Growing My Social Capital

(All emails were sent Monday)

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry. 

• I sent an email to Brian West, a Publix spokesperson who is responsible for answering questions about the business.  Unfortunately the feedback I received was not good, he told me due to policy he is not allowed to give advice on the grocery industry. 
• I found his email on Publix's webpage under contacts
• Email Response: 

Hi Bridget!  I hope you’re doing well.

 

Thanks for thinking of us, and for being a loyal Publix customer.  Unfortunately, we really can’t share anything over and above what you could figure out on your own.  The grocery business is very competitive, and anything we shared with any substance would be proprietary.  I’m sorry.  I really wish we could help.

 

I wish you luck with your project.

 

 

Brian S. West

Publix Super Markets, Inc.

Public Affairs
Media and Community Relations Manager

 2) One person must be an expert on your market.

• I sent out three emails to Publix representives and I did not recieve an email back. 
• Sent to:  
• Maria Brous, Corporate Initiatives and Trade Publications
• Nicole Krauss,  Media & Community Relations Manager
• Dwaine Stevens,  Media & Community Relations Manager of North Florida, southern Alabama, Southeast Georgia, and South Carolina 
• My Letter: 

My name is Bridget Lanier, and I am a Student at the University of Florida.  As a requirement for my Entrepreneurship course I need to reach out to members of the industry that our product idea is based on.  My product, "The Food Pack", contains all the ingredients needed to make a home cooked meal (such as Enchiladas, Shepard’s Pie, flat bread pizzas, granola bars, etc.)  My target consumers are students who have strict budgets and want to learn how to cook.  I want to encourage students who are not confident in their cooking skills to learn how to make new dishes, introduce them to new cultures, make it an experience to remember, and use these cooking skills for life!

 All my life Publix has been my grocery store of choice, I am a loyal customer!  Your business not only provides consumers with what seems to be an unlimited variety of food options but also a welcoming environment.  I understand that it is competitive market when it comes to suppliers getting shelf space, I wanted to know some of the factors that go into your decision on displaying and selling one company’s product over the other? 

I really appreciate your time reading this email! 

Thank you,
Bridget Lanier
blanier@ufl.edu

 3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry.   

• I emailed  Miller: A Branding Industry about the design and marketing of packing and its involvement in the grocery industry.  I received a very encouraging and informative email in the process and importance of a label in the market place.  
• I found them online when researching labels and packing design.  They have been featured on Oprah and are a very interactive business.  
• Email Response: 

Hi Bridget, 

Thanks for reaching out!

As you know, package design requires intensive thought and research—a designer can’t just rely on nice aesthetics. 

Although I can’t give you a list of rules about how to make a package attractive since it varies depending on the product (ie. what would be considered an attracting agent on a toy’s packaging will not work on a wine label), I have summarized the conceptual work we do before beginning a project to give you a feel of the thought processes that go into designing a powerful package. 

We always start our new design projects with a process we call category immersion. 

We gather info from the client on a variety of topics such as what kind of a brand they intend to build up, who their target market is, what makes their product unique, what their design preferences are, how they want consumers to view their brand, and so forth. 

They send in designs that they like and we look for images to use as inspiration based on their responses to the questionnaire we sent them. For instance, if they say their product’s main asset is its authenticity to a certain culture, we will research that culture and its history (as you assumed) and we’ll gather photos of anything that could serve as inspiration for the packaging design. 

(By the way, anything can be used as inspiration—fashion, nature, and as you suggested, history. We do not limit our inspiration to other package designs or we will be limited to package styles that already exist.)

Based on the client-supplied designs and our research, we put together a styleboard showing the look and feel we want the brand to have. This styleboard is a great asset and is frequently referenced during the design phase.

We also research the competitive space—this info is generally available online, but if we can find the competitor’s products in stores, we visit it to see the packaging in an in store setting. 

When researching competitors, we can see if there are certain expectations within the market our client is looking to enter, because often the consumers have certain expectations that must be met. For instance, blue cheese

packaging is always blue. Since consumers have come to expect this, we can’t leave out blue completely when designing new blue cheese packaging or the client might not recognize what the product is. 

We can also find the hole in the market, the design area that hasn’t yet been touched in this product group and we can zero in on that to create a design that stands out from the rest. 

By analyzing existing packaging, you can create packaging in which the product is recognizable for what it is and yet remains unique within the market.

Of course, this is only a glimpse of what goes into designing a package, but it is food for thought. I hope you find this information helpful and good luck with your project!

Nikki 

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Nikki Berger | Junior Project Manager

miller.
704 Candlewood Commons

Howell, NJ 07731 USA
t. 732 201-6030 ext. 703
f. 732 343-7056

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wearemiller.com

facebook.com/wearemiller

Reflection

By far the people at Miller are extremely kind and very informative.  I really appreciated their input and it's inspired me to design my project in a new light!  Nikki's response gave me a better understanding of the grocery industry and factors that play a major role in the selling of merchandise.  I believe that by contacting smaller well established businesses or a company that has created a product that is being sold in the market place is best! I think that Publix might have thought I was trying to find out their "secrets".