OUGD601 - YORKIE BAR RESEARCH

YORKIE BAR RESEARCH

- famous in the uk for its former tag line "its not for girls". 

- the bar has always been targeted at men ever since its inception

-original idea was called 'rations' which would have tasted a lot like todays yorkie

- 'rations' was meant for men. it was 'to be eaten as a sustaining food, in the context of vigorous open-air activity'

- Rowntree's named the bar after its location Yorkshire

- in 2002 Nestle owned yorkie launched the aggressively macho campaign: "its not for girls"

- with tag lines such as 'not available in pink'

- the "its not for girls' line and the no women sign were removed from the packaging in 2012 and replaced with the slogan: "Man fuel for man stuff"

http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-story-behind-the-yorkie-chocolate-bar-2016-3/#however-rations-was-eventually-abandoned-due-to-its-association-with-wartime-austerity-6 

- Yorkie first launched "its not for girls" in 2002 in an effort to better target male consumers.

- Sampling activity around the campaign was banned in cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool after being deemed 'sexist'. 

OUGD601 - PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS

PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS

Having discussed with my group and with my tutor what I should do for my practical piece, I thought I had decided that I would do two different packaging designs, one that focuses more on the aesthetics and one that focuses on the practicality of the packaging. 
I have done some research into practical / sustainable packaging and lots of it isn't extremely aesthetic, so instead I have decided to design some packaging that is practical and has considered how the consumer would use the particular product, but also that looks aesthetic so that it would appeal to a consumer in a supermarket. 

I have looked into what product I could focus my design on, and how I could make it practical for a consumer. I looked into resealable items which has been done before, but not always very well, but I also thought about how some food items are packaged with no portion guidelines such as pasta and rice. I saw one clever pasta packaging design for spaghetti that included a portion guide when pouring the pasta out of the package, this inspired me to think of how I could apply a similar tool to a different product. 

Rice is one food that is difficult to get right when it comes to portion control, also how to cook rice properly. I thought of creating a rice package that had portion guidelines within the design and also clear instructions how to cook rice as it is a daily food most households use. 

The initial idea for this would to perhaps design a tube or box that had portion sections which would organise the product into the correct portion amounts so that there is less food wastage at the end. I have made a moodboard with images that I have imagined my packaging to look like, along with existing alternative rice packages.

OUGD601 - GROUP CRIT 22/11/18

GROUP CRIT

Within this crit, we presented our practical idea that will be produced alongside our extended essay. I was unsure as to what I wanted to produce for my practical as my initial idea was a little hazy and I was not feeling extremely enthused by the idea. I told my group what I intended on designing and then we discussed what would be the best option for me to do.

My initial idea was to design two different food packages using different techniques/styles for the same product to see which one people would choose, but after discussing this with my group, I realised that I wasn't actually achieving anything from this test as it all comes down to personal preference. I then told them my other suggestion of doing two different packaging designs, one that focuses on the aesthetics of the design and the other that focuses on the practicality of the design. My group much preferred this idea and said that this fitted better with my essay question.

Suggestions:
- Find an existing product that is ugly, but practical and compare it with aesthetic products
- The unboxing experience - how practical is that - add this into the essay
- Still use the idea of a window within the packaging to see the product inside as that is a practical and aesthetic element

OUGD601 - ESSAY STRUCTURE / PLAN

ESSAY STRUCTURE / PLAN 

Intro:
- Introduce the question and topics to be covered. This essay will look into the influence food and drink packaging has on consumer purchase considering the various factors that affect it such as ... (topics), the aim is to gain a better understanding of ...

P1: Branding  
- What is a brand?
- Marketing strategy?
- Customer types
- Big brands and their power in supermarkets

P2: Theoretical Approaches:
- Introduce Ian Pavlov 
- Consumerism - Edward Bernays / Kant
- Validation of purchase

P3: Aesthetics Pt1
- Packaging designs + Competition in supermarket
- Gü - Innovative packaging

P3: Psychological Theories (1)
- Colour Theory

P4: Aesthetics pt2
- Masculine vs feminine design - relate to colours

P5: Psychological Theories (2)
- Nostalgia / emotional factors in purchasing

P6: Advertisement and their influence on consumer purchase
-Successful - Cadburys (relate to nostalgia factor)
- Unsuccessful - Pepsi - tarnished the brand?

P7: Trends
- Current trends and their influence, healthy vs unhealthy
- Sustainable
- Practical packaging vs aesthetic (relate to sustainability?)

Conclusion:
- What have I discovered?
- Heaviest influence / factor?

OUGD601 - COP TUTORIAL 15/11/18

TUTORIAL 15/11/18

After submitting what I had began writing for my extended essay, I needed to get some feedback in order to know what to add/remove from the essay, and what I need to focus on in order to make sure that I am on track with it and that I am answering my question.

Feedback:
- Make sure to break down the large paragraphs into points you want to make and back it up with examples.
- Too much information on branding, either need to break it apart or add more design-relevant information into it so that it remains relevant to the question
- Keep referring back to the essay question and after every point that is made, make sure to question whether it is answering / debating the question and not going off on a tangent.
- Start to gather primary research so that you can back up your points. Ask packaging designers their opinion and their process:
What do they consider when designing something?
Do they research the brand when designing something new so that it ties in with their existing audience, or do they just focus on the product they are designing for?
Are they aware of the theories (classical conditioning etc) and is it something they consider when designing, or is it all design lead?
Can packaging change the audiences perception of the brand?
-BIGFISH is a studio to contact
- Look into other packaging studios / designers and contact them with a list of questions to help back up your points.
- Make sure that the essay is not split up into mini essays, make sure that it all flows together - don't just have a section on branding and then theory etc, mix it together and use all the research to back up.
- EXAMPLES EXAMPLES EXAMPLES

From my chat with my tutor it has helped me to look at the essay differently, I was intending to rearrange the essay regardless, however it was just a case of getting the information down first, then adjusting it to a more suitable format. I will remove some of the sections that are not very relevant to design and make sure to find examples where I can back up any points that I am making.

 

OUGD601 - PRACTICAL BRIEF

Practical Brief

Brief Title:

Food Packaging

The Brief:

To design appropriate food packaging that responds to consumer needs, considering how the consumer would interact with the item enhancing their experience with the product.

Background considerations:

Consider how the item would look in a supermarket against its competitors.

Consider how the item would be packaged and what features it would include in order to appeal to consumers. 

Target Audience – Regular Supermarket shoppers

Consider the materials of the product and how it would stand alone and amongst a range of items.

Mandatory Requirements:

The product should be neutral, appealing to a large consumer base.

Should stand out against existing products. 

Deliverables:

Packaging outcomes

Module Deadline:

14/12/18

OUGD601 - PRACTICAL MOODBOARDS

PRACTICAL MOODBOARDS

After thinking about what I would like to produce for my practical, I have decided that I am going to design two different food packaging designs for the same food product. My aim is to have these designs done so that I can use them as primary research towards my written piece. My research question is trying to find out the influence the packaging can have on consumer purchase, therefore  I want to design two different styles of packaging, for the same food product to test to see which one consumers would more likely choose. 

I was planning to do two different styled designs, one which is very minimal and simplistic, and the other which is more illustrative and intricate. I will be using the same product in the packaging,  so it is just the packaging that the consumer will be making their decision on. 

I have made two mood boards for the styles of packaging that I intend to design:

OUGD601 - PACKAGING THE BRAND - GAVIN AMBROSE, PAUL HARRIS - NOTES

PACKAGING THE BRAND - GRAVIN AMBROSE, PAUL HARRIS.

- Physical products require packaging to protect them from damage and to present both the product and its brand attractively to a target group of consumers.
- Packaging also works to convey the brands characteristics that will position it within the minds of consumers and that will ultimately differentiate it from its competitors.
- A brand cannot be positioned as a high quality or luxury product if its packaging is fragile and low quality.
- A piece of packaging is a story that conveys a narrative to an audience. It is more than a mere container adorned with graphics; it is a message, a medium, and a conversation between buyer and seller.
Is Packaging Branding?
- 'Packaging is branding' - Richard Gerstman
- A package and a brand are essentially inseparable - for example a can of Coca-cola: the can is a means to contain liquid, while Coca-Cola (the brand) represents a set of values related to the product. Can the two really be separated or are they inextricably linked?
- If you separate the brand from its packaging, you are left with the physical packaging (a metal container) and a set of fonts, colours and graphics that constitute its branding. But together they magically form a 'packaged brand', and the product thus gains value.
- Branded packaging design can take this a step further by creating unique packaging for a brand.
- 'Packaging and branding are different' - Darrel Rhea.
- To create truly effective packaged brands, designers need to consider how both packaging and the brand can be dovetailed together in a way that mutually and effectively serves both the packaging and branding goals of a product.
- Some would argue that packaging is branding; that packaging represents the manifestation of the brand and the brand lives through and is enlivened by the packaging.
- The marketing mix, a collection of activities to maximise product awareness and sales: 'four P's' - Product, price, promotion, place.
- Product is the combination of physical characteristics and service elements that will meet a customers needs.
- Price is how much people will pay for the product.
- Promotion is the effort made to raise awareness of a product or service through various activities such as advertising and sales promotions.
- Place is the location where a product will be presented to a consumer.
- Packaging is the visual face of the product.
- The 'four C's' has been put in place of the 'four P's' as it was seen as out of date by some marketers - the four C's consist of Convenience, Cost, Communication and Customer needs.

Branding and Rebranding
- Branding and packaging have a lifecycle, which means there is a need for regular evaluation and alteration in order to maintain a brand, its attributes and personality. When a brand no longer resonates with its target consumers, it is often time to undertake a rebranding of the product or line to correct this.
- The first step when undertaking a brand review is to identify and focus on the attributes that are really important. Once this has been decided you can review where the brand sits against its competition. An existing brand will be known fin the marketplace and may have both good and bad associations for buyers.

Audience and sectors
- The first step to a successful packaging design is to identify the main audience that the design will appeal to.
- 5 types of shoppers:
1) Loyal customers: who represent no more than 20% of the customer base, but account for more than 50% of sales.
2) Discount customers: who shop frequently but make decisions based on the size of markdowns.
3) Impulse customers: who don't have buying a particular item at the top of their 'to do' list but who purchase what seems good at the time.
4) Needs-based customers: who go out with a specific intention to buy a particular type of item.
5) Wandering customers: who have no specific need or desire in mind, but who rather hope to gain a sense of experience and/or community.
Sectors
- There are sector cues that a designer needs to become familiar with, which define or suggest where the parameters of audience expectations lie in relation to a particular product category.
- These cues are made up of the conventions and shared visual language that have become established about a given product over time, and their presence partly explains why packaging for products within any one sector often look similar.
- The existence and power of sector cues frequently results in shared aesthetics being adopted within the same product categories, which then become a common visual currency for the presentation of competing products within the marketplace. Therefore, innovative packaging design often has to strike a balance between fitting in and standing out from the generally accepted norms and cues present in a given product sector.

Purpose and intent
- Purpose concerns what the packaging is physically required to do in order to protect and present a product. Packaging is designed to contain a specific volume or measure of a product, to store it without contamination throughout the transportation process and during its in-store display, to preserve product qualities for a defines period of time and to ensure that it is protected against numerous forms of damage, such as moisture, heat, bumps and the impact of being dropped.
- Intent  of branded packaging is altogether different from its purpose and is concerned with captivating an audience. Within retail environments, a package needs to grab the attention of potential buyers and rapidly communicate various brand values.

Retail environment
- Packaging is often designed for a retail environment, such as in a supermarket, where it will represent one item amongst many thousands displayed on generic shelving. Retail environments can also be created that are sympathetic to packaging needs, such as in a boutique store, where greater control can be exercised over the retail experience.
- Generic retail - Packaging does not need to be loud and garish, but it must communicate quickly and clearly to the target audience for which it is intended.
- Impulse purchases - Over 70 percent of purchase decisions are made at the point of purchase; therefore, obtaining prime locations on shelving is both very competitive an often a privilege that manufacturers are prepared to pay for, in order to display their products where they will be most seen.
The dual functions of branding and packaging
- Branded packaging has a dualistic nature due to the need for its purpose and its intent to function in both the pre- and post-purchase environments. Branded packaging has to stand out and communicate its qualities to consumers more successfully than its competitors.
- In order for brand loyalty to grow, branded packaging also has to make a successful transition to the consumers home or wherever the product will be used or kept.
- An outlandish intent may persuade a consumer to buy a product once, but if it looks ridiculous once home, it will reduce the chance of a consumers repeat purchase.
Boutique retail
- In a boutique store, consumers are an essentially captive audience of the manufacturers brand message, with no environmental competition from other manufacturers messages present.
- These controlled and sympathetic environments allow branded packaging to focus on things other than merely grabbing buyers' attention.
- The retailer can take and extend the brand characteristics and attributes presented in the packaging design to fill part of or even the entire retail space, if desired.

Bespoke to Global
- Packaging and branding has to connect with the particular aspirations and expectations of the target market, and this will vary from one geographic location to another.
- Appropriateness: There is a great difference between designing packaging for a regional or national market and designing for an international or global market. For a local product it might be important to stress the use of locally sourced materials, or that the product meets a particular local need. Humour also varies according to region and nation, so using it within design may not be totally appropriate for a global product due to the possible lack of translation or transferability.
- The more international a product is, the less specific the cultural references need to be.
- Bespoke: a bespoke industry is one of small-scale production that is typically performed in a home or small premises by the owner and/or their family using their own equipment and resources.
- Packaging at this level may focus on the fact that a product is handmade or made with traditional methods and that it has artisanal qualities due to the use of traditional or natural materials.
- Regional products - Many food products use such regional strategies, particularly when they benefit from 'protected designation of origin' status, such was cheddar cheese, champagne and certain beers.

Proprietary and own brands
- A main distinction that can be made between brand is between proprietary brands, and those which are own brands - that is, those manufactured by one company to be sold by a retailer, or which are made and sold by the same retailer or outlet.
- Proprietary - standalone brand that competes with all other brands in the marketplace. Manufacturers like Persil, Pepsi, and Heinz make products that operate in direct competition with other brands.
- Own brand - Developed by supermarkets and other retailers, particularly in the areas of food and home products, to offer a broader, more generic appeal to consumers that is firmly tied into the brand of the store itself.

Luxury and value:
- Packaging design often associate itself with the qualities of luxury or value. Both seek to enhance the appeal of a product to consumers, but by focusing on very different concerns and lifestyles. Designing for the luxury markets tend to add to the volume of product packaging, while designing for value products often reduces product packaging.
Luxury:
Luxury products convey prestige, and this quality is often projected in packaging through the use of high quality or exclusive materials and by presenting a sense of refined aesthetic values.
Value:
Value in this context, is a state of mind whereby a person feels that the rewards or benefits that they receive from something are equal to or greater than the effort or expense incurred to obtain it.
Value is relative to the individual

Examples:
- Waitrose:
Less Moberly adopted a new approach to generic branding for a basic range of cooking ingredients for Waitrose supermarket in the UK. The labelling was created for over 60 products sold in generic packages that simple state what the product is, with a light hearted introduction expressing a suggested measurement for use. The labels create a sense of strong branding due to their consistent and visually arresting typographic presentation. Formality has been replaced by friendly conversation and ongoing dialogue - giving the user a sense that someone is in the kitchen cooking with them.

'You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel tat may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than to hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.' - Beatrice Warde, 1932.

OUGD601 - THE POWER OF BRANDING - NOTES

THE POWER OF BRANDING: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/power-branding

- A brand is a set of associations that a person makes with a company, product, service, individual or organisation.
- Associations may be intentional - they may be promoted via marketing and corporate identity. 
- May be out of their control e.g. poor press review can tarnish the products manufacturers overall brand by putting negative associations in peoples minds. 
- Coca-Cola is the best known product / brand in the world.
- "If Coca-Cola were to lose all of its production related assets in a disaster, the company would survive. But contrast, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to Coca-Cola, the company would go out of business." - Coca-Cola executive.
- The original cola drink "the real thing"?
- Visual associations might include the unmistakeable red and white logo and corporate colours, or the unique shape and tint of the original glass bottle. 
- Any organisation can benefit enormously by creating a brand that presents the company as distinctive, trusted, exciting, reliable or whichever attributes are appropriate to that business.
- In recent years the digital communications revolution has completely transformed this balance of control. The consumers voice has become louder and much more public. 
- Consumers can publish their experience of a brand and compare it with the experience of others. 
- Websites such as Tripadvisor and general review sections on a product allows consumers to compare their personal experience and can influence potential buyers.
- Branding is a way of clearly highlighting what makes your offer different to, and more desirable than anyone else.
- Effective branding elevates a product or organisation from being just one commodity amongst many identical commodities, to become something with a unique character and promise.
- It can create an emotional resonance in the minds of consumers who choose products and services using both emotional and drag,atic judgements. 
- People are generally willing to pay more for a branded product than they are for something which is largely unbranded (despite them being virtually identical products).
- The key ingredients of any brand:
The big idea: what lies at the heart of your company?
Values: what do you believe in?
Vision:  where are you going?
Personality: how do you want to come across?
IKEA - The big idea:
- A good example of a company with a big idea - based around the notion that good design is for everyone, not just design snobs.
- Fit our homes with well design furniture and products at affordable prices.
- Pret a Manger - values
- Valuing fresh food and minimising wastage.
- All its food is made on location each morning with no sell by dates and left overs are given to homeless charities and shelters. 
-How you can start to control the elements of your companies personality:
- Graphic design - the visual identity - hard corporate or soft, friendly caricature?
- Tone of voice - the language used spoken & written.
- Dialogue - can your users contribute ideas and get involved in the organisation?
- Customer service - how are staff trained to communicate with people?
- Gü - start up brand - chilled desserts market as premium product whose name (made up word) hints at the thought of gooey chocolate or treacle.
- Name and graphic black and white packaging all broke the 'rules' of design and branding in the sector and the product stands out strongly in supermarkets. 

OUGD601 - UNPACK ME! NEW PACKAGING DESIGN - NOTES

UNPACK ME! - New Packaging Design

- Packaging design is in fact very similar to the processes that go into developing the product itself. 

- Packaging designers need to be in tune with the producers own concept and ambition so that they can base their design around the products look, shape and feel.

- Designers have the potential to transform the message a product conveys through the packagings aesthetics and functionality, with their designs having the power to trigger the five human senses. 

- Great packaging allows the consumer to connect with a product through its packaging and feel intrigued to explore the story it conceals. 

- PAckaging designers need a deep understanding of the demand for a product, the local culture it is sold in and even the worlds appreciation of creativity.