A digital Packaging for an outdoor market

Client: Gelfi Ondulati
University's project: Politecnico di Milano
Role: Product Service Designer
Year: 2015

Ghelfi Ondulati, the Italian leader in the food packaging sector, wanted to create a new packaging for Porta Palazzo’s market. The goal of my project was to create a foldable, easy to use, nice designed pack which could have been personalised by the merchant through the digital printing, a technology the company wanted to leverage on

THE STARTING POINT

Nowadays, people require more and more transparency from the brands and the entities they interact with, and more they are aware about their food consumption and their healthy diets. The market is an interesting reality for the ones who try to make sustainable choice and who are willing to sustain local activities and small businesses, especially when dealing with food. The main goal of the project was to make the market a more attractive place to the youngers, a target which is not used to join the place frequently. The following were the insights extracted from the shadowing activity:

1. Low perception of quality due to the maintenance of the place;
2. Plastic bag spread all over the place which do not add any value;
3. The merchant often sell the same products, lowering competition to zero. There is no differentiation among them;
4. Low level of fidelization with the client due to the fast interaction and the flat curve in terms of differentiation

THE DESIGN PROCESS

The design of the new packaging saw an iterative approach with more than one shadowing and testing activities with both the merchant and their clients in order to meet their habits and expectations

1. Desk research and analysis of markets activities, characteristics and approach around the world
2. Field research and shadowing where pain points and the main weaknesses were identified and used as a starting point
3. Concept generation and prototyping with the following iteration until the optimal shape
4. Graphic design of the packaging  
5. Design of the Baloon application 

Product design

THE SHAPE

The new pack is modular, foldable, fast to close, easy to use while filling it with products. It is comfortable for both merchants and users as it is able to protect goods during the whole shopping time. Three different dimension were designed to meet volume requirements, Small medium and large

THE GRAPHICS

The sellers can order the packaging which will be personalized by their names, the food they want to promote, a set of receipts linking different food categories and finally the QR code. The QR code enable the link with the platform Baloon, where customers could follow their favourite merchants and interact with them easily. Sellers will be able to get in contact with their customers, bringing their voices outside the market boundaries.

THE BRAND GHELFI

Not only the new pack confers more value to the sellers and their goods, it gives more visibility to the brand Ghelfi as the logo is put at the centre of the die-cut (and on the bottom when it is closed). Before it is used, the pack is hanged on the stand framework being visible to everybody

THE BALOON APP

The Baloon app is a platform which merge sellers and customers, completely dedicated to the world of Porta Palazzo's market, including the events which take places in the area. The name of the platform, as well as the shape of the packaging, takes inspiration from the iconic aerostat called Baloon which fly up to 150 mt on the Porta palazzo's plaza.

Why an app?

1. The market become a digital place where sellers can reach a wider target of users, compare to the physical one;
2. Users can search, like, rank and follow their favourites merchants as well as chatting with them and ask information;
3. The sellers profiles are ranked through users comments increasing differentiation, thus competition. A higher level of competition could bring a consequent improvement of the overall quality. The seller have the chance to built trustworthiness and increase the loyalty with their clients
4. Users can book tickets for events taking place in the area; the place is valued and promoted

*The UI of the app has been updated in 2018 as the main focus of the original project was mainly the product. The concept of the app and its functionalities was already there

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