Packaging design for a FairChain brand

Abstract

Moyee Coffee is a company that buys coffee berries in Ethiopia and sells coffee in the Netherlands. Currently they outsource the roasting (grinding) and packaging processes in between. The company aims at doing the roasting (grinding) and packaging in their own facilities in Ethiopia in the future. Thereby they pursue balance in the coffee industry. The first step Moyee Coffee is taking is investing in roasting and packaging equipment in the country of origin of the berries. With this equipment, the local population can process the beans. This results in an increase in value of the export of the coffee, which reduces the need for development aid. Moyee Coffee calls this FairChain. Moyee Coffee currently sells its products mainly via online sales channels. The only offline retail channel they use is Marqt. In the future Moyee Coffee wants to expand its sales channels with for example Albert Heijn. The current package is not suitable for the highly differentiated shelves in those retail shops and should therefore be changed. Another reason for a new package is that the package should be filled and closed in Ethiopia. This is not possible with the current package. The internal analysis shows Moyee Coffee is currently behaving in the first stage of the company life cycle. The brand is still investing in equipment in Ethiopia and is trying to gain brand recognition. They are also still exploring the right products and channels. The organization is not very structured yet and so are the projects that are performed. The external analysis shows that Moyee’s biggest competitors are Douwe Egberts, Illy and Lavazza (for the beans and ground coffee) and Nespresso (for the cups). Like-minded brands are not seen as competitors of Moyee as Moyee is a social enterprise that wants to share and collaborate to reach its goal. The raising awareness of sustainability, personalization and the increasing online sales volume are important trends that should have attention in the design of the new coffee package. After performing a SWOT analysis the following design goal is formulated: ‘For Moyee Coffee I will design a unique and simple coffee package that represents the brand Moyee Coffee and its benefits, that is sustainable, that creates a revolutionary coffee experience and that is optimized regarding production, distribution, stacking shelves and protection of the coffee aromas.’ The four design directions that are represented in this design goal are brand image, sustainability, coffee experience and efficiency. In the literature research, attention is paid to several new, sustainable, packaging materials. These materials are often bio based and/or biodegradable, or have a substitute layer for the aluminum. Not all these more sustainable materials are currently ready for production, some are still in development. Tests about e.g. performance and food contact have to be performed. The performance of a material is one aspect of the protection function of a package. Besides that, the package should be efficient in transport and should attract the attention of the consumers. Another important aspect is to inform the consumer about the brand and what is in the package (the ingredients etcetera). Ideas are generated during two creative sessions; one with five fellow students (e.g. industrial design and architecture) and one with employees of Moyee Coffee (e.g. logistics). Furthermore inspiration is found on the Empack packaging exhibition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and the BIO!PAC Conference in Amsterdam. These ideas are categorized in the four design directions: brand image, sustainability, coffee experience and efficiency. With these ideas three different packages were designed. The 50/50 package in which the two flavors emphasize the aim at a balanced coffee industry. This package for beans is made of bio based materials via 2 shot injection molding and can be used as storage container or for urban farming after its function as package. The Pyramid package is a triangular shaped bag for beans and a similar shaped cardboard box for the cups. This package is enclosable due to its zip lock closure, it is made of (industrial) compostable materials and it creates a block on the shelf due to the story that is spread over several packaging facings. The Beangame package for beans is a bag with a craft appearance, on which a boardgame is printed. In this way the customers can experience the FairChain story themselves. Those three packaging designs are evaluated with twelve consumers in order to learn which aspects are most important for them and which packaging design had the most potential in their opinion. This evaluation test is also done in more informal conversations with Moyee Coffee employees. In the end the Pyramid package seemed to have the most potential to be further developed and to finally launch Moyee Coffee in in the larger retail channels. Consumers were very enthusiastic about the enclosability, the differentiating shape and the compostability. This design had some disadvantages which are improved in the last part of the report. Also a plan is made how Moyee Coffee can introduce this package in larger retail channels, which prices they should use and how it should use both online and offline touch points to reach consumers. Three future scenarios are created in order to find out which steps are interesting to make optimum use of the benifits of economies of scale and what the timing can be. In the end the Pyramid package is examined to what extend it fits with the design goal. It appears that it was quite hard to create the revolutionary coffee experience with only the package. Therefore, also several recommendations are given hoe Moyee can use other touch points for that. Also the brand image can become stronger when these touch points are optimally used.