innovating glass jars

Product Innovation | March 2015 | Team Poli.Design
 Project developed for Verallia- Saint Gobain group under "Say it with glass" design contest'2015, Milan.

How might we innovate glass jars for sweet confectioneries (honey and jam) that illustrate the values and characteristics of the content, considering verallia's technical capabilities ?

Background

Verallia- Saint Gobain group is one of the leader glass packaging manufacturing company for food and beverages (bottles and jars); and also it is a company that is contributing to the sustainable development of its communities, value for its customers and the well-being of its end-consumers through different initiatives in the glass industry.

"Say it with glass" is the design contest organized by Verallia Italia, that gave opportunity to the students of design schools in Italy to be involved in this project. The aim of the contest is to select the new glass containers for three different types of products from the projects of the young participants: craft beer, prosecco, honey and jams.
Our team Poli.design worked on design of glass jars for sweet confectioneries (honey and jam).
 

Scope of the project

The project was driven by the main goal of creating feasible and innovative jar concepts for sweet confectionery (honey and jam).

We as a team dealt with the brief from a more strategical approach, mainly due to the constraints,related to the existing production process, both technical and economic and marketing of a basic product as the glass jar is.
With a strategic approach, the scope was about leveraging on new insights from user and trend research, addressing the symbolic meaning of the object as well as the brand proposition and incorporating in new concepts with simple shapes and physical features of the product, which could fit in existing technical capabilities.

Research and Analysis

This research aimed to build a broader knowledge about glass packaging through better analyzing Verallia’s brand, products’ properties, relevant final users and the current production process.

Verallia’s branding, communication elements, values and structure are presented along with comparisons with competitor’s brands and glass industry landscape.

Product and User study

As part of our research, we visited several stores from different sectors: High end, Middle end, Low end and Organic food markets. The product
analysis focused their characteristics, their interaction with the consumer while displayed in the store and their relationship during use. By it, one could go deeper in the implications of shapes, sizes, colors and other physical properties of jars.

Different users were analyzed and personas/stereotypes were defined in order to summarize and personify the findings. These distinct profiles with their respective needs and journey, by which one can grasp their lifestyles, consumer behaviors and presumed desire for one or other jar.

Scenario Mapping

Based on these inputs, four scenarios were created to prompt the generation of new concepts. The research served as an inspirational platform for the R&D team [candidates of the Master in Strategic Design– Poli.Design 2014/2015] and building this common
knowledge background with the company is essential to
promote a better comprehension about the inspirations
and implications of each concept.

'Often a scenario can be based on analogies with existing contexts from different fields. It is usually built starting from the intersection of relevant polarities of attributes.'

The Concepts

To know details the project have a look at the report document shared below:

The concepts are showcased here: "Projects: Say It With Glass' 2015"