FDBusiness.com

High street restaurant icon wagamama appointed leading brand consultancy Pearlfisher to create their new takeaway experience. Spanning brand strategy and design, Pearlfisher has breathed new life into the wagamama take-out offer.

Established in 1992, wagamama has become a popular food destination on the British high street by making Japanese-inspired cuisine accessible for the West. Famed for challenging what we ate, how we sat side-by-side and promoting a new casual dining code, wagamama decided to reignite their challenger approach when it came to takeaway.

Jack Hart, Senior Creative Strategist Pearlfisher, comments: “Our challenge was to re-imagine the full wagamama takeout experience, better connecting the customer experience at home to the excitement, taste and aesthetic value that can be found in the wagamama restaurants. Moreover, we saw wagamama’s vision as not only the opportunity to showcase the wagamama brand values within takeaway, but to challenge consumer perceptions of the entire high street takeaway experience with a new, exciting and contemporary expression that would surprise and delight. By adopting the challenger mentality that made wagamama so iconic, our aim was to now position it as the icon of high street takeaway.”

Explaining the design approach, Mike Beauchamp, Pearlfisher 3D Design Director, says: “We conducted a full audit of the brand’s existing takeaway experience and worked in close collaboration with wagamama’s food development chefs to optimise a customised, take-out food solution which gave consumers the same quality of experience eating out of the restaurant as they do eating in. In the absence of staff, the design needed to tell the wagamama story, creating an intense and intimate experience to reflect the care and consideration that goes into every bowl of food. Part of our structural packaging design challenge was also to consider the real world journey of each takeaway meal. Packaging materials choice and form contribute to a system that performs functionally, improving heat retention and maximising freshness and presentation of every meal.”

He concludes: “The new takeaway experience – from the food preparation and delivery system, to structural packaging design – now directly connects to the brand idea of ‘sharing positively from bowl to soul’. The standard size and shape of the big and small bowl, is stackable for delivery and allows for practical and convenient storage in the restaurants. The various inserts provide the functional benefit of maintaining the integrity of different elements of the dish, whist also providing a well-presented meal on opening the lid. Each bowl is delivered as a complete package, wrapped with a belly-band that lists the full wagamama menu – so that the enclosed order can be indicated – and provides a considered place for the chopsticks.”

Simon Cope, Global Brand Director at wagamama, comments: “Here at wagamama, we are always looking for new ways to innovate. We wanted a solution that made our food the best it could be and that wasn’t something we found in ‘off the shelf’ products. The new packaging gives customers the opportunity to enjoy our amazing food without compromising its quality. We worked alongside Pearlfisher to create innovative take-out packaging which kept true to our brand value of spreading positivity from bowl to soul.”