Redesign of Candy Packaging Under the Influence of Experience

Economy and Digitalization, with the Colored Fudge of Hsu Fu Chi

for Example

Zhengcong Wei and Herun Zhong

Hubei University of Technology, China

Keywords: Experience Economy, Interaction, Packaging, Digital Media Technology.

Abstract: Firstly, the paper describes the concept of the experience economy. Consumers would tend to buy some

products with aesthetic and practical functions in the experience economy, and then there is an analysis of the

transformation and breakthrough of candy packaging. The paper begins from the specific case to analyze the

shock of the brand, Hsu Fu Chi, in the experience economy and digital era, so as to point out that only the

continuously bringing forth something new from the old along with the development of era could strengthen

the market competition of the brand to gain the consumers’ favor. In the end, there is a redesign on the

packaging of colored fudge of Hsu Fu Chi based on the need for experience economy and digital media

technology.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Experience Economy

Experience economy focuses more on the human

consumption experience and more on the

personalized and interactive experience of consumers

than the service economy. The term "experience

economy" first appeared in the book "The Impact of

the Future" (Li 2013) by American futurist Alvin

Toffler, and then he discussed it again in "The Third

Wave" and created a new word "producer and

consumer" (Bian 2003). Pine and Gilmour jointly

published the book "The Experience Economy".

From a more comprehensive perspective, this paper

discusses and analyzes the relevant contents of the

experience economy era, and clearly points out that

"experience is the fourth economic output we want to

talk about" (Guo 2008） a new source of value. The

advent of the experience economy has turned the

single purchase and consumption relationship

between consumers and businesses into a two-way

interactive experience, with "experience" as the end,

to add value, enrich the spiritual world, and

comprehend life.

1.2 Upgrading Consumer Demand

In the era of the experience economy, consumers

prefer to buy products that they can give themselves

an affective experience through physical stimulation

or behavioral experience, to a certain extent satisfy

self-interest or certain enjoyable experiences, and

eventually consumers will determine whether they

can be dedicated customers of the brand by acquiring

the degree of the consumer experience, among which

two types of ways to meet the demand are as follows:

one is to experience a new consumer object that is

new and enjoyable, and the other is to go away from

daily comfortable areas to find a new consumer

experience (Wang 2019). It can be found in the Engel

coefficient table from 1978 to 2021 that the

consumption structure of Chinese citizens is moving

towards a well-off society in all aspects, that the

proportion of food consumption expenditure in total

expenditure is constantly shrinking and that the

purchase demand of consumers is beginning to shift

from material to menta (chart 1), which also

contributes to the development of design from

material form to design endowment of spiritual

culture, from structure focusing on design in previous

mass production to more attention to design

functions, affective representation, etc.

578

Wei, Z. and Zhong, H.

Redesign of Candy Packaging Under the Inﬂuence of Experience Economy and Digitalization, with the Colored Fudge of Hsu Fu Chi for Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0011916300003613

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education (NMDME 2022), pages 578-584

ISBN: 978-989-758-630-9

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Chart 1: Engel Coefficient Map of National Residents

2 MARKET ANALYSIS OF HSU

FU CHI BRAND IN

EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

2.1 Brand Introduction

Hsu Fu Chi is a large enterprise in China that

specializes in the production of syrup-dots and

latecomers such as incandescent nuts, pastries,

fragrances and jelly, founded in 1992 in China and

officially born a registered brand in 1994, and

gradually expanded the production line and logistics

base of syrup-dots to set up regional logistics centers

so as to master the distribution operationsin radiating

areas more effectively. As a result of fierce market

competition and the continuous development of the e-

commerce industry, the original consumer base of

Hsu Fu Chi is gradually losing out, and many brands

are facing bottlenecks in market development and the

challenges of aging (Zhu 2009). As for the overall

environment of the syrup consumer market, the syrup

industry is in an overall decline stage, and the

domestic syrup industry will face a greater

adjustment stage in the next few years (chart 2). A

lack of innovation capacity is currently being faced

by the syrup industry, which leads to numerous

homogeneous products, a lack of interest in

packaging visual elements and a single layout form

and is also prone to be limited by special festive

constraints during sales. Together with the entry of

foreign brands in the Chinese market, most of the

mid-to high-end market of the fruit industry has been

accounted for, as a result of other factors such as the

rise of the e-commerce industry, which have brought

a significant impact to the domestic fruit industry

(Zhou 2015). As for changes in consumer groups,

consumers will be more inclined to buy products that

are more high-end, eco-friendly, and healthy with

higher cost performance and convenience as

consumption level improves, and the consumer trend

is changing in the direction of entertainment and

entertainment. It is an urgent task for fruit enterprises

to solve how the fruit industry will break the

bottleneck and influence consumers in a way that

consumer groups like to notice, so as to enhance their

brand competitiveness.

Chart 2: Candy Production and Growth Rate in China 2015-

2021

Chart 3: Brand Popularity

2.2 Competitive Product Analysis

Among similar products, Alps is selected, and three

types of brands of the Great White Hare are

conducted by the author. The information on the table

shows that the brand of the Great White Hare brand

is more well-known in the related products, while the

Alps is relatively high in terms of brand integrity,

which still needs to be improved in both brand

awareness and brand integrity(chart 3&4), according

to the research, it is found that the soft market of the

fruit has been neglected by the fruit industry, so the

direct confrontation with existing fruit enterprises can

be avoided, by which the Hsu Fu Chi brand can seek

to make up for the gap. It is found that 50% of them

are kids in the 2020 fruit consumer market, which is

a potential consumer group that cannot be

ignored(chart 5), so I will take the Color bean candy

0,00%

100,00%

1978 1988 2011 2011

Engel Coefficient Map of National

Residents

Urban Residents Rural Residents

345,47

351,85

331,37

288,34

329,81

311,68

304,32

1,85%

-5,82%

-12,99%

14,38%

-5,50%

-2,36%

-20,00%

-10,00%

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

100

200

300

400

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Candy Production and Growth Rate in China

2015-2021

0 50 100 150

Buerjia

Hsu Fu Chi

Alpine

White Rabbit

Brand Popularity

Rate

Redesign of Candy Packaging Under the Inﬂuence of Experience Economy and Digitalization, with the Colored Fudge of Hsu Fu Chi for

Example

579

under Hsu Fu Chi as the object of product packaging

re-design.

Chart 4: Brand Loyalty-purchase Frequency

Chart 5: Candy TOP5 Consumption Scenarios of China in

2020

As far as packaging is concerned, the icons of

children`s consumers are directly used as their

creative elements in the icons (Fig 1). The sales

crowd is clear on the packaging of the product that

the sales crowd is mainly children; the packaging is

fuse with a look that is beautiful and fittable, which

shows that the man is more naivety and the wife is a

clever and cute, which is in line with the trend of

being beautiful in the children`s minds; moreover, the

trumpet of the family is easy to identify and beautiful

and unique, with a strong sense of series and

attracting attention. We also offer a series of story-

based packaging and a series of young time to enable

the packaging to be patted, to motivate people's

thinking, to arouse the interest of consumers, and to

attract students with a simple and insightful

appearance packaging and Printed Patterns on the

inside of Canes to achieve consumer products. The

packaging design of the White Rabbit candies is

based on an exaggerated design and the launch of a

series of super "big white hounds" packaging (Fig. 2),

in which the super white hare is filled with multiple

White Rabbit candies. During the design and

packaging of the product, the shape of the suckles in

the memory is exaggerated, taking into account the

consumer aesthetic needs, which are beyond the

image of consumers, such a packaging design can

attract consumer attention to a certain extent and

attract consumers by using interest packaging to

purchase.

Currently, the Color bean candy packaging on the

market is based on the design of plastic bags, which

enables consumers to see the products more directly

through the visual display of different Color bean

candy. For example, the visual pattern of the product

with the physical image as packaging (Fig 3) is

matched with the brand symbol and color to attract

consumers, compared with the packaging of big

white hares and Buerjia, the lack of interest and new

design of Color bean candy packaging makes it

difficult to gain an advantage in the market

competition. How can the Hsu Fu Chi brand use the

design of product packaging to improve the market

competitiveness of products and meet the aesthetic

needs of consumers in the context of the experienced

economy.

Figure 1: Buerjia Candy Packaging

Figure 2: Super White Rabbit toffee packaging

Figure 3: Color Bean Candy Packaging

93%

81%

90%

91%

72%

81%

87%

80%

51%

76%

70%

58%

23%

35%

46%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Alpine Buerjia Hsu Fu Chi White

Rabbit

Brand Loyalty-purchase Frequency

Within 1-2 years Within one year

Within six months Within 3 months

78%

62%

50%

41%

14%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Leisure Snips

For the children

Business Entertainment

Candy TOP5 Consumption Scenarios of

China in 2020

NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education

580

3 IMPACT OF EXPERIENCE

ECONOMY ON THE DESIGN

OF CANDY PACKAGING

Packaging is a key factor to attract consumers to buy

products. It not only becomes a salesman with the

silent and visual presentation of the product but also

shoulders a crucial mission of the image of the

corporate brand. How to design standing-out

packaging in traditional packaging among multiple

competitors from the three aspects of vision, structure

and interest is a question to be considered by

designers. Besides, the packaging design in the

experience economy cares more about the feeling of

consumers. Integrating digital media technology in

the design would not only raise the quality and

efficiency of the design but also provide much more

inspiration for the design of candy packaging, so as

to inject new vitality into the brand product and

empower new cultural connotations of products.

3.1 Focus on the Emotional Need of

Users

Along with the continuous development of the

modern economy and society, people have been

highlighted gradually. Consumers start to change

their attention from material requirements to the need

for their emotional status of themselves in the

consumption environment. Hence, it requires that the

outer packaging of the product should meet the

individual pursuit and bring an interesting emotional

experience for consumers (Zhao 2017).

The packaging design is mainly composed of

graphics and text color, and these factors are arranged

and grouped to form a new semiotic language through

the technology of digital media, so as to add new

cultural semantics to the product. As the important

factor to attract consumers, the color with voiceless

expression is a delivery process from vision to

psychology; thus, it requires designers to go beyond

their own subjective use of color and pay more

attention to the emotion and psychological feelings of

consumers when having design. A good packaging

design color should not only fit the attributes of

products but also triggers the imagination and

emotion of consumers to some extent, so as to seize

the consumption psychology of consumers. Paying

more attention to the details could we have a better

promotion of the sales of products. As an essential

language of packaging design, patterns should be

intuitive and easy to understand with such visual

features as a strong performance and powerful

infection. It is an important bridge between product

and consumer (Zhou 2016). Before the design, there

should be a correspondent analysis of the product

image and use situation of the packaging pattern to

know about the semantic content of the product

image in a specific language environment, so as to

ensure barrier-free communication among designers,

the designed product packaging and consumers

(Chen 2005). In the era of the experience economy,

designers should care more about the consumers’

psychological feelings and emotional needs so that

they would mainly consider the consumption

experience of users in addition to the basic function

of products to attract much more consumers to make

a purchase (Fig 4).

Figure 4: Relationship between Packaging User Experience

Desire and Packaging Design

3.2 Stereoscopic Nature of Space

In traditional packaging design, both the basic

information and publicity method of products are

presented in the form of two-dimension. For example,

the packaging design in the Republic of China era,

there was design with pattern design and word color

in the packaging to deliver the most intuitive and

Redesign of Candy Packaging Under the Inﬂuence of Experience Economy and Digitalization, with the Colored Fudge of Hsu Fu Chi for

Example

581

simple basic information for consumers, but they

could not get the information out of the packaging

and the form was monotonous. In the present day

with the influence of digitalization, design has been

developed from a two-dimensional space to a three-

dimensional one. In the design of packaging,

designers could contain the pattern of the product in

the QR code and add the relevant product information

or story about the product design in the code through

the technology of digital media, and the two-

dimensional pattern on the packaging could be turned

to be the three-dimensional dynamic and visual

experience when consumers scan the code;

consequently, consumers would have much more

sense of the reality of participation. What’s more,

consumers could have much more specific

information by scanning the QR code of the

packaging to decide whether to buy it or not when

they know a little about the components when

purchasing one product. The digitalization era

enables consumers to have more convenient

consumption. Such multi-dimensional packaging

design would not only provide a brand-new

consumption experience for consumers but also play

a role in supervising producers’ standardized

operation. In the future, the information interaction of

packaging design would be the key point of the

design.

3.3 Diversification of Communication

Media

Now, people’s life has been affected by digitalization,

so the publication of products is no longer the poster

or the publication in a real store. With the application

of digital media, producers cast their eyes on the new

communication media since it is featured with fast

propagation and wide coverage in a short time to

make up the connection between people and things of

original entity consumption. Along with the

development of the Internet, consumers would be

more and more inclined to online shopping. For

consumers, it breaks through the boundaries of time

and space to have an unconstrained purchase and to

have a door-to-door delivery through express. In the

era of big data, platforms would recommend

correspondent products according to individual

preferences, which would certainly improve the

consumption and use of the experience of users.

Producers could have a multi-media presentation and

publication for the products and add interactive

modules in the packaging design to add interaction

with consumers so as to gain much information

feedback from users for the convenience of the

improvement of the products.

3.4 New Trend of Candy Packaging

Design

With the development of digital media technology,

traditional packaging design has been replaced

gradually. Both the arrangement and printing mode

between elements and the display and promotion of

products have a gradual upgrading of diverse and

dimensional direction. Designers also need to pay

more attention to the linkage of users' experience and

digital media technology and how to make better use

of digital media to attract the eyes of consumers so

that they could have a better consumption experience.

The multi-dimension of packaging will be the new

trend in packaging design.

4 PRACTICE OF REDESIGN OF

COLORED FUDGE

PACKAGING UNDER THE

EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

Being affected by digital media technology, computer

graphics technology shows a diverse development

trend. Designers could design packaging for products

with all kinds of software. In the design of the colored

fudge packaging of Hsu Fu Chi, the author assisted

design with Photoshop. Compared with the

traditional hand-drawn mode, the software drawn

could precisely confirm the size of the packaging and

the control of overall proportion, and there is also a

better adjustment in the arrangement of design

factors.

In the redesign of colored fudge packaging of Hsu

Fu Chi, the author selected the color of the product

itself as the main color to get close to the packaging

and the nature of the product, and it was inspired by

the taste experience of the product for consumers.

The pink should be a sweet and happy taste; the

orange looks like a lemon since the sour taste makes

consumers frown slightly at the first taste. Blue

means sour and sweet when tasting(Fig 5).When

designing the pattern of packaging, the designer

would make it with RGB mode which has about

16.77 million different colors formed by the three

primary colors of red, green and blue through 8-bit

coding, and its color would be brighter than other

color modes. Frequently, it would be used in TV and

computer monitors. When the packaging design is

printed to be the real object, it needs to adjust the

color mode to be the CMYK mode, a common

NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education

582

printing mode. C stands for Cyan; M is Magenta; Y

means Yellow and K symbolizesBlack. Obviously, it

would be found that the color of the real object is dark

when printing the fineness since there is a distinction

between the RGB and CMYK in the principle of color

formation. RGB forms the color by mixing the lights

of the light source while CMYK is the color formed

by the light reflected by human eyes after the light

source irradiates the object and part of the spectrum

is absorbed by the object. Due to the packaging

design monitor and the principle of color formation

in the printer, there was a ceaseless adjustment in the

color of the packaging, trying to narrow the gap

between the real object and the preview renderings.

The application of digital media technology greatly

improved the efficiency of design adjustment.

The pattern design of colored fudge of Hsu Fu Chi

was to have geometric processing of simple living

objects. The patterns were presented in the form of

mixing. In the specific graphic production, there was

much more consideration on the fitness between the

graphic pattern and the packaging structure so as to

ensure the complete presentation of the adhesive part

of the package, wireframe and basic information of

the product. The population of computer graphics

software turned out to be a great helper, especially in

the adjustment of special details. For the selection of

materials, the author simulated many different

materials and finally selected the paper packaging in

the computer since the paper packaging was easy to

be recycled and degraded with a mature reuse

technology(Fig 6). There would be lower pollution to

the environment, and it could be recycled for many

times. In addition, it was at a low price and

convenient transportation and storage. A piece of

paper could be made into various forms of packaging

by means of die cutting, folding, gluing and so on;

and the toughness, tension and thickness of different

papers could enable the paper to have different roles

in packaging design. The tough and solid paper could

be used as an outer wrapper while the soft and light

one could be the inner wrapper

(Wang 2019). Paper

packaging material is a green packaging material with

the highest potential, and it is suitable for the new

trend of the development of candy packaging design.

Figure 5: Expand Diagram of Pack Structure

Figure 6: Packaging Design Presence

In the interaction with consumers, it was selected

with the combination of the online and the offline. For

the offline interaction, the author adopted the fitting

way of interactive part and overall form to design the

packaging of colored fudge to be a triangle as a basic

form; then a simple geometric picture was mixed with

multiple basic patterns so that consumers could

simple interactive experience after tasting the candies

to build up an emotional bridge between consumers

and products. It would also add memory points to

consumers to shape their loyalty to the brand. Make

new value for the candy packaging and empower

consumers with spiritual enjoyment. Such interesting

commodities could make people feel the relaxation

and the fun of simplicity and change. In the aspect of

lines, there was a form of QR code on the packaging

for scanning mentioned above to ensure the integrity

of the packaging pattern presentation. The author hid

the basic information of products in the QR code of

the product packaging for the consumers to have a

reading, which would reach the perfect appearance of

the packaging and ensure the completion of basic

information of products.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Due to the influence of the experience economy and

digitalization, there is also a huge change in the

presentation of packaging design. What package

shoulders is not only the appearance of vision but also

the presentation of the corporate culture. In the future

packaging design, digital media and computer

graphics technology is a good helpers for products to

gain the mass consumer market and march to diverse

and sustainable development.

Redesign of Candy Packaging Under the Inﬂuence of Experience Economy and Digitalization, with the Colored Fudge of Hsu Fu Chi for

Example

583

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