Uncle Ben’s Ready-To-Roll€¦ · Brand analysis In order to analyse and get to know the brand in more depth, we used two tools. Firstly, we created a moodboard that captures the

Uncle Ben’sReady-To-Roll

Digital technologies / Working with brands Project Report

Martin CharlierProduct [email protected]

Digital technologies / Working with brands - Project ReportMartin Charlier - Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication

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Digital technologies / Working with brands, Project Report Martin Charlier - Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication

Introduction

This six week project was done in teams of two. The overall unit

was about the topics of working with brands and digital

technologies.

During the project we picked and analysed a brand, proposed

strategic changes and created and worked through a design

briefing. This report guides you through the project.

The contents are:

RESEARCH

• Why Uncle Ben’s?

• Brand analysis

• User groups

• Challenges and Opportunities

• Project Briefing

DESIGN

• Strategic brand changes

• Sushi making research

• Concept generation

TESTING

• Three concept directions

• The final concept

• User Feedback

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Page 4

Research

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Fig. 1: Brand moodboard.


Why Uncle Ben‘s?

Looking for a brand that is: well known, unique identity,

innovative, traditional but contemporary, global, brand name has

become a synonym for products

Lastly, a brand that we could personally relate to

Uncle Ben‘s is all that, they have a history and are integral part of

the vocabulary of some generations of people. Yet they are

innovative and managed to adapt to changing lifestyles in the

past.

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Brand analysis

In order to analyse and get to know the brand in more depth,

we used two tools.

Firstly, we created a moodboard that captures the brand

identity and the values in the way the company presents itself

in right now.

In addition we used the a brand prism model introduced in the

book „Strategic Brand Management‚ by Jean-Noel Kapferer

(Kogan, pg. 1997) to break down the brand into a number of

sections and analyse the values of the brand.

On the left page you can see the moodboard (Fig. 1). On the

following two pages you will see the analysis done with the

branding prism model we used.

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Fig. 2: Identity and Pyramid models – (Strategic Brand Management –Jean-Noel Kapferer – Kogan Page 1997)


Branding prism breakdown

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PHYSIQUE

Logotype, Figurehead ‚Uncle Ben‛, Orange colour.

PERSONALITY

The Uncle Ben figurehead is shown as an older, African-American. His picture presents him as being wise, friendly, professional, open-hearted.

The Uncle Ben’s figurehead has been increasingly withdrawn. This happened most likely due to media scrutiny and interest about the persona’s history and its relation to slavery. Through the use of this figurehead the brand is perceived as accessible across ages, classes and cultures.

CULTURE

The brand was first used by a company called Converted Rice Inc. which was later bought by Mars. It is based in Houston, Texas. Uncle Ben’s rice was first marketed in 1943. (Forbes Magazine, Dec 1999)

Although not denying its origins, the brand’s past is hazy and over-shadowed by the brand’s personality.

RELATIONSHIP

The relationship is about friendliness, authenticity, quality and quickness.

REFLECTION

The customer of Uncle Ben’s aspires to a healthy lifestyle and wants to be perceived as a person that pays a little extra for quality and brand as well as a person that is more aware of their eating habits.

SELF-PROJECTION

Customers feel like they have made a quality choice and trust in the taste of the product. Also they avoid the guilt of making a bad unhealthy purchase.

BRAND LONGEVITY

Uncle Ben’s has a tradition of adapting to changing lifestyles. The companies origin lies in introducing par-boiled rice to the public, making rice cooking simpler and quicker. The last biggest step was the introduction of the Express Rice range, catering for an even faster lifestyle. The coherent element though, has always been about quality and good taste.

Personas

To further analyse and get to

know the brand, three personas

were created: One „positive‚

persona who could be a current

Uncle Ben‘s customer and two

„negative‚ personas who are

currently not a typical Uncle

Ben‘s customer.

This analysis helps to identify

possible directions in growing

the customer base and it helps to

identify challenges and

opportunities in the product

offering.

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„Positive Persona‚

20-30 years, male.

Has a busy job and does his shopping in bits during the week.

Likes his bag of crisps after lunch.

„Negative Persona 1‚

20-30 years, male.

Has a busy job and does his shopping in bits during the week.

Prefers a soup with his lunch.

„Negative Persona 2‚

35-45 years, female.

Mother of 2 children, sometimes her life gets a bit hectic.

Likes to invite friends over for dinner and prepare a fancy meal.


Where is Uncle Ben‘s right now?

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Non-Ready

Ready-Meal

Fast Food Slow Food

Challenges and opportunities

The brand analysis and the identification of challenges and

opportunities for the brand will be the foundation of the

project briefing.

Through brainstorming we decided that a big opportunity for

Uncle Ben‘s is in the sector of more healthy, Japanese-inspired

rice dishes that are gaining popularity in the European

markets. Uncle Ben‘s needs to adapt to this trend and expand

their offering.

For our project we set ourselves the scenario, that Uncle Ben‘s

have made this decision and are now asking for support in

entering this market right.

Key briefing points:

• A range of Sticky Rice products.

• Product concepts and promotional items.

Key goals:

• Celebrate the product launch.

• Lift up the brand perception.

• Attract a broader customer group.

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Initial theme ideas surrounded by global and general topics that we wanted to keep in the back of our minds.


The project briefing

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Design

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Uncle Ben‘s sticky rice – brand expansion

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Fig. 3: Expanded brand moodboard.


Where should Uncle Ben‘s go?

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Non-Ready

Ready-Meal

Fast Food Slow Food

Elevating the brand

The moodboard on the left side (Fig. 3) captures and visualises

how the Uncle Ben‘s brand should evolve in order to attract

new customers and elevate the brand perception in line with

the new product offering.

This means the branding of the new products will be different

from the current products. As an example Fig. 4 shows how

this could be applied to the packaging of a standard Uncle

Ben‘s product.

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Current Packaging Exploration 1 Exploration 2

Fig. 4: Explorations of Uncle Ben‘s packaging.


Making sushi research

In order to get to know the field we want to deal with, we

started by making sushi ourselves.

The next step was concept creation. This was done during

several brainstorming and sketching sessions.

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Testing

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Three concept directions

1) Moulds:Playing on the unique characteristic of the new Uncle Ben‘s product, the stickiness, the moulds are a simple and cheap give-away that lend themselves to many occasions. From small sushi or canapée shapes to bigger shapes for abstract and extravagant plate decoration as well as from fun, entertaining children shapes to decorative and abstract shapes – the moulds are a flexible and fun way of promoting the launch of Uncle Ben‘s new sticky rice range.

2) Strangler:Catering single nuri strip buyers who want to make only single rolls and dinner parties where every guest gets to create their very own maki roll. The sushi strangler is a very reduced product that makes it simpler to create a single sushi roll by „strangling‚ the roll together until it holds tight. During the creation we tested numerous ways of making the strangler and eventually stayed with a single component design.

3) Ready-To-Roll:The ultimate product for lunchtime sushi makers, simple and easy like existing Uncle Ben‘s products but fresh and not ready-meal. This product takes away the hassle of preparing sushi rolls – all that is needed are the ingredients and the product. Open the pack, fill in the ingredients and roll your own sushi. The backside of the packaging even acts as a rolling mat. The process creates far less mess than making real sushi and is a lot quicker and easier.

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Adults

Children

Food

Sculptures

Decorative,

Sculptural,

Extravagant

Fun,

Entertaining,

Exiting

Canapées/

Sushi

1) Moulds

Digital technologies / Working with brands, Project Report Martin Charlier - Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication Page 27

3) Ready-To-Roll2) Sushi Strangler

Ready-To-Roll... In a roll

As we felt the Ready-To-Roll concept was the strongest, we

decided to take this concept further and solve the challenges it

gave us.

In order to achieve a more sustainable packaging design that

would have a better ratio between amount of food and volume of

packaging we went through another brainstorming and ideation

phase.

The final concept was created: The idea of the nuri seaweed sheet

with the pre-spread rice, ready-to-roll was taken further and

turned into one long nuri sheet that is rolled up and delivered in a

tube.

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Digital technologies / Working with brands, Project Report Martin Charlier - Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication Page 29

Carboard sides.

(Food grade board)

Cardboard tube.

(Food grade board)

Printed label.

Bio-Coating

on the inside of the tube.

Resealable lid.

Nori seaweed with

edible coating.

(Starch or cellulose

based)

Bottom non-stick

grease proof paper.

Top side, non-stick,

grease proof paper.

Top and bottom layer

perforated together.

(Pressed)

Scalability

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Another feature of the final concept is

scalability. As the concept is applicable

to professional markets as well, it could

also be applied to bigger scale versions

of the product.


Placement in a retail store

With the range being positioned in a

fresher and healthier market sector with

the need to be stored chilled, the products

will also benefit from a better placement

in stores together with fresh products

instead of the shelves with preserved

products.

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Prototype and final mock-up

See above the testing of the final concept as a proof-of-concept.

To the right you can see the final packaging mock-up which also shows the suggested combination with a sushi-rolling mat for the launch period of this new product.

Further right you can see the printing of the packaging.

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Pull out as much as you like. Cut the sheet at desired length. Store roll in fridge for later use. Take away grease-paper.


User feedback

In order to get some qualitative feedback the final concept was presented to a range of people and their opinion was asked.

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„A lot of people don‘t make their own sushi because they don‘t want to cook the rice and do all the preparation work.‛

‚This would encourage people to make their own sushi.‛

„It‘s a nightmare doing allthe preperation.‚

„That would save you a lot of time.‚

„It‘s quick an easy, not so messy.‚

„I would buy it... Because I‘m lazy.‚

„I would buy it for lunch!‚

„I like the packaging, it‘s really unique and original.‚

„I can imagine buying it for a party, where I buy a few of them and then buy ingredients.‚

thank you.

Digital technologies / Working with brands

Martin Charlier (and Joe Smith)

Product Design, Level [email protected]

Documents

Uncle Ben’s Ready-To-Roll€¦ · Brand analysis In order to analyse and get to know the brand in more depth, we used two tools. Firstly, we created a moodboard that captures the