Collaboration between Nestlé Purina and ECAL

The new layout was to include a detailed overview of the products and offer consumers a new sales experience. The focus was on combining design and functionality, according to the statement. The local proximity between Nestlé and ECAL (école cantonale d'art de Lausanne) provided the best conditions for the successful collaboration.

32 students from ECAL were commissioned by Nestlé Purina Switzerland to develop creative ideas and solutions for product presentation in specialist stores for Gourmet. The aim was to promote design and creativity among the young students in order to create a novel shelf concept. The task was to change the presentation at points of sale so that the Gourmet shelf stands out. Attractive information boards were to give customers an overview of the various gourmet products and thus offer a new shopping experience.

In total, the ECAL students were busy with this project for two months. In this short time, they had to develop ideas that were feasible and complied with the brand's guidelines. From these, they created prototypes. "A great challenge for the young students, who until then had developed many concepts but were able to realize few for the market," says Martino D'Esposito, Industrial Designer at ECAL.

From the idea to the prototype

The biggest challenge for the students was to find the best possible combination between design and functionality while adhering to Gourmet's guidelines. The new layout had to radiate the following: "The Gourmet brand is characterized by the highest level of enjoyment for very special cats". Purina's brand identity was at the forefront throughout the process development. A total of 17 different prototypes were created from the specially developed catalog of ideas.

From prototype to final product

After completing the prototypes, the ECAL students presented 17 different results at their school. Nestlé Purina chose their four favorites from them:

The red carpet (tapis rouge) forms a visual path directly to the product. It is intended as an invitation to take a closer look at the selection of gourmet products.

The "Ecran Zoom" shows at a glance the three different gourmet orientations: Gold, Pearl and A la carte. Each orientation is identified by a different color and is visible through the "Ecran Zoom". At the same time, the zoom gives a short description about the cat food and the consumer gets an overview of the entire range.

The "Effective Reflection" shows a cat rising to the food in front of the shelf. This is visually represented by a mirror, which runs from top to bottom along the shelf (print cat and product information on the mirror). The information panel also shows the consumer the three orientations of Gourmet cat food.

"Home sweet home" creates a separation space between the different gourmet products. This separation consists of a box, which shows the layout of a cat in the cozy living room. LED lighting inside the box gives the whole presentation a warm feeling.

Gourmet is now working on the implementation of the concepts in the specialized trade.