Choosing which pack structures to develop for a new indulgent range

The question

A food company was developing a new range of indulgent treats for enjoying at home. The products were defined, and the pack was still open.

That pack would do much to decide how shoppers saw the range, so the team had to choose which structures deserved development.

Our approach

We started with the people who would build the packs, bringing the client’s packaging, marketing and technical people into one ideation workshop.

They worked from the eating occasions the treats were made for, with packaging from outside the category for inspiration and consumer evidence on the wall to stay grounded.

A shortlist of the structures went straight into rapid online qualitative testing with the range’s priority consumers, and the most promising were rebuilt as polished rendered designs.

We read the testing through two frames at once: how special each pack felt beside how often participants said they would buy it, and the occasions, from a night in to a party, where each one fitted most naturally.

What the team came away with

The team had rendered pack designs, each with guidance for its development, and a design language for the range to check any future structure against.

And because its packaging, marketing and technical people had shaped the work from the first workshop, every design began as a structure they had helped to generate.