Culinique: Research and advice on the market introduction of a new ready-to-eat meal concept

Culinique: Research and advice on the market introduction of a new ready-to-eat meal concept

Van Wegberg, P.J.E.

Schoormans, J.P.L. (mentor)
Gemser, G. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

strategic product design

2010-08-27

This report presents the studies, findings and advices for the market introduction of Culinique. Culinique is a new ready-to-eat meal product based on a revolutionary packaging concept, CuliDish, and the Slowfood principle. The technology of CuliDish controls intensity of microwaves in a microwave oven and therefore controls the heating process of food products in such packaging. This causes products to be heated less rigorous and prevent negative influences to quality and taste. This enables Maître Leon to offer more luxurious and culinary ready-to-eat meals with high quality ingredients, that would normally be spoiled by heating in the microwave oven. The Slowfood principles are based on the general believe that people should enjoy food more and should choose products more carefully. Slowfood aims to use regional and biological products, no additives and preservatives and high quality ingredients. The goal is to stimulate healthy eating behaviour and a overall pleasurable and enjoyable meal, in contrast to fastfood that is unhealthy, little enjoyable and of poor quality. Maître Leon has asked me to further develop these concepts into a product and study the market possibilities. Internal analyses, including a product study has led to a redesign of the current CuliDish containers and to a list of unique selling points that need to sustain in order for the product to become, and remain successful. These unique selling points are: 1) Unique CuliDish technology for precise heating 2) Superior food quality based on the Slowfood principle 3) Food preparation by chefs instead of machines 4) Separate containers to prevent tastes and smells to mix 5) Freedom to compose a meal from components 6) Wide assortment for sufficient variety Therefore it is advised to Maître Leon to control the pace of growth of Culinique. To rapid growth is likely to cause harm to the USP’s that make the product special. External studies and market explorations in the (health)care sector, the small catering sector and the market of company restaurants led to the conclusion that the (health)care market should be the primary focus of Culinique, at market introduction. The clients of care organisations are dissatisfied with the current food facilitation and many organisations have difficulties to find alternatives at reasonable prices. The (health)care sector is subject to many changes and is expected to be changed even more in the upcoming years, mainly because of the expected liberalisation of the sector. The organisations realize that the costs of personnel have to be reduced. Improved food quality helps people to eat healthy and sufficient which leads to an overall better health, and therefore less labour. Culinique could well function in the care sector because of the food quality by the end-users, the level of freedom offered to them and the limited efforts of the personnel that are required for assistance to eat. The trend in the sector, which is expected to continue is the growing interest of clients to life in a private situation instead of a central building with others. This decentralising trend asks for a meal type that can be distributed easily and preferably heated by the client itself. Delivering a chilled product sustains quality and offers to the user the freedom to eat at a convenient time for him/her. User tests with people from “Het Dorp”, a care organisation for disabled people in Arnhem, led to insight about product usage and end-user perception. Overall the product quality is appreciated and the clients would appreciate being able to use Culinique instead of the current meals. The USP’s of the product are recognised by them and are considered valuable within the organization, by clients and staff. Concerning the packaging and the containers a number of remarks are made that are taken into account during a redesign phase. Overall the user tests provide a promising result. The findings of the external studies are confirmed and point to a successful introduction for Culinique in the sector. The redesign of the containers focuses on few flaws in the current design. The most important problems of the original design are; 1. Too small dimensions to fit sufficient food 2. hot surfaces that are hard to hold and 3. difficult opening of the containers. An other requirement for re-design is enhanced brand familiarity, recognisability and exclusivity for Maître Leon. Standardization of container dimension to ease the production process and limit investments is another challenge for the design process. A new design is proposed to Maître Leon and the company owners are advised to invest in it. To conclude, a number of practical advices are provided to Maître Leon for the market introduction and further development of the product. At first the company should focus on the (health) care market, remain an open minded towards the other two investigated sectors. Teaming up with supply chain partner DeliXL mobilises a large sales team that could realise this, with little effort. The company is also advised to investigate the possibility of multi user portions in order to supply to groups of people without requiring a lot of microwave ovens. Sales price is advised to remain above the prices of competition (CuliDish and Apetito) in order to sustain a high quality image. This also supports the main overall advice to sustain the unique selling points of Culinique and prevent rapid growth that could potentially cause harm to them. A higher price matches the unique selling points and prevents too many customers in a too short period of time.

ready-to-eat meals
market explorations
(health)care market
food industry

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bbe6dba1-b0ff-4978-b4f2-96160202a58d

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 Van Wegberg, P.J.E.