BCFN Young Earth Solutions YES!
Brand for all Abstract: The project proposal is to open the food market to consumers who are blind. Imagine you to be blind. The food market is not available for us. We have purchasing power, but we cannot buy. We want to choose but it is not allowed. We are excluded from any autonomous choice. We do not know what we eat. The market make we become addicted: we always must rely on someone else. There is a barrier between the food and us. It can be destroyed with the Braille. The blind consumer may use his different reading abilities to know and identify foods that are offered in the market. Thousands of blind people are waiting to be satisfied by an underperforming market perception. Designing and producing in an accessible way, is very important considering the possible benefits of such an investment. Without any indication blind people will never have direct access to the products; in particular it is denied the access to the products of the brands that will decide not communicate to those who cannot see. The severity of disability will be greater in a society is not equipped to overcome it.
Author
Zapparrata Egle Bernadette
BRAND FOR ALL
Every day in the market many new food products are introduced. Each brand is presented to the consumer with its clear identity; it is recognizable and loyalty-inducing. Going into supermarkets we go through the various departments and we are attracted by the more interesting packaging. Often we decide to stop and explore the packaging that - in an increasingly innovative way – represent thousands of flavors, recipes, cultures, lifestyles. When we buy a product, we follow new and classic patterns. The brands we choice reflect us, but also change us. We recognize "our" products them from a distance, are unique, even among thousands of other packages. At the same time we are attracted by new proposals, by their shapes, colors and claims. We look the packages in all its side. It is good-looking, we read that they are healthier, they are ready to be purchased, discovered and enjoyed. We buy them. Perhaps they will become part of our diet. But have you ever thought about not being able to choose what to buy and what to eat in a independent way? For some people it happens like that, and it could happen to us. the BCFN Kit shows that "diversity is wealth", it gives primary value to the accessibility to the food. Is the food accessible for anybody? Imagine for a moment to become different. Imagine that from this moment on, we suddenly become blind.
The problem: the market does not provide "equal opportunities and consumer autonomy to blind people. In 2012, there is still a lack of focus to the importance of the autonomy in purchasing, that is a value that must be protected to ensure that everybody can choice its products. This guarantee would broaden the market also to the consumer group that is interested in the independent puchaise, but today is excluded from this process. Thousands of blind people are waiting to be satisfied by a market that do not take care of perceptions enough. You can bandage yourself to feel the condition of the blind consumer and go through the darkness which characterize the modern market. Imagine to be blind.
The food market is inaccessible for us. The package change shape, but there could not be any food inside. We could confuse the chocolate biscuits with basil croutons. Suddenly we find a barrier between the food and us. We could never known the wide choice offered by the market.
We would have the purchasing power, but we could not buy consciously. The market let us to become addicted: we have to rely on someone else before make our choice. Brands and products are recognized by many people, but are perfectly unknown for many others. Without any indication in Braille on the packaging, blind people will never have direct access to the product; it means that the brand decides to communicate anything to those who cannot see. If a brand does not communicate, it does not exist at all. To this date it is important the presence of mediators that, instead of the brand itself, decide whether and what to communicate about the product to the blind consumer. The brand identity is not guaranteed. Anyone could say to a blind person that a packet of pasta without a private label or from a discount is a packet of Barilla spaghetti. Blind people must trust. And if they perceive the taste difference, it could be attributed to any cause not strictly related to the product (eg overcooked pasta: cooking time too long?!?). The accessibility of the packaging would give identity to the brand.
Idea: The proposal is to design and produce packaging available, overwritten in Braille. The packages which are very attractive and communicative for normal people, are totally silent for those who do not have visual skills. The solution of the problem is to give the consumer the possibility to use the tact and its different reading skills to understand and recognize the product in the shelf.
If you produce a product, you should address to everybody, including blind people. This solution would destroy the barrier between food and non visually impaired. Many of the products currently reserved for the consumption of normal people, could be be freely chosen by everybody. Why do it? To ensure food awareness and autonomy of purchase to consumers with disabilities. To draw a new social and economic footprint in the market by introducing the needs satisfaction of disabled consumers as a value. To establish a direct contact between brands and consumers who are blind, and to protect the identity of each product for all the consumers, by means the multi-sensory communication. To increase profitability, the new products will be accessible to all consumers, including the blind. If everything remains as it is, all the new products will remain a taboo for them. Braille overwrite on the packaging is the simplest of the solutions, a practice that could easily be spread to all the commercial sector, both for packaging paper and cardboard. The existing technologies allow you to apply a good and long lasting incision. The idea is practicable, so that someone have already done. The possibility depends on the willingness to test the solution, implement it and spread it.
Some attempts have been implemented: the gable top of 'Z bregov milk is overwritten in Braille; the leader brand of the Croatian origin milk - already awarded with Superbrand in 2010 - has already started a process with the minimum information recorded on the product display. (it follows the highlighting of the image with Braille overwritten)
How much does it cost overwriting a Braille packaging? The cost of this packaging, the engine of social change-production, is as essential as low. This is an example. The incidence of the cost of overwriting in Braille on a gable-top is the 2%. If the regular price of package printing is 0.1155 euros for a print volume of 10,000 pieces, with the overprint the price reaches 0.1175 euros. This means 0,002 euros per pack. Can it be done? Imagine we can do it. More over by overspreading this technology, the costs could be reduced in the future. We are all potential disabled, tomorrow we could add us to this multitude of people, the reality may change, the problem is common and can be solved now. Designing new spaces, services and products accessible to everybody is a productive investment, to adapt what is already existing, with a normal image, in order to make it available; the use of it will only increase. Lat people choose with their eyes closed. The free choice in a free market is a right not to be denied. We expand the product communication at all, we give identity to the brand and dignity to blind consumers. The severity of disability will be greater in a society is not equipped to overcome it. Egle Zapparrata