Single Serving Gourment ‘To Go’ Meal

Background: c/o The Hartman Group.

The Rise Of Single-serve Packaging

There was a time not long ago that “value” in packaged foods meant larger bags, larger containers, larger trays, larger bottles and the infamously larger cups found at McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and 7-Eleven. Bigger has always just seemed better in this land of rising opportunity.

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Slowly, though, we’ve noticed that manufacturers, especially in highly perishable packaged foods, have caught on to the fact that consumers increasingly seem willing to spend more per volume in order to get multi-packs of single-serve sizes. And they may even avoid existing multi-serving packages that generally offer an even lower price per unit volume.

What seems irrationally wasteful from a purely price per unit volume analysis has become an intermediary, optimal “value” option to consumers from a broad array of backgrounds. The added value in single-serve multipacks is grounded in the user experience of these products: when, where and how they are eaten.

The biggest thing we’re noticing in America’s pantries is that there doesn’t seem to be a target demographic for single-serve packaging. Everyone is using them to some degree. Empty nesters. Single adults. Even families, the supposed raison d’etre for large sized multi-serve package designs.

Single serve packaging is fulfilling an unmet need to manage waste and to acknowledge our increasingly individualistic eating patterns in a highly fragmented, fickle culture of eaters who think that every day is a good day to try something new in the world of food.

As always – here are the students solutions to a challenging, but fun, brief.