered shelves, packages attract, engage and capture value for brands often in the few seconds required for the shopper to make decision. Though studies have found that around 70% of consumer decisions are made at point of purchase, there is not much data on the desirable elements that drive consumer decisions. As in most cases, consumers interacting with the packages are not involved in design and development process, it becomes difficult to understand their needs, desires and decision process. Lacking a proper understanding on desirability and its application in packaging, the management team is driven to make decision on packaging investments based on intuition and assumptions about market conditions. This ambiguity lets them view packaging as a necessary cost rather than as investment, pushing packaging and desirability to a secondary role where it is under-utilised as a medium to engage consumers at various points of interaction.
With increasing consumer demand and consumer driven market conditions there is a need for packaging to differentiate the products and better meet consumer desires. By taking a desirabilitydriven approach, the management team can develop packages that satisfy consumer desires and ensure that a positive experience is provided through all the interaction points. In absence of proper understanding in the management team and lacking defined methodologies and processes to implement, measure and evaluate desirability limits designers from maximizing the business potential of packages. Moreover, it leads the designers to develop concepts that appeal to the visual senses, while businesses focus on improving the returns on investments.
“That which is not measured is not fully valued” is a popular marketing rule that defines my objective for this research. By using a case study, I explore the desirability-driven design methodology used in HoviRuoka’s ready-meal package redesign to bring accountability to desirability and communicate how desirability acts as a bridge in translating consumer value into business returns. Having been involved in the design and development I bring first-hand information on the design decisions and various development activities. By covering the whole design and development process from brief definition to user testing, I define a methodology for management teams to implement desirability into the package projects, and using Packaging Value Cycle eases the process of tracking the design requirements and the design process. Defining the consumer journey for the ready-meal shoppers, I draw the connection between package and consumer interaction. Exploring the consumer decision process, helps me build a model for including desirability into package design and later evaluate it with consumers to simulate real-shopping behavior. By using Eye tracking, Packaging Value Toolkit, Willingness to pay studies and sensory testing studies the consumer decision process and desirability of packages are evaluated. Plotting the results of the tests enables the management team to translate
2 desirability of packages into business return. Based on the results the brand owner can estimate the returns to direct the development and plan his investments.
From pursuing this analysis on the case, it was found that including desirability in design briefs in form of experience goals helped define direction for design team and brand owners. By including consumers into the design process key insights on their decision process, needs and desires were obtained and included in the package. This significantly influenced the package outcome as at one point 92% of consumers preferred the new package. By taking a desirability-driven approach it was possible to identify design elements and the various activities that implement desirability into the package. Taking the concepts developed for testing it was found that the package was highly desirable among consumers even though the product pricing was higher than the competitors. Evaluating the experience across both moments and the influence of pricing on the products enables me to view the relationship between the different design attributes and how together these different attributes across the two moments influenced consumer purchase decisions. Pursing the tests in real and simulated environments ensured that consumer behavior was natural as possible within the research setting.
To conclude this research discusses the implications of the desirability-driven approach brings to business and consumer value. By pursuing this research, I hope to bring accountability to desirability in package design and help brand owners evaluate their returns early in the development process and ensure that the final outcomes are positive. Taking a multidisciplinary perspective enabled me to take a design perspective that caters to strategic objectives. As packaging is a complex discipline by itself with engineers, designers, marketers and strategic decisions being involved I hope this research inspires others to also take a broader view on the influence of various perspectives on package design.