Transcript
Upgrading “Egyptian Street Food” by applying Packaging Design Mona Abo Tabl , Gasser El-Sayed , Engy A.Shabaan 1
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1
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2
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Printing, Publishing & Packaging Dept.,Faculty of Applied Arts, Helwan Uni., Egypt 2 Graphic Design Dept.,Faculty of Applied Science & Arts, German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt. 1
Results and discussion:
Abstract: There is a phenomenon of selling some Egyptian food in the street such as sweet potato, corn, lupine, bean and falafel sandwiches, etc.. Often these food vendors have a simple and modest possibilities in preparing and selling these products. This paper seeks to explore and examine the role of design packaging to attract consumers as design can offer a wide range of solutions. Moreover, to explore how people are affected by the appearance of the product as the package is the first thing that the customer will see and it’s what will motivate a reaction. This study aim to take advantage of the packaging design and various raw materials available to provide a simple package used by the seller to contain, protect and sell the product, these packages contain graphical elements have a functional and aesthetic purpose to meet the actual needs of both; seller and consumer, consistent with the idea of change and development. The package was directed to serve the consumers’ needs by achieving utility, functionality and consumption.
Introduction: Our way of life and consuming habits in Egypt lead to spectacular development in all of our surroundings, Also the growing competition lead to spectacular progress in the growth of society and client’s expectation. As the great development in various branches of production is a hallmark during the successive stages of growth which in turn requires the development of packaging, As it’s a part of our daily lives as when there is a product, it’s necessary to have a package aims to contain and protect this product. Currently, there are a high percentage of people affected by the appearance of the product. This research presents the issue of the absence of the attractive, appropriate and safe packaging design for packing traditional Egyptian food products in terms of its form and function. Here we will focus on upgrading the packaging for products (like corn, sweet potato, lupine, bean, falafel, peanuts, etc.) by using safe, appropriate and suitable packaging design to make them more promoted in the Egyptian market and improving their marketability. So “Upgrading Egyptian street food by applying packaging design” is the title of this research, it presents and examines the role of design packaging to attract consumers, as design can offer a wide range of solutions as it is the process of thoughts and feelings that will create them by combining facts, functions and aesthetics to meet human needs by exploring methods of visually communicating the value of the product to its target audience.The goal is to apply the appropriate, safe and suitable packaging design for these products to add an additional value for them.The recent studies confirmed that many global companies have achieved their success primarily through depending on the marketing foundations. That’s what the research was dealing with, as there is a survey that addresses all the aspects and problems of the research to find out consumers’ wishes, and implementing what is desired for these commonly products and how to launch it in the Egyptian market later on.The motivation for this topic is the abundance of these products in the Egyptian street, in addition to their high nutritional benefits. In spite of that, there is a large category especially high/middle-class category don’t turnout on them. That’s because street food has been found to be contaminated and serious illnesses have been related to it. Another aspect is that these products is prepared and/or sold by vendors or hawkers in streets under unacceptable conditions of hygiene. The problem now lies in the absence of packaging design for packing traditional Egyptian food products. These mentioned products are very popular and desired by limited category of Egyptian people (low-income category), although these products could be the best-selling in the Egyptian street. But the problem is that there are a significant number of individuals wishing to purchase these products but they feel worried because of the lack of cleanliness and safety. In addition to the absence of a package with proper appearance to protect and contain these products from natural and human factors (pollution), therefore, there is an urgent need concerning packaging design whether the structural or graphical design, to make these products more promoted and targeting different categories of consumers.
It became clear that most of people love to eat out occasionally, and that includes eating street food from the street vendors. Food is a main part of our culture as Egypt is famous with its oriental and different dishes that are mostly available locally without packaging or branding.Further, street food sector is growing very fast especially in low-income countries, so street vendors should be controlled by government regulations in terms of appearance and cleanliness of food. Moreover, we could conclude that the turnout on the packaged product is more than the unpacked products because of its integrity and cleanliness. Packaging is more than just your product’s pretty face but your package design emits a stronger message than the product itself. Packaging design plays a strategic role by being informative and attractive enough to draw the consumer to the product in terms of convenience, safety and hygiene to make the purchasing decision so food labeling is an important factor influencing food choice. Further, it was clear that people have infinitely different needs and desires and these needs are partly affected by socio-demographic factors and their life style.SoThe purpose of using these methods is to find out answers for the modified research question which is “How does applying the concept of packaging design on the commonly street products affect consumers’ buying behavior?” So what we have to take into consideration was to design a package that combines between flexibility, simplicity and functionality. In order to apply the findings that was concluded during this research and which was based on the outcomes of the methodology and its results, it became clear that we need a place in Egypt to set some regulations and solutions for better promoting, controlling and upgrading the Egyptian street food in terms of appearance and cleanliness. As mentioned before that this project is targeting the middle/high class category, which prefers to eat this food, but worried about it’s cleanliness and refused to eat it in this unhealthy situation. So the company’s mission is to target this category and tried to find out what they want, trying to satisfy their needs and influence their choices.Putting these regulations and upgrading these products (by applying packaging design which has the ability to engage and communicate with consumers) will influence their purchasing decisions. “Masriat” is the name of the company; it is a company that takes over the responsibility of applying packaging design in appealing and catchy way with affordable prices and offering guaranteed regulations and clean mobile cars following the rules of masriat company in terms of appearance, integrity and cleanliness of food, under the auspices of the ministry of health to sell these products in healthy, suitable and civilized way. This company is creating a safety and attractive package to draw the consumer to the product in terms of convenience, safety and hygiene. This company has its own logo and its own corporate identity, which reflect its image to the consumers. Moreover, all these designs will reflect the company’s values; public (communal, local), civilized (worthy), protective (healthy, clean) and Aesthetic (stylish). Thus we have ensured the health and safety of food through the safe and attractive packaging.
The structural design of the package has been designed to fit the product as the form of it was inspired form the shape of the product, it could protect your hand and keep it clean as it’s used instead of the product’s external peel. It was made from duplex paper with light weight and affordable price, it was designed with different sizes according to the variation of the product’s size. There is an opening in the upper side to allow the stick to get out of it as the user can rotate the corn without getting it out of the package.
The package was designed to be a plate while eating for easy usage. The used material was friendly to the environment.
Conclusion:
Some photos presenting the research problem
Materials and Methods: - A questionnaire has been done to cover most of the relevant topics/ questions concerning packaging for street food products, this questionnaire involved 20 questions; varies between: yes or no questions, multiple choice and open-ended questions. - Different simple structure designs and different recycled materials have been used for the future package, then presenting it to the consumers to know their opinion about the concept of having a package for the products, moreover the structure of the package in order to choose the best and the most suitable one, based on consumers’ selected opinions about whatever the shape or the materials of the packages. - Visiting and observing the Hawkers stands and sell street food products, observing which category have the desire to buy these products, people’s reactions while purchasing it. Three methods were used; questionnaire, testing user experience and personal observations, in them the analytical, descriptive and experimental approaches were followed. In the questionnaire 70 participants were chosen randomly, from our target group (middle class category) 66% were female and 34% male. It has been distributed by two different ways; the first one was created online. While the second, was distributed randomly in which the participants were kindly asked to fill it, then it was collected and analyzed.
After displaying all the above, it became clear that packaging design could find out solutions for the street food by adding an additional value that enable a new category of society to turn out on these kinds of food, change their opinions and even to make them look better about purchasing these kind of food by suggesting two main solutions which are; applying or using a safe, suitable and healthy packages, offering guaranteed regulations and clean mobile cars following the rules of masriat company in terms of appearance, integrity and cleanliness of food under the auspices of the ministry of health. The methods used in this research were very helpful for gathering the needed information about my target group , this made us more certain and sure about choosing the right consumers for Masriat Company. Then, also the outcomes of these methods helped to understand the needs of the target group and how to influence their choices during the design process. So as a main thing we tried to stick to the simplicity in all the designs in order to deliver the message to the consumer in the simplest, most powerful and fastest possible way.Thus, It was found that in order to achieve a successful packaging design for this category, the function of packaging should be known; which is divided into essential function and supplementary function; the essential function of the package is to be protective. Protective means; protection against damage, protection of the product, consumer protection, and environmental protection. As for the supplementary function, was the easy usage of the package. And after taking these principles in mind, therefore, the function of packaging as a means of communication tool is achieved. Moreover, It was concluded that the role of packaging requires development of the relationship between the function of the package and consumer as the achievement of the utility, functionality and consumption was based on the design of the package, for instance the efficiency of opening and closing, getting the content, and the package size. Also there are many factors affecting the consumers’ behavior, which are divided into three main factors; demographic factors such as gender, age, income, and educational level, also there are cultural and civilization factors and finally the social and economic factors. Finally, when this idea was mentioned at the first beginning, it was a challenge to make it because of many reasons as it was trying to change something familiar to the Egyptian society whose culture usually refuses to change their habits and traditions. Especially for food, which is considered as an essential factor in the Egyptian life. So changing people’s mind and opinion was a big challenge in this research. Further, it was too hard to collect all these products which differ a lot under one company and to design a campaign, logo, posters that fit them and become appropriate to all of these products and also not to make people feel that there is something strange.
References:
Clement, J. (2007). Visual influence on in-store buying decisions: an eye-track experiment on the visual influence of packaging design. Journal of Marketing Management, 23(9/10), 917-928. Domnica, D. (2010). Review concerning the functions of packaging. Revista Academiei Fortelor Terestre, 15(1), 44-48. Kenneally, C. (2009). Making an impact: how package design influences con¬sumer choice. Food Engineering & Ingredients, 34(3), 36-37. Long-Solís, J. (2007). A Survey of Street Foods in Mexico City. Food & Foodways: History & Culture of Human Nourishment, 15(3/4), 213-236. Peters-Texeira, A., & Badrie, N. (2005). Consumers’ perception of food packag¬ing in Trinidad, West Indies and its related impact on food choices. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 29(6), 508-514.
6th International Symposium on Food Packaging – Scientific Developments Supporting Safety and Innovation - 16-18 November 2016, Barcelona, Spain
