On the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, Haldiram’s wanted to give customers a fresh vibe and sparkling feel through its special Raksha Bandhan sweets. So it approached DesignerPeople, a Delhi/NCR-based design consultancy, to help it strategize and develop a unique packaging.
In India sweets are an integral part of all rituals, auspicious occasions, and celebrations. And it is no different for Raksha Bandhan, as the festival is celebrated in almost every culture. On this special day, brothers and sisters celebrate their bond, relive their childhood memories and display affection through sweets and gifts.
Shurti Agarwal of Haldiram’s said, “For us, every festival in India is important and we pay special attention to how we can add flavors to the lives of our customers during these festive seasons. At Haldiram’s we understand that just focusing on manufacturing unique and quality sweets is not enough – even its packaging is equally important. We wanted to make sure that our packaging for Raksha Bandhan sweets conveyed a powerful emotional message that celebrates the ‘sweet and sour’ relationship between brother and sister.”
DesignerPeople worked closely with Haldiram’s to understand the requirements as well determine price point for Raksha Bandhan gift packs to compete with other brands. Shivam Gandhi of DesignerPeople, said, “We have worked with Haldiram’s before and this was a special assignment. Our focus was to add a festive spirit to the product through our design packaging strategy.”
“Since Haldiram’s offers services like other modern restaurants and food courts and is no longer just a sweet shop, it wanted a packaging design that captured the consumer at a mass level. Also, for the market base, they wanted to focus on Maharashtra and Southern part of India. Hence, an overall shift was needed to build a connect with consumers at a mass level and an out-loud welcome invitation was needed to give a new experience.
For the Raksha Bandhan project, the team at DesignerPeople focused on creating an umbrella theme of ‘Sweet Bond’ (sweet ‘N’ sour, vibrant, everlasting and trustworthy bond). They worked on each of these elements by giving four unique names to each packaging to give a personal touch to celebrate the brother-sister bonding. Each of the four packaging designs conveyed the message of Sneh Bandhan, Atoot Rishtey, Anmol Bandhan and Madhur Rishtey. The designs of these sub-themes evoked the sense of nostalgic memories of childhood.
The vibrant colored packaging themes were coupled with pictures of delicious looking sweet items that were packed inside the box. Every box contained 2-3 types of sweets. To ensure that the pictures were as expressive as the special designs created, photo-shoot was conducted by India’s leading food stylist and photographer Saba Gaziyani, in coordination with DesignerPeople. Haldiram’s cherished the fact that colors used were vibrant and depicted Indian festive colors – each indicating harmony, brightness, enthusiasm, power and love. The color uniformity in all the four designs and the Indian-ethnic style font worked as a vital feature and garnered appreciation from customers.
— Devaleena Joardar
