Packaging strategy for increasing the trust in generic medicine

Packaging strategy for increasing the trust in generic medicine

Wang, H.

Kuipers, H. (mentor)
Jellema, A.H. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Strategic Product Design

Master of Science Strategic Product Design

2013-10-30

This report presents a six-month project executed for Healthy Entrepreneurs (HE) in order to increase the trust in generic medicines supplied by HE, by means of the development of a qualitative packaging and an effective communication strategy. Initially an exploratory research about the context was conducted in order to understand the market condition, constrains and demands of the healthcare environment. Next, the business model and supply chain of HE was analyzed, in order to know the current business performance, the medicine assembly process, and the currently used repacked packaging. To see the basic requirements of a pharmaceutical packaging, research had took place to investigate the functions and features a standard packaging should meet. Adding to these findings, user analysis was conducted to gain insights about factors that influence their trust in medicines, and their perceptions toward a medicine packaging. These analysis results were further used as the design guideline and requirements during the design process. Three challenges were found to be most important to tackle in this project: 1) Develop an affordable and safe packaging to assure the quality of repacked medicine 2) Create two-way communication and patient oriented information to improve patient’s accuracy of medicine use 3) Develop HE brand identity and awareness Based on the insights gained from the analysis, ideas of packaging design and communication strategy were generated through several design methods. Initial ideas were accessed by a field testing with the target user, and based on their feedback, ideas were further evaluated and developed to a complete concept. The final packaging is a flexible zipper lock bag, which offers advanced protection compared to the current used repacked bag, and is much cheaper than blister and strip packaging. In addition, the tamper-evident feature and trace and track function ensure the authentic of the medicine. Other than the new packaging, a visualized patient card and a Medicine Use History booklet that is used to store the patient cards were developed, which function as communication tools to assist pharmacist’s explanation and improve patient’s understanding about drug use. Another purpose of this design is to involve patients in their own treatment by collecting the cards and discussing with health professionals, thereby patient’s awareness of healthcare and rational use of medicine can be increased. All in all, the new packaging, the patient card and the booklet are able to increase the trusted feeling of HE brand from patient’s perspective, and they are touchpoints that represent HE brand identity and raise HE brand awareness in the target market. The concept was evaluated by local pharmacists, pharmaceutical expert and Native Africans in the Netherlands. According to their feedback, final adjustment was made, and recommendations for HE to further optimize the design and strategy were also given.

packaging
BoP
healthcare
communication strategy

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:db71163e-5816-451c-95ab-6fe7092f983d

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2013 Wang, H.