OUGD601 - Context of Practice 3: Unilever Port Sunlight Visit

Today I visited Port Sunlight in the Wirral and went to the Sunlight museum. I thought it would be a great opportunity to gather some primary research on advertising and marketing, with reference to the Lever brothers. The museum itself was only quite small, but I was able to take quite a few photographs inside. This will be perfect for if I end up looking into Unilever in more depth within my essay. 

I also visited the shop while I was there and bought a couple of things which I thought were quite relevant. As I have been considering waste and in particular bread waste, I thought this postcard was quite appropriate! I also bought some Sunlight soap as a souvenir. 

I took a picture of this because I really love the interactive element of it. I think it would be great to try and incorporate this into my work somehow, perhaps if I focus on experiential marketing in my essay.

OUGD601 - Context of Practice 3: Liverpool Business Exhibition

During the Summer holidays I went to the Liverpool Business Exhibition. It was an opportunity to network and meet new people, and there were events on such as speed networking as well as different inspirational talks on how to be successful at what you do. There were lots of different businesses there, some more relevant to me than others. One of them in particular was the Bakestone bread stand. I spoke to the lady there and asked her whether she could give me any information regarding bread and bread waste but unfortunately she was only commissioned to work for the day and didn't have much knowledge about the brand. She did however give me a catalogue with all of their products in which may come in useful in the future. 

Another important thing I noticed from the day was the fact that she was giving everyone she spoke to, two loaves of bread for free. At the end of the day however, Bakestone, along with the likes of Costco, both had food left over which they were trying to give away. We were all talking amongst ourselves saying that we won't get through the two loaves nevermind anymore than that.

This then got me thinking about food waste in general and made me want to research further into it. When I was speaking to the man who was running the Costco stand, I asked him what happens to all of the food that goes out of date or is going out of date and whether the employees are given it for free. He explained to me that they don't give it away for free because it would decrease sales. I feel as though this is a key point to note down and perhaps talk about in my essay, as it is a growing concern that the importance of profit and money is more important that overcoming the growing concern of waste.

OUGD601 - Context of Practice 3: Research (Further Thoughts on Bread Product)

There is currently an overwhelming choice of products to choice from in the supermarkets. The amount of bread is phenomenal and the brands are all up against each other to reach the best sales possible and achieve the largest profit. This isn't what food should be about. It has gone from being a necessity to survive, to something which is exploited by supermarkets to try and persuade people to buy their products. I therefore need to design something which eliminates the need for all of these individual packages and design a piece of packaging which can be applied across a broad range of products to make sure that waste is reduced.

One way of doing this would be to find out on average how many slices are waste in each household and then from this designing something which would utilise the left over slices or crumbs in some way so that they don't end up in the bin. 

OUGD601 - Context of Practice 3: Research (Initial Bread Article)

This is the first article I came across when searching for articles relating to bread waste. It is evident that there is a growing concern affecting the UK and therefore there is definitely room for improvement, a scheme of some sort needs to be implemented to help people reduce their food and packaging waste. 

Source

OUGD601 - Context of Practice 3: Momo Hello Show (Pot Noodle Experiential)

On the 29th May I visited Momentum Manchester. This was an opportunity for me to network with the people who work there as well as anyone who had signed up for the Momo Hello Show. It was a great opportunity as I spoke to the Creative Director and have been in touch ever since and we are currently in talks about a possible placement. 

The main thing I took away from this event was the exposure I had to experiential marketing. I had never really heard much about it before, as marketing isn't something we really cover on the course. It attracted my attention straight away however, as it made me think of a giant interactive piece of packaging design. 

The example they had on show that night was the Pot Noodle experiential work they had completed for Asda. As it reads, the idea behind this design, was to encourage the consumer/recipient/audience to tear off a pot noodle lid and put it into a bucket for a prize draw. On the night as there were that many people there, I was more interested in the concept behind it than the actual purpose. It really got me thinking about possibilities for my COP3 project and made me want to find out more about experiential design. 

I am so pleased that I made the effort to go to visit Momentum in Manchester, as I have now got this contact for the future and will be able to question them about any experiential marketing that they work on for primary research.