Integrating Key Figures and Consumer Benefits into a Packaging Development Method

Abstract

Key figures in packaging can be used to obtain and document various insights about packaging. Previous research showed that a weight/content ratio can give insights in the used amounts of packaging material related to the amount of contained product. Other research showed that higher performing packaging are often expected to create benefits appreciated by the end users, resulting in higher value and willingness-to-pay. The aim of this study is to integrate these two methods and to develop a design approach to get insight in how much packaging material is applied to gain a specific consumer benefit. The paper integrates the link between key figures and consumer benefits into a design method that provides designers an opportunity to gain insights in the key figures of their final design early in the development process. The design method is developed by adapting existing product development tools to give insight in the link between consumer benefits and key figures. These tools are combined to form method guidelines for innovation-, new product development- and routine projects. For a case to detail the approach, tomato packaging was used. The current market situation for these products in the Netherlands is used as fundament for the key figure results and database. Guidelines are provided by a key figure database and by adjusting development tools so that the design method can also be used for other products than tomato packaging, or other markets than the Netherlands and Finland. Based on the developed design method, it can be concluded that the integration of key figures and consumer benefits gives designers insight in key figures early in the development process, but also provides an overview of where in the process decisions were made with large impact on the final design. This insight early in the process is useful as starting point towards efficient material use in packaging designs that at the same time provide benefits for consumers.