Swiggy and Zomato have been laying the platform for food delivery, with the pandemic forcing us out of options, Cloud Kitchens rose to cater to an unmet demand of food cravings. The food delivery market in India is expected to become a $3 billion industry by 2024 with cloud kitchens being the primary growth driver.
There has been a surge in the number of cloud kitchens across India in the last year, delivering everything from simple home cooking to luxurious banquets. New brands emerge every month treating us to delicacies and refreshing our taste buds.
Following India's successive lockdowns since March 2020, various home enterprises and cloud kitchens have launched and listed themselves on food aggregators.
Swiggy, who created BrandWorks, a cloud kitchen venture, stated that "cloud kitchens reduce major expenditures connected with real estate and serving staff from a conventional restaurant, allowing a restaurant to focus solely on creating top-quality cuisine." This concept allows restaurant partners to expand across geographies, both inside the city and to newer cities, at a fraction of the cost, lowering the risk and commitment generally required for them to begin operating in a new location."
With thousands of merchants on aggregator delivery platforms, cloud/ dark kitchen brands are competing for attention and recall from consumers. Aggregators are offering an advertising platform for sellers to overcome the initial inertia and a strong digital brand presence can help in capturing consumers’ attention and induce trials.
Cloud kitchen brand owners are tracking customer acquisition cost as a key spend metric and below are important questions for them to answer :
The majority of the brands are focused on customer acquisition and a common tactic for increasing the Lifetime Value of customers (LTV) is through discounts. However, over a period of time, the emerging leaders in this category like Rebel Foods, Chaayos, Bigspoon, and many more we know have been trying ways to deliver an enhanced consumer experience & thereby paving way for an increase in the average consumer LTV.
It is not a surprise when these brands thought packaging to be one of the levers to deliver a differentiated experience and bring more joy to their customer’s indulgence.
Packaging is the first consumer physical touchpoint and the chance for any brand to make the first impression a long-lasting one
I bet, You and I are going to have the same reaction when we look at the below:
Is it just a matter of not taping things in the right way? Absolutely not, it’s an area of customisation. The majority of the brands use readily available packaging with no or minimum customisation and miss out on the opportunity to make a subliminal entry into the consumer’s mind.
Can anyone recall which brand they ordered this from?
I guess not, the above are food bowls from RP’s rice bowl, the good bowl, and Faasos.
However, anyone who has ordered the below is likely to recall that it is from Ghee and Turmeric because of the colour and the differentiated food presentation:
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The truth is that a lot of brands understand this but do not indulge in differentiation through packaging for the mere reason that packaging is not easy. It needs to be:
‘Packaging is not easy’ is a myth, yes it does have a lot of components to it and we at DesWorks will help in decoding them for you.
Let’s start with understanding the basic challenges that the packaging must solve:
1. The packaging needs to be sturdy and durable in order to survive the supply chain transit.
2. With multiple orders to fulfil the packaging should be easy to assemble and fill. The standard metrics to track here would be how many packs can be assembled in under 30 secs.
3. Choosing the right type of packaging solution for solid, semi-solid, and liquid foods is vital to avoid leakage and spillage.
4. The economics of packaging is vital as it is the second-largest inventory cost on the balance sheet. The cost of packaging needs to be broken down to SKU level to determine unit profitability and for the designers to define the kind of experience that can be delivered within the budget.
The choice of packaging materials mainly depends on:
A few common food packaging materials include plastics, paper bags, cardboard boxes, corrugated boxes, paperboard cartons, boxboards, and styrofoams. Each packaging material has its pros and cons. It is better to consult a packaging expert to determine the right material for your products.
The consumer experience through packaging can include a few of them below,
Using visual design to communicate your brand story and ethos is a memorable way. Focus on creating standout yet relatable design elements to increase the brand recall value.
Here are a few examples of innovative cloud kitchen packaging:
The packaging structure is created with the filling line distribution system. The insulation provided inside the packaging help to separate the hot and cold zones of dishes and avoid heat conduction.
The entire collection comes together to produce a Ghee and Turmeric packaging family that appropriately represents the brand's identity.
The visuals are designed to communicate the brand ethos and story.
Oven story's Pizza packaging has an innovative snowflake restrictor that restricts the movement of the pizza inside and allows everyone to pull out just a slice with the restrictor converting into a tray.
Slay coffee’s secondary packaging has an insulating aluminum layer that minimizes heat dissipation keeping the coffee warm. The packaging also has an inner-fitment that holds the coffee cup perfectly and restricts movement.
Leading brands are investing in packaging design to create a differentiated experience and increase. consumers respond spontaneously to effective packaging. Through the right mix of the structural and visual design of your packaging, you can form visual, rational, and emotional bonds with your consumers.
Choose Wisely
Cloud kitchen is a growing industry with new players entering the business category almost every day. It is vital for brands to identify a different spend map in order to win in this ever-evolving segment.
Packaging design has become a differentiating factor for growth brands and is giving them a competitive advantage. If you plan on making your packaging as a customer winner and don’t know where to get started write to us at design@bizongo.com
