Quality Meals identified a gap in the market: main-course quiches to meet the needs of families. Now they have the right pack for the product, too. What was once a problem is now an advantage – with the new pack sales shot up over 400% in six months. An appetising, smart design made of Korsnäs White was the solution.
Initially, Quality Meals was using a thin, improperly designed case. Then they discovered that the quiches tended to crack if handled roughly in grocery freezers. They asked Stockholm’s Idéhuset design agency to carry out a thorough review of the packaging. Step one was to ‘go shopping’. Idéhuset’s Bengt Bussler wanted to see how the packaging stacked up against the competition. The conclusion was inescapable: it was too anonymous and did not communicate the product contents unless the consumer was willing to make an extra effort. Not only that, it didn’t protect the quiches well enough, leading to unnecessary returns from the shops.
Cover more important than contents?
“Many producers focus on making the best product they can, but view packaging as essentially an extra cost,” says Bengt Bussler. He urges them to look at it from the other side. “Packaging is central to building a brand. Most importantly, it has to be attractive and communicate the contents clearly, leading to a decision to buy on the part of the customer. It should also be functional and convenient. Finally, the product must be of high quality; this is axiomatic. If you meet all three criteria, you win the confidence of the customer.”
Packaging performance service helped with design
“Thanks to our partnership with Korsnäs’s packaging performance service, we were able to develop the solutions we needed – including a tamper-proof closure and a challenging window placement – to produce the highest-impact, strongest-selling pack possible,” says Bengt. “We also gained access to unique expertise on the material and its properties. Korsnäs White provides the properties we need to deal with a distribution chain full of humid and frozen environments. The material also assures good printing results – essential for a pack that doubles as a seller – at the same time that it is stable, stiff and protects the product. With Korsnäs White we are playing it safe and avoiding expensive returns.”
“With the help of the strong design of our new packaging solution, we positioned ourselves right,” says Quality Meals’ managing director Micael Östlund. “Our quiches have moved from the special order range into the standard range of Sweden’s leading grocery chain.”