Branding of sustainable domestic products: a product semantics approach

Abstract

Sustainability has always been an area of interest for designers working towards the provision of products or services. These products often stand for meaning beyond their functional benefits with all the actors and networks involved. There is a deeper emotional value(Hartmann, Apaolaza Ibáñez and Forcada Sainz, 2005) to these products which needs to be conveyed in an undiluted manner to build a positive brand attitude in consumers. The current strategies and semantics associated with the packaging and branding of these products only focus on conveying the functional attributes and totally disregard the 'meaning' and associated emotional value, which results in the products being placed alongside similar conventional products in the market.(Grubor and Milovanov, 2017). India, which has a lot of domestic products in its cycle of production, distribution and consumption, takes into account all four aspects of sustainability; Human, Social, Economic and Environmental. One of the examples from the subcontinent which embodies such values is Khadi, which is beyond its combination of warp and weft. With minimal environmental damage in its production, it generates employment and provides livelihood to countless people involved in crafts and economic ecosystems. However, the products in the sustainable product space often fall short in effectively communicating the values they hold and hence suffer in a competitive setting with similar products. Literature suggests that when we look at the competitive branding strategies employed for the marketing of such products, 'Brand positioning' is a critical tool for brand implementation. Also, ecologically sustainable products will not be commercially successful if green branding attributes are not effectively communicated(Hartmann, Apaolaza Ibáñez and Forcada Sainz, 2005). Hence, there is a visible research and design gap in the branding of indigenous sustainable products and effective communication of the emotional brand benefits around the products.Product Semantics, which is a study of the design itself, the context of its use and its user, forms the conceptual tool in the study. It interprets the brand value associated with the packaging design at two broad parameters of the conceptual framework; Packaging semantics and Branding Semantics; encompassing a range of factors like form, shape, material and texture of the packaging and the use of typeface, colour and graphics on it. It further involves the analysis of existing products and the associated brand attitude held by its users. The project also sets to devise packaging design strategy for a family of such products to bring about a positive brand attitude in its consumers. This report documents the utilisation of 'research through design' to investigate the use and impact of packaging and branding semantics of sustainable domestic products to communicate the associated emotional value effectively.