what i heard - how i can help
 

what i heard

• Lead the packaging team
  • High-level thinking - create a more holistic approach
  • Less hands-on more art direction
  • Start with a BPS to find issues and opportunities
    
    
• Lead the Hong Kong team
  • Ensure quality
  • Manage costs
  • Diversify venders
    
  • Manage Sourcing
    
    
• Lead Sustainability for Paper Packaging
  • Many people are charged with sustainability
  • Similar to my current sustainability experience
  • Learn as we go / vendors and research
    
    
• Formula Structural Packaging
  • Current thinking - needs a cap
  • I see huge opportunity here
  • Positioning as a premium offering
  • Exciting category play for Munchkin as a brand

i'm confident i can do that work...

but, you brought me out to munckin knowing that paper packaging isn't my core value.

I see an opportunity to help you with strategy and brand expression. I have the unique ability to think strategically while knowing how things are made. How to create a vision and make its essence real.

how do i fit?  

let me show you. 

the day's best question.

"Paul, we are developing a new formula package, how are you going to design us a lid?"

doing that right is a much larger question than it presents at face value.

formula isn't functional 

munchkin is the leader creating the most functional products for babies. 
Pain Point: My baby spills every cup I give them.
Solution: Create a sippy cup that can't spill. 
Brilliant!!!

Formula is different:
Baby formula is about nourishing your baby. It feeds their bodies and helps them grow. The emotional tension that surrounds this decision is complicated. Both the brand and the packaging need to speak to that emotional tension and create a relevant benefit to put parents at ease.

Pain Point: I can't breastfeed my baby what do I do? (emotioanlly complicated)

Solution: Baby formula - So many - What's right for me?
(premium tier, less about price, more about what's best)

okay, so what?

The brand needs to speak to the tensions that exist in the category in a relevant way. 
Let's look at 2 of the brand you identified as key competitors. 

bobbie 

What is bobbie about?

The story of the brand isn't that is comes from cows that are grass-fed. bobbies story is about:

Modern Simplicity

Everything the brand does ladders up to that that idea.
Including - Graphics, Name, Ingredent, Website, and Packaging (for better or worse)

Simplifying Complexity

Unlike the Similac, Enfamil, and private label brands. Bobbie, makes an effort to humanize the brand. Reminding the consumer that they too are Mom's and Dad's.

Simplifying the complexity of nameless faceless white coat scientists working in a heartless lab.

Reminding consumers there is science behind the formula, but more importantly there is care.

Modernizing the Category

Simple Human Naming

The naming follows suit by leveraging a simple child's name to disrupt the complicated synthetic names of the category leader. Similac and Enfamil. 

It also can be easily miss read as Boobie which conveys the naturally simple origin of the product's reason for existence. 

Simple graphics with Modern illustration
Simple ingredients with a Modern recipe 
Simple brand story with a Modern take on formula

BY HEART

What is BY HEART about?

The story of the brand isn't that is comes from cows that are grass-fed. BY HEART story is about:

CLEAN - MODERN - LOVE

Everything the brand does ladders up to that that idea.
Including - Graphics, Name, Ingredent, Website, and Packaging (for better or worse)

CLEAN

Clean is not only an aesthetic direction it is also a key part of BY Heart's Point Of Difference.

The certification signifies their devotion to the highest standard of quality and integrity. 

Clean is also leveraged in the ingredient story, There is a long list of what's not in this formula. Focusing on a "cleaner", better healthier product for your child.

BY HEART has a lot of science to talk to consumers about. Instead of overwhelming medical icons, they've chosen to use a more human icon system that they can then leverage as their graphic identity. Resulting in a Modern take on how to communicate their point of view to consumers.

LOVE

The entire graphic identity is rooted in a softer more human loving aesthetic. The skin tone color creates a sense of calm. The hand-painted icons lend a human touch that conveys a sense of love and care.

Even the benefits are in a language that speaks to the physical issues babies experience after eating.

Science is ever present in the brand but is balanced perfectly with the humanity of the brand.

Clean Sustainable Packaging

The brand is able to bring the
CLEAN - MODERN - LOVE idea into the packaging.
It is a mono-material design that is little to no plastic which means the entire can is recycled as is. No separating parts (other than the scoop). 

CLEAN for the planet - Modern unique structure - LOVE for you and the earth

Okay, that's great, but we asked about
 

The story of the brand isn't that it comes from cows that are grass-fed. munchkin's story is about:

LOVING EXPERTISE

Everything the formula does should ladder up to that idea.
Including - Graphics, Name, Ingredients, Website, and Packaging 

LOVE -People

Love comes from everything munchkin does. 30 years of being part of families lives. Helping parents with the everyday joys and struggles of raising children.
Helping children grow, learn and live happier lives.

LOVE -Planet

Love is fundamental to the core of munchkin as a brand. The products do a lot, but the company and culture do even more. The philanthropy that the brand does gives it the right to lean into this idea for formula.

LOVE For Planet - Smart Plastic -Seedling Project
LOVE for Creatures - Project Orca - Munchkin the Cat -IFAW
LOVE For Humanity - Child Education projects

EXPERTISE

Munchkin has 30 years of making products for babies that work better than anything else. They know how to make bottles that help with colic. They know how to make sippy cups that don't spill. They know how to protect my baby from the little things that make life hard. 

The consumer trust in expertise gives munchkin the right to play in the formula category. Munchin is a smart innovative brand that develops smart well-designed products. With the right science story in place, they can make formula as well.

Let's sketch out a vision!

packaging that delivers on Loving Expertise

Loving Expertise

IMPORTANT: This is packaging expression. Needs naming and graphics expression.

Refill system that balances the good for you, good for your baby, and good for the planet goals that munchkin has as a brand.

The durable container delivers on the core of the munchkin expertise. First-class functionality that delivers on the emotional needs of mom. Reassurance the product is safe and fresh. Easy to open one-handed. Easy to refill and live with. Stainless steel construction adds to the natural food kitchen tool aesthetic.

Uniquely Good

All paper refill, using a paper seal and a tamper evidence sticker to reassure the consumer it's fresh. While also so reassuring the consumer that they are doing what's best for the planet.
The paper tube is inserted into the durable to ensure that the durable stays clean and free of debris. 

Save More Plastic

The scoop is often the part that remains plastic. Let's make the scoop out of stainless steel and make it magnetize to the lid so it never gets lost, and it's effortless to reattach. 

Doing What's Right for the Brand

This is a vision. This is meant to inspire. The design project that builds on these ideas should explore ways to bring this level of connecting with the brand to life. Loving Expertise can be expressed in a range of different ways. Both structurally and graphically. 

this might not be right now.

After seeing the office and the projects I think this kind of thinking will add tremendous value. As you move into new categories, particularly around care, this type of brand expression will become more and more necessary.

Thank you for the opportunity to meet munchkin. You are a great company with seemingly endless potential. Your passion for good will leave a lasting impression on me.

thank you for your time

Great to meet you! I hope we talk again soon.

Contact

Phone: 646-241-3216
Email: paulfdiehl@gmail.com

© pauldiehl 2022
director of industrial design

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