Cloud Kitchen Branding & Packaging Design

Last Updated on February 10, 2022 by DesignerPeople

Big Plasma TV, Cozy room, Bunch of crazy friends enjoying Cricket world cup and that’s when you suddenly realize we are “HUNGRY”. The toughest part comes here, take a bike, tiring traffic, stand in restaurant queue. Terrific feeling, right? NO MORE with cloud kitchens.

When we order online food mostly on Swiggy, Zomato did you ever realize where it comes from, who prepares it, who delivers it, what is the actual process?

“Cloud kitchens,” a new concept in restaurants mini-kitchens that only cater to online food delivery orders. No dine-in and no customer take-out either, just online order delivery.

They have started an era where you can get freshly packed and tasty food in the minimum time possible with just a touch away. With the advent of technology Customer now is King/Queen deciding – a type of food, flavours, variety of cuisine options, check reviews and then order accordingly.

Many investors, Businessman, Chiefs, and Hotel management grads are looking at this business option as a viable business opportunity and why not! The model offers customer friendly and competitive advantages over traditional brick, and the total investment is 40-50% less.

They just need a base kitchen facility with a decent location and serviceability by e-commerce players Zomato, Swiggy and Ubereats. Partnering with these food ordering services can boost your cloud kitchen business immensely, then there is a huge customer base for investors. Even the marketing part is taken care of by these e-commerce players.

Now comes very tricky part, as the kitchen is virtual you don’t need to invest time and money on building attractive premises, furniture, staff many more, but this also makes mandate essentials to be fulfilled  such as providing quality food, delivering on time and the major part played is packaging as it acts as the face of your brand.

PROS:

• Streamlined order process –Cloud kitchens mostly depend on online food aggregators for receiving orders. However, receiving orders from multiple online ordering sites such as Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda can be difficult sometimes. Investors can streamline this process by getting a cloud-based POS on board that would allow accepting all orders centrally.
• Low operational cost -Since you’re removing table servicing out of the equation and offering delivery only as service, you’ll save a significant amount on real estate costs and operational cost.
• Easy Expansion – Investors don’t need heavy investments to begin. You can start small but expand fast. Once you build a brand and get loyal customers, expanding to new localities and even new menu variety gets easier.

CONS:

• No personal touch to build customer relation: Since everything is virtual, and no one will visit your kitchen, then how will you create your brand and relationship is a challenge.
• NicheCustomer: Only tech-savvy customers can reach cloud kitchen.
• Limited Brand presence: Traditional restaurant branding have physical attributes which actively enables them to create Brand existence in the market.

Only Point of contact left between customer and owner is Packaging.By developing creative Packaging design you can build your brand and customer relationship

Cloud kitchen saves ample of money. It is imperative to spend more than regular restaurants in packaging. The material used to pack, the design involved, the way packaging is done plays a vital role in building repeat business.

Quality time should be invested in finalising the design,As packaging design is a significant physical aspect customer go through. Packaging will communicate with your end customer about your brand qualities.

Also Read: Importance of Strong Brand Identity for your Business

Packaging should share consistent visual branding, which gives the whole line an air of quality and professionalism.

Make sure packaging is innovative and promotes the brand. Eco-friendly measures could be taken to create awareness as well as to impress the customers. Few below essential points to note:

• Your packaging should be eye-pleasing and clean, giving your customer the confidence that the meal is handled with care.
• If you’re serving dressings or sauces, there should be separate containers for them.
• The package should travel well, and keep the food warm or cold (as required) for long distance.
• Another critical factor is that the boxes should be able to breathe and let steam out to avoid sogginess.
• Your Brand name and story should be creatively designed and structured by professional branding agency.

Packaging design acts as a soul to your brand, providing below some essential advantages:

• Creates Brand Story – Out of box packaging is the first storyteller of your brand even before tasting the food. Create brand personality with effective colours, imagery and fonts that reflect communication by showing instead of telling.
• Brand Positioning – Brand story helps in positioning of your brand in the minds of customers. After preparing food, it should be packed neatly and adeptly, so that it remains hot, aromas remain intact. The food packaging design should serve this purpose like packing boxes with transparent lids, spot on heat insulation.
• Brand Identity/communication – Show what your brand is all about. Do you have cause or mission that you are passionate about? What motivates you? Feature that in your packaging for example if you support eco-friendly go for colours like green, and maintain consistent brand message.
• Brand recognition – Feature your brand logo and its tagline on packaging so that will help to recognise your brand easily.

CONCLUSION

When we talk about cloud kitchen, nothing comes between you and food. You don’t need to worry about table management, location, decor etc. The only aim is to provide fulfilling dishes to the customers. It gives you enormous time to work on the menu with unique names, experiment new items, improvise based on the feedback collected, many more. Rewarding feedback by a customer after trying your dishes is the only goal to work on for a prosperous business.

With so many advantages in cloud kitchen, investor’s role now is to focus on the brand establishment. They need to connect customers emotionally by building a brand story through packaging design.

To improve scalability and to gain repeated business, Brand positioning plays a critical role. I would say that this is just the beginning of the whole new revolution that is going to take place in the food industry. With the minimum risk involved and multiple opportunities that can be extracted, cloud kitchens are one of the safest bid to invest, for sure!

 

source: “packagingoftheworld.com/2015/04/momen-sandwich.html”

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.