daihyun jang: project two: southern cross packaging

Rationale

Current market, milk branding

Coles and Woolworths are the two largest super market chains, combined they have the majority of the market share in terms of milk sales. Their price wars have driven down the price of milk to a dollar a litre. Although benefits consumers in the short term, the destruction of Australia’s dairy industry is imminent if prices continue to fall, and ultimately consumers will suffer. Due to the nature of the price wars there is no room for new generic brands to compete in the market however artisan quality milk such as Australian Artisan Milk would be immune to this price war.
Premium milk brands include, Pro Cal Dairies, Riverina Milk, and Pura Gold. Australia lacks eco-friendly fresh organic milk.

Target Market

Australian Artisan Milk is targeted towards consumers who seek artisan quality staples, people who are willing to pay for food products that are eco-friendly throughout their lifecycles. This consumer demographic would be located in more affluent areas of Sydney (inner city, north shore, eastern suburbs). There also is a strong connection between, artisan foods such as Australian Artisan milk, Sonoma Bread, Antipodes Water and the Slow Food Movement which really embraces producers and growers of food, who are passionate about their products. Members of the Slow Food Movement include chefs, caterers, farmers and scientists all of whom seek quality food.
Cafes that stock locally roasted single origin coffee beans, and are passionate about offering artisan quality products throughout their menu would welcome milk which is locally produced to the highest standards. As Australian Artisan milk is would be produced in small batches, there would be a huge market for cafes to charge for an extremely exclusive product.
This product would be stocked at grocers that focus on the local, sustainable, organic principal, grocers such as Thomas Dux, and more exclusive grocers in the inner city.
Smaller volumes were chosen to emphasis its exclusivity, smaller higher quality portions would better satisfy this target market, who buy for quality not volume.

Form/graphics/design process

The design process was mainly focussed on creating elegance through simplicity of form. Austerity and honesty were the two main factors that shaped this design, creating harmony between the material the form. Desired details were picked then emphasised, my original concepts were stripped of all unnecessary folds and fastenings. The graphics were intentionally left sparse; the quality of the milk is read through form and typography, in other words texture, form and mood, not colour, graphics and labels. Design cues were taken from the silhouette of a water droplet, and the fold of a leaf, which are strongly rooted in the care of grass fed cows and the production of milk. These cues were incorporated into form of the bottle.

Materials and manufacture

Moulded HDPE and tetra pak are the main forms of milk packaging in Australia, they have a considerably higher carbon foot print when compared to the Australian Artisan Milk bottle, a plastic bag in a carton made from 91% recycled waste paper. The main issue with a conventional plastic bottle is that it uses 100% virgin plastic to accommodate for its volume of milk, however this design reduces the need for a material derived from a petrochemical. This is achieved by physically reducing the amount of virgin plastic that contains the milk, a bag of thin film compared to complete housing which needs a handle and structural integrity. The inks and glues used to label and fasten the bottle are organic, plant based and water soluble, which helps it break down in landfill as well as during the recycling process
Recycled paper is pulped then stamped into sheets, inked and pressed (forming folds, perforations and the hole for the lid) into rolls. Thin films of the HDPE are heat welded into bags, the thread for the lid is added, the bag is placed in the paper housing.