Facets from MMR

A leading brand owner that specialises in air care products wanted to globally introduce a more natural and eco-friendly spray in an attempt to move away from aerosol technologies which are perceived to be hazardous for consumers and the environment.

The challenge was to identify the right packaging structure and product delivery method both from a functional and an emotional perspective. The new device solution had to effectively communicate the benefits of the new product and also be in line with the brand's equity.

A blend of qualitative and quantitative packaging research methods was used to first explore the design possibilities with consumers and then to optimise key design attributes for the ideal physical and perceptual performance. The product was launched and rolled out globally and today is a huge commercial success.

A globally recognised laundry brand wanted to launch a new product format to promote convenience but at the same time protect and augment the brand's reputation for efficacy.The structural design of the new product was believed to play a key role in communicating those aspects to consumers.  

Working closely with consumers, we started by exploring the sensory qualities of different formats and materials to gauge visual, tactile and olfactory cues.Using the Kano model combined with principal component analysis we then prioritised these qualities and specified the design strategy for creating and

prototyping a number of new concept designs. An experiment was then designed to help us predict the optimum combination of design, sensory and physical attributes and a set of actionable design guidelines was produced to support the client's decision-making process.

A global brand owner that specialises in ambient food products wanted to understand consumer perceptions of various packaging structures with the view to challenging old and tired formats used to represent the category for many years.

We firstly worked with the client's packaging development team to identify a number of new packaging structures. Using those as stimuli we 'interrogated' a number of category users to understand the functional and emotional attributes that describe the category and drive consumer choice and purchase.

 Using the Kano model we then prioritised those attributes and used the results as a guide to design a packaging evaluation study. We used analysis of variance and other significance testing to identify which packaging format would best fit in the category by factoring in and balancing the trade-offs between functionality, emotionality, liking and purchase intent.

A global confectionery giant saw an opportunity to invest in natural materials for its packaging across categories and therefore sought to understand how the sensory qualities of various materials correlate with consumer perceptions.

We took physical measures of the tactile properties of the selected materials and at the same time we interviewed a number of consumers to capture the functional and emotional benefits of each material. We then designed an experiment which allowed us to map sensory qualities into consumers' perception of functional and emotional benefits.

Using predictive modelling we managed to specify which particular physical properties are responsible for driving consumer perception enabling our client to manipulate material properties to target specific emotional responses and to engineer particular sensorial experiences.