Article 1 – Soups on the GO Our modern lifestyle, with people constantly on the move and expecting flexibility and practical solutions, has given rise to completely new consumer patterns. For many consumers, it is important that their meals can be prepared and consumed without unnecessary bother, and they expect food producers to make the entire process as straightforward as possible. A cup‐of ‐soup from instant powder isn't seen anymore as an alternative lunch, not even as a snack. Consumers want higher quality, healthy ingredients and a convenient packaging, but above all they also want to eat their quick lunch in style. In other words the fish‐and‐chips, how delicious they might be, can't be packed in an old paper journal anymore. It is the same with soup. A thin soup from instant powder isn't what the consumer wants. He wants a creamy, thick soup with fresh vegetables and herbs. It's a meal remember! So, let’s have a look now at innovative soup (or related, or as such usable) packages, which didn’t come much further than the brand (or even worse the brain of the designer) which introduced the original first. They didn’t got to the stage of a trend, but I don’t agree to mark them as a gimmick either. It is just that the soup branch apparently is very traditional. But it all depends of what you want. Enter into (or maintain your brand in) the low‐level, cheap and folksy soups. Or are you looking at a higher level, natural ingredients, high quality, exclusive tastes, consequently a more interesting packaging. Here are some examples which, in my opinion need more followers. We start with some designs for dry soups. Still a very interesting market with a wide choice of packaging innovations. From a simple, but elegant solution to a more sophisticated and exclusive packaging. The Coffree ‐ Originally designed as (instant) coffee pack, the Coffree, is also suitable for dry (instant powder) soups. The South Korean designers Young‐an Seok, Young‐woo Choi and Se‐ryung Nam created a foldable instant coffee pack The Coffree. It is essentially a sachet of instant coffee, which turns out to be a foldable disposable cup that comes sealed with the instant coffee mix. The consumer simply tears off the seal, to form a tall, squared, paper cup, mixes in hot water and his cup of coffee is ready. Even a stirring stick derived from the seal comes with the pack. Furthermore it doesn’t need much imagination to see this packaging as a perfect solution for dry instant soup for on‐the‐go. Much better than a simple sachet, leaving you to find the cup, the spoon/stirrer and the hot water. Is the above suitable for dry powdered soups only, the next allows for some extras, namely the small pieces of vegetables, herbs and even maybe some small pieces of dried meat.
