Tesis Ingeniería en Diseño de Productos IDP

Entrepreneurship today is one of the main drivers for sustainable development of our country, generating in recent years up to 80% of salaried jobs. It is estimated that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) constitute 98% of the companies currently in practice in Chile. Of the nearly 90,000 registered SMEs to date, 23% work in the food industry and its presence represents up to 36% of the working force of this dynamic economic sector. It is this last feature which has modelled the Consumer’s behavior, who has evolved, becoming a more educated, demanding and challenging segment, with a growing awareness of its own responsibility in the environmental impact. According to this new consciousness, their actions and acquisitions must be aligned with new standards of respect, health and welfare, both personally and to the environment. They tend to acquire products that connect to this guideline, and represent them positively in front of his social context, with high standards of style and quality. These factors have enabled the intensive development of a niche food products with high added value and strong interest in the food market. At this point, the Chilean Gourmet entrepreneur stands in a privileged place to meet the requirements of the demand as the main trends in world markets show a growing convergence between the Premium features, healthy, convenience and ethical values. In this scenery, food packaging takes a leading role by becoming the vehicle that transmits the values sought by the consumer through the purchase and product interaction. At this level, and regarding to our subject market, the current lack of alternative packaging solutions from the local suppliers, make them fall into uniformity, reducing their ability to differentiate and stand out, which ultimately leads to losing opportunities to connect with this demanding ABSTRACTconsumer, who responds to more sophisticated design codes, looking for higher culinary and user experience. Regarding this, it is possible to demonstrate the existence of an Chilean entrepreneurial gourmet elite that, sorting these difficulties, have managed to go beyond the national market and slowly capture significant market shares, as they have a high acceptance and validation in the global gourmet circuit. From this perspective, this project aims to bridge the gap between consumer expectations of the target market and the responses gourmet entrepreneur. This, by implementing a solution based on experience design, by adding emotional value to the packaging of emerging specialized products.