Project Description

“Evaluate new packaging designs of copy paper products to determine the most appealing”

THE CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH

A world leading prestigious copy paper company asked UniqueView to conduct research to help evaluate several new designs for the packaging of a line of their copy paper products to determine the most appealing design to their customers. Office paper is a huge and fast consumption product in China, not only because of the enormous population base but also due to the amount of paperwork used in China due to regulations and bureaucracy. With this mind, the client wished to increase it’s share of this enormous market in China.

OVERVIEW

The research design was based around focus groups being run in China’s tier-1 cities that included all levels of potential customers of our clients copy paper.

PHASE 1 – Documentary Research

UniqueView first attempted to have gain more knowledge of the office paper market in China through conducting a desk research market overview, which included research on:

  • competition benchmarks
  • market trends
  • market size, as well as market players and their marketing strategies
  • market share of competitors and various product ranges
  • and promotions online and offline.
  • Distribution channels: a full understanding of distribution channels and networks in addition to the challenges and obstacles that our client will face in seeking to expand further into the Chinese market.
  • Packaging: pack, design, material, color, logo, slogan of top products analysis.
  • Customers’ needs and tastes: consumers’ preferences and geographic presence of each product.

PHASE 2: Drafting Screener and Discussion Guide + Recruiting

This was a full service project, that included designing fielding materials, recruiting, moderating and full reporting including a presentation of findings to the clients board of directors. Based on the prior desk research for the project, we began to work on the screener and discussion guide with the information we obtained and the business objectives of the client. We then proceeded to  organize the 12 groups in Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai; each city with 4 groups targeted for different types of people including:

  • staff from big corporations and SMEs
  • government officers
  • consumers.

For B2B users, we were looking for people involved in and responsible for office paper evaluation and purchase, knowing the whole procurement process. For individual consumers, we were trying to find people who used office paper often at work and knew the brands they used at work well.

PHASE 3: Focus Groups

The first part of the discussion allowed us to understand the outlets/channels our target audiences usually buy office paper from and to further understand their motives for using these channels. Discussion was then steered towards evaluating the awareness and perceptions of all top brands including the client’s existing package and deeper probing on the messages the various packaging designs conveyed. The main discussion was reserved for the assessment of the new product and packaging concepts to verify the strongest element and combinations. Finally, we dived deep into the comparison from new concepts to competitors to guage the power of differentiation.

CONCLUSION: Report and Presentation

Finally, we provided a comprehensive analysis and recommendations for packaging including:

  • Geographically compared data collected from desk research and focus groups
  • An analysis of the general situation and performance of the client’s print paper brand in China
  • Pick up the best fit concept
  • Offer the optimized design for package

Through the above steps, we delivered the most preferred suggestions for the package from brand name and logo, color scheme, responsible fiber, design to classic European quality. These recommendations have now been effected on new products launched on the market already.