NPD (New Product Development) Project Management | Rawlings News

Hats off to you

Some of the most unique and well thought out products that consumers instantly love are developed by people with no previous background in the industry.

A sales woman and her husband bringing an amazing gin to market (Exeter Gin), a consultant developing the next big thing in ready to drink cocktails (coming soon, we can’t give anything away), a successful hedge fund manager developing a new ethical food business to reduce UK food waste (Rubies in the Rubble), a home brewer that’s taking the big leap to create a new brewery (Wiper and True).

We could go on, but the point is we take our hats off these food and drink pioneers as they are positively influencing the food and drink scene in the UK, and without them the UK food and drink scene would be a lot less vibrant.

I can feel a but coming on...

If you don’t have previous experience in the packaging industry it can be a bit of a learning curve, and when you have a limited budget or limited time it can prove costly if you aren’t aware of the possible risks.

If you haven’t had an introduction to Rawlings, our business model is geared to help start-ups and entrepreneurs bring stunning, on-brand products to market efficiently and with minimum fuss, project managing each element to give you piece of mind.

There are a lot of elements to the packaging process and managing each element successfully with multiple parties can be a bit tricky, especially if you’re going at it alone and you don’t know what to look out for. 

A few areas to consider.

1. Making sure that you select a glass container at the right price, but one that is also going to be available when you next go to production. Glass manufacturers are constantly changing production dates and demand is extremely high, so you need to ensure it’s available when you next need it.

2. Does the container you’ve chosen have suitable properties to allow for pasteurisation or pressure, the last thing you need is the container exploding on the production line?

3. Does the style of glass container make the decoration technique you have chosen viable? For example, if you’re set on screen printing and the container you’ve chosen is tapered this is going to make this process extremely difficult that could involve a high scrappage rate. Or does the container have a big enough label recess to fit the design you’ve chosen for the brand?

4. If you have already created the artwork for the brand can you reproduce this effectively on the container without a huge cost involved. For example, if the design you’ve created can only be reproduced using shrink sleeves this will come with a minimum order quantity of 40,000 units. Anything less and you’re going to be looking at a very high cost per unit which could throw your entire business model and retail price out of whack, or you will have to completely recreate your artwork.

5. Have you accounted for the length of time of the decoration phase? You don’t want to commit to filling dates or launch events that can’t be met, especially if you want to sample the product first before the main decoration run, as you may want to tweak certain elements to make sure the visual impact is as strong as possible?

6. Do you know who to use for each element that will deliver exactly what you’re after?

These are some of the big questions involved but there are a lot of minor things to consider that can have a big impact.

It's Free

One of the biggest elements of our service is the ability to project manage each phase of the design and production process. It's our belief that an informed collaborative approach to the development of packaging fosters both creativity and innovation and saves our clients’ money and potential headaches. This is all done free of charge no matter how big or small you are.

We take the time to listen and understand what you want to achieve for your product and brand, so we can properly help and advise you on every aspect of the development plan. This level of service isn’t just 9 to 5, we’re available to clients throughout the day as we understand that support at any time is a necessity to create outstanding products, ensuring a smooth transition from concept through to the finished product.

This sounds too good to be true.

Don’t take our word for it, take a look at our recent case studies and see what our clients had to say about our level of service and product delivery.

If you’re the next big entrepreneur looking to contribute to the UK food and drink industry get in touch, we’d love to hear your ideas.