Packaging improvement for community products: A case study of lemon grass tea in Thailand

Abstract

One Tambon One Product (OTOP) is a government policy of Thailand aiming to promote and commercialize local wisdom in a community through product development. A major problem found in the implementation of this policy is the lack of practical and attractive packaging, thereby limiting the opportunity to promote the products and compete at national and international levels. The lemon grass tea product of Wat Suwannaram 's housewife group, Tambon Salaya, Puttamonton District, Nakorn Pathom province, is among the community products facing a packaging problem. Its current packaging is merely a plain filter bag made from paper, which is inconvenient for tea making yet unattractive. Therefore, this project proposes design and development of new packaging for lemon grass tea, both the primary packaging and the secondary packaging. The development process includes product realization, the survey of customers' need, the concept generation, the concept testing, and the prototyping. The new design, validated by a packaging expert, satisfies customers with more convenience for tea making and a more appealing form. Although the new package design increases the overall product cost by approximately $0.02 per package, it is still acceptable for the market.