Responsive // Design thinking brief

Brief: Encourage the eating of insects in the UK by marketing them effectively.

We were split into groups of 5 and the first thing we did was think of the connotations with insects, and why they are unappealing.

Positive connotations of insects:

• nutritional benefits
• unusual cultural delicacy
• meets food needs of a growing population

Negative connotations of insects:

• seen as unsightly and creepy
• a common phobia
• if eating a whole insect body, its different from 'meat'
• seen as strange or disgusting in our culture to eat them

We thought of what unusual foods in our culture we eat that are socially accepted amongst most people but still have slight negative connotations because of the content:

• pork scratchings - pig skin
• black pudding - pork blood
• caviar - fish eggs
• frogs legs
• snails
• pate - fat/meat/liver

We noticed that most of these have tactful names that disguise the unusual content, making them more appealing and mysterious.

Initial ideas:

• change the colour of the insects with food colouring
• add flavouring
• change the appearance ie remove heads/wings/legs/mash up into a mixture or powder
• attractive/cute packaging
• mix with nuts or some kind of popular snack to make more appealing
• give a discreet name that masks the content
• ground up to make 'insect dust' like bacon dust, or a seasoning
• get health bloggers etc to advertise it

Initial name ideas:

• Poka - means insect in Bengali, which originates back to the delicacy of insect eating in parts of Asia
• Widgets
• Maelng - mean insect in an Asian language
• Kokorro means insect in Yoruba

Flavour ideas:

• barbeque - a popular crisp flavour in the UK
• sour cream and chive - seems up market and sophisticated
• honey roasted
• salted - could be the original flavour of our brand
• wasabi

Final idea

Name: Poka Mix

Poka Mix savoury: insects flavoured with salt, barbeque or wasabi

Poka Mix sweet: insects coated in yoghurt or chocolate

• placed in the dried fruit and nut section
• on sale in mostly delicatessens and health/specialist food shops, where people like to try new things
• packaging would be similar to Tyrell's, and other 'healthy' snacks
• treated as an unusual delicacy that is fun to try and also tasty
• healthy alternative to snacks such as crisps