This project investigates the influence of brand elements (logo, color, illustrations, and font) on the premium perception of packaging within the packaged foods sector. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the research comprises qualitative focus groups and a quantitative online survey to understand how these elements shape consumer perceptions of premium quality. The findings indicate that color is the most influential element, followed by logo, illustrations, and font. Color sets the tone for perceived premiumness, while prominent and well-designed logos enhance brand recognition and trust. Illustrations that tell a brand story contribute to authenticity and superior quality. The qualitative phase provided rich insights into consumer preferences, likes, and dislikes, which were then drafted into guidelines and tested and validated through statistical analysis in the quantitative phase. The study culminated in developing a practical guidebook for designers, particularly those in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India, to create packaging that conveys added value and quality. This research offers valuable insights concerning packaging design, highlighting the crucial role of specific brand elements in influencing premium perception while acknowledging limitations such as the focus on visual assessment and specific product categories. The study sets a foundation for future research to explore additional product categories. Overall, the findings provide actionable insights for designers aiming to enhance the premium appeal of their packaging.

This thesis addresses the main research question: “How to help customers to communicate product properties accurately for a C2C secondhand clothing online platform?” Communicating product properties in C2C online marketplace is important because clothing is “high-touch” experience goods that need sensory evaluation to assess the product. The goal of the thesis is to provide design recommendations to improve engagement between sellers and buyers in C2C secondhand clothing online marketplaces by communicating secondhand product properties accurately.
 
To address the key research question, a comprehensive literature review was conducted, identifying a general research gap: there have been no specific studies on communicating product properties in C2C secondhand clothing online marketplaces. To bridge this gap, we conducted a Sequential Mixed Research method using qualitative research (in-depth interviews) for the first phase, with the key research question: “What are the key factors influencing customer satisfaction in selling and buying clothing in the online C2C platform?” These are the key findings from the in-depth interviews:
1. Customers often encounter measurement inaccuracies, as many of them struggle to determine how the clothing will fit without trying
2. There is often a lack of information about signs of use although customers expect some flaws in secondhand items, but often there's a lack of information about signs of use
3. Tactile experience is missing in online shopping, making it difficult to gauge the material of the secondhand clothing
4. Customers frequently feel disappointed when the actual color differs significantly from what they saw online.

In the second phase, we conducted quantitative research (online survey distributed across Europe), with the key research question: “What solutions are feasible to implement on the platform to enhance the engagement between seller and buyer in the C2C online platform?” We integrate the results of both phases of the research to answer the questions. These are the key findings from the online survey:
- Provide visual and textual information to cater to buyers' needs, which often hinders their experience when lacking in the platform
- Allow sellers to easily provide visual and textual information of their product in the product listing page without hassle (e.g feel encouraged to put detailed measurements, provide clear images, etc)

The insights revealed there is a necessity in providing detailed information about product properties such as detailed measurements, signs of wear, true color representation, and tactile descriptions. To address this need, a digital interactive prototype was developed that includes design features that enable sellers to offer accurate information about their items. The prototype was evaluated to measure its impact on seller and buyer engagement, which involved user testing to gather feedback on the usability of the prototype.

This study provides suggestions by examining solutions to encourage customers to effectively communicate product properties. On C2C platforms, individual sellers upload their own images and text for product information, resulting in varying levels of quality and clarity. The quality and clarity of these inputs are crucial for establishing trust, a driver of long-term success in C2C online platforms.

This research and design concept contributes to C2C secondhand online platforms by enhancing the communication of product properties. In C2C online platforms, sellers provide their own text and images for the product listings, which are reflected on the product detail page viewed by buyers. This information is crucial for buyers when making purchase decisions. We propose the following guidelines for sellers to improve product listings: 
1. Visual guidance to help users input detailed measurements 
2. Guidance for capturing and displaying the true color of products
3. Guidance for encouraging sellers to provide signs of wear 
4. Guidance for capturing the item’s dimension and tactile qualities through video 

Company X is a renowned engineering and technology corporation based in Germany that has established a prominent presence in China for over a century. Company X is actively promoting and leading the way in adopting environmentally friendly technological projects in response to the green energy trend worldwide. A significant step in this direction is introducing their new air-sourced heat pump product line in their Chinese HVAC department, specifically designed to cater to the unique requirements of the local environment and market.
This study aims to assist Company X in its transition towards green technology by developing a strategic plan for introducing its new product in the Chinese market. Upon joining Company X, the author assumed the role of an external observer and started the research by reviewing internal documents to understand the company’s current situation and the product itself. The author concludes that a go-to-market strategy is an essential bridge for its product launch since it can help to meet the company’s transitioning from product-driven to emphasising meeting market demands and enhancing user experience.
Since this study focuses on developing a go-to-market plan for Company X, highlighting the product’s unique selling point is critical to differentiate from intense market competition. To achieve this goal, the author conducted thorough market and consumer research, which involved studying existing literature, conducting field studies, and gathering feedback through surveys and interviews.
From the gathered data, a strategic product launch roadmap was created for Company X. This roadmap offers advice on highlighting features that make the company's heat pump different from others and on effective launch strategies. A key observation was the varied nature of the Chinese market and the specific demands of its consumers. Since user needs and preferences differ from region to region, it is crucial to adapt strategies and, when needed, test them with local partners before a widespread rollout.
Interestingly, the research also showed that many consumers are not fully aware of the ASHP product, signalling opportunities for educational initiatives. For Company X to truly resonate with its audience, it is essential to reimagine its brand image, emphasising sustainability and user experience. The ultimate objective is for Company X's new product to resonate with its target audience and capture a significant portion of the ASHP market share.

Food packaging serves many functions, from product protection to extending product shelf life to enabling convenient or effective usage (i.e., portability, resealability) to communicating relevant information or brand image to consumers. However, packaging has various negative impacts on the environment throughout its life cycle. While consumers are aware of the detrimental environmental impact of packaging, there is a mismatch between consumers’ perception of packaging sustainability and the scientifically-measured impact (Otto et al., 2021). This thesis explored the intersection of the consumer, governmental, and scientific perspectives on packaging sustainability, while also balancing other important aspects (i.e., quality perception, feasibility, etc.) to realise a holistically sustainable packaging strategy.
The client company for this project was Enrico Food, the brand owner of Bertolli. Bertolli is a key player in the Mediterranean foods category in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. This project aimed to contribute to two of Enrico’s business objectives: a successful launch of the Bertolli pasta sauce product line in the UK and improving the environmental sustainability of the pasta sauce packaging. This thesis resulted in a suitable sustainability strategy and holistically sustainable packaging concepts for the UK launch and beyond.
First, background research into the system surrounding (Bertolli’s) food packaging was conducted via stakeholder interviews and desk research. Literature research into sustainable packaging design strategies, consumer behaviour, and brand sustainability strategy was carried out. A framework integrating various stakeholders’ perspectives was developed to aid in the creation of a suitable and meaningful sustainability strategy for Bertolli. Various tools and methods identified in the literature review were employed to evaluate the current packaging formats and develop new packaging concepts. The strategy and concepts were refined based on internal and external stakeholder feedback, expert feedback, and consumer studies.
This process resulted in the proposal of a comprehensive sustainability strategy that addresses relevant material issues in an authentic way. Concerning packaging design, a revamped design of Bertolli’s pouch pack format was proposed. The pouch was identified as the most suitable pack format for Bertolli to focus its efforts on in the short-term and medium-term due to its current and forecasted environmental performance, ease of implementation, and high consumer acceptance. Various sustainability cues (i.e., naturalistic graphic design style, claims, and sustainability information) were embedded to improve consumer sustainability perception. For the long-term time horizon, two main strategies were proposed: direct-to-consumer models and reusable packaging models. Roadmaps were developed to guide Bertolli in implementing the proposed sustainability strategy and packaging sustainability improvements.
This thesis provides insights into sustainability strategy development, UK consumers’ packaging preferences, and techniques to design and evaluate sustainable packaging concepts.

This graduation project is carried out for PostNL's XL parcel delivery. PostNL is one of the biggest delivery companies in the Netherlands and one of their departments takes care of XL parcel delivery. This department is called Extra@Home. XL parcels can be seen as non-regular parcels, meaning odd sizes or weights. For Extra@Home, the XL parcel delivery comes with a delivery, installation and assemblage service. Products varying from wardrobes to washing machines can be delivered, assembled and installed in the customer's house.

Extra@Home proposed a graduation internship to analyse the current customer journey to search for possible service optimisations. Context analysis and literature research outline the graduation project's context.

The customer journey was composed with literature review and user research insights. User research was conducted by interviewing expert, experiencing a service delivery, interviewing Extra@Home's customers and experiencing the communication. From the customer journey negative and positive customer experiences were derived. Negative customer experiences were evaluated with the SERVQUAL model. The SERVQUAL model provided two different design directions: Extra@Home can be more customer-oriented and services of Extra@Home can be more user-centred. Several factors led to the decision to continue with the last direction.

This direction was the start of the designing process, with the outcome of Mechanics@Home (Figure 1). It is a service designed for Extra@Home that improves the current service. It is a user-centred service, that emphasises the core values and strengths of PostNL.

Customers and mechanics of Extra@Home are put at the centre of the service. The service is a personal approach to the current service. The customer gets the opportunity to get to know the mechanic before they come to their house to deliver and install a product. The customer also receives personal communication from the mechanic with updates about their delivery.

An integration with the current PostNL app makes sure that customers have a positive experience when encountering the service of Extra@Home. Instead of a lot of different communication channels, everything can be handled in the PostNL app. Transparant communication about what happens in the service journey is essential.

From the mechanic's point of view, the service highlights the skilled mechanics, which will create a feeling of responsibility from the mechanics. This feeling of responsibility exists, because the customer knows them., because they are responsible for their service delivery and they are known by the customer.

A service blueprint outlines the service of Mechanics@Home with front- and backstage actions. For a direct implementation a service roadmap was created. This roadmap has a three-step implementation strategy and it works towards the vision of integrating Mechanics@Home completely in the PostNL app and in Extra@Home.

Finally, Mechanics@Home was validated with all the important stakeholders in this project: customers, Extra@Home, mechanics and the marketing team.

This graduation project carried out within the master ‘Strategic Product Design’, deals with the strategic expansion of Salmari into the German market. The company Salmari, a salmiak liquor, is increasingly popular and growing in the Netherlands. The company has a short-term ambition to increase sales in the Netherlands by 2023 and a long-term ambition to grow into a global brand.

The project involved in-depth preliminary research that began with a comprehensive analysis of geography, distribution, competition, market share, culture, taste preference and trends. This analysis revealed that northern Germany, particularly the cities of Hamburg and Berlin, offered significant potential for Salmari due to the striking similarities in culture, atmosphere, audience and product affinity between the two cities.

The focus of the project was explicitly on Hamburg and Berlin, with the primary objective being to develop a launch strategy that would enable Salmari to launch successfully in these German cities, with a particular focus on a new, chosen target audience.

The analysis is followed by creating a market segmentation and interviews with the German target audience. This led to identifying crucial ‘touchpoints’ that would significantly impact Salmari’s marketing efforts. Based on these selected ‘touchpoints’, a detailed launch strategy was developed. The strategy began with creating a new ‘buyer persona,’ the ‘night badger,’ and included a roadmap with three phases: visibility, expansion and commitment. Each phase was supported by a comprehensive launch campaign focusing on specific communication platforms and options between Salmari and its new target audience.

A vital aspect of the strategy was building brand equity for Salmari by positioning it as a drink that promotes social interactions and unique experiences. The brand is presented as inspiring and in line with the target audience’s values.

Recommendations for further action included are included in the report, such as
Additional validation with the target group in Berlin, maintaining close contact with the target group and monitoring changes in the market.

Finally, the effectiveness of the launch campaign was tested using the ‘communication optimisation model.’ With validation based on criteria such as desirability, feasibility and viability, the final design can be presented. This final design is the starting point for Salmari to successfully enter the German market and ultimately achieve its long-term goals.

In a competitive marketplace, brands need to stand out to stay relevant. This means that it is important to keep evolving as a company and to find the whitespace to grow. The brand centered in this research is TBWA\NEBOKO, a big advertising agency located in Amsterdam. Their job revolves around finding this whitespace for other brands and creating advertising campaigns to initiate this growth. This is done by Disruption, where the strategists hunt for conventions and construct a vision, to eventually create a Disruptive idea for the brand.

To stay at the top of the list of advertising agencies, TBWA needs to keep innovating and start implementing change, to find their own whitespace. TBWA\Worldwide initiated this change, by shifting its focus from traditional media campaigns to disruptive experiences and focusing more on where to find growth in business. This requires a new methodology to be implemented within the organization. However, the new methodology, Disruption X, is not adopted by the Dutch TBWA\NEBOKO.

This project aims to implement Disruption X into the organization by creating a solution that will enhance and connect the three components of the TBWA\NEBOKO intangible asset: human capital, information capital and organizational capital. The strategists, Disruption X and the TBWA\NEBOKO culture respectively. By using the context mapping approach, this research uncovers why the implementation of Disruption X has been unsuccessful up until now. The research focused on the strategists from the Dutch teams and included a couple of people from the account teams to gain a broader perspective. With the use of sensitizing booklets and by conducting interviews useful data was gathered. The analysis of this data revealed that Disruption X was not actively used and not all employees were aware of its existence. Most data pointed back at the teaching method and appearance of Disruption X. People have to watch hours of difficult online lectures on their own initiative to educate themselves while they do not have time for this. Besides this, Disruption X appeared to be enormous, too difficult, lacking purpose and thus frightening, making the entry to the method too complicated.

The AIDA funnel is used to cluster all the relevant data conclusions and pinpoints how Disruption X needs to be enhanced for adoption within the strategy department of TBWA\NEBOKO. Narrowing the scope of the project leads to a focus on the Desire and Action phase of the AIDA funnel. A simplified presentation and clarifying its purpose need to generate Desire to use Disruption X. Delivering this tool in the “right” way will get the strategists in the Action phase.

An iterative design phase, where the concept is constantly validated by the strategists, results in the final product. The Disruption X Compass functions as a platform that invites, guides, assists, shows and inspires the strategists with Disruption X. The platform helps strengthen the intangible asset of TBWA\NEBOKO by enhancing: the culture through the celebration of achievements; the strategist by learning new working methods and Disruption X by delivering the method in a comprehensible way that incorporates all necessary information and data in one platform.

Since the platform solves only a small part of the whole challenge, the final part of this research will present an implementation plan. The plan initiates and suggests several activities for the successful adoption of Disruption X, including the finalization of the platform, the launch of the platform and how to track and improve the platform. Combining the Disruption X with the implementation plan will hopefully serve as a stepping stone to reaching the TBWA ambition.

Product appearance can contribute to market success, which has been addressed by many research and practical cases. Visual Novelty, as an important aspect of product appearance, is proved to influence consumer purchase decisions. A brand is also used frequently to assist in making purchase decisions. It might be interesting for product designers and brand managers to know how different brands should choose the proper level of visual novelty to gain consumer preference. The present research investigates the joint influence of brand strength and visual novelty on consumer preference by drawing on the concepts of purchase motivations and roles of brands. This research deployed an experimental study through an online questionnaire, in which people were asked to evaluate their attitudes towards a novel design and a typical design for electric water kettles and Bluetooth speakers. Contrasting to the hypotheses, the results show that people more strongly prefer a typical-looking product for a strong brand than a weak brand. Moreover, the preference for a typical design is weaker and less significant for a weak brand. The possible reason could be that the product categories used in this research are mainly driven by utilitarian motivations instead of the predefined utilitarian and expressive motivations. People pursue little expressive need, so a visually novel product may be unnecessary for self-expression of uniqueness. Conversely, a more typical design might better fulfill the practical need for products and hence is preferred. Meanwhile, a strong brand helps to create more confidence about the possible performance quality and hence product choices than a weak brand, so the preference for a typical design is stronger for a strong brand than a weak brand.

Orange Branding is a Dutch Brand Strategy and Design agency based in Amsterdam and operating in China (Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) since 2005. They have clients of various sizes in various industries, but in this project, we focused on companies interested in Cross-border e-commerce. When these businesses want to operate abroad, they will need a well-built brand. However, the value of branding has not yet been widely understood in China. Therefore, we ought to design a method to improve this understanding. Furthermore, research has shown that clients and brand designers need to work together to achieve the most optimal result. Accordingly, the research question answered in this thesis reads:
How can we improve co-creation in the brand development process between Dutch designers and Chinese clients?

To answer the research question, we have analyzed existing branding methods: Cultural Branding, Co-creating Brand Meaning, and OB’s usual methods. Furthermore, we researched Chinese culture in general and, regarding branding, to determine how a European designer should collaborate with a Chinese client. Lastly, we examined different Artificial Intelligence (AI) types to use in a new Branding Method.
What makes Cultural Branding unique is its story-based approach. Douglas Holt believes a brand has to offer a story, or myth, to its consumers. Consumers must want to use a brand’s products in order to live that story and build identity.
Co-creating Brand meaning tells us that the company behind a brand is the source of inspiration for the Brand Identity. Knowing this, a designer should not exclude the client from the brand development process but involve him in. However, the client must not acquire too much creative freedom, so it is the designer’s job to balance involvement and creation. We argue that AI can provide tools with which a designer can achieve this balance.
We conducted a pilot experiment to test the value of AI as a tool in brand development. Since the client inspires the Brand Identity, we wanted to see if we can use Machine Learning (a type of AI) to determine brand personalities. Therefore, we collected approximately 3500 images, labeled with one of Aaker’s Five Dimensions of Brand Personality: Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness. Therefore, we created the Orange Branding ‘Aaker Personality Prediction Algorithm’ or ‘OB-APPA’. APPA is an ML algorithm that was trained using these images and is able to predict the personality of an image.
The OB team in China posed as imaginary clients and supplied new images for six fictional brands. Then, with the predictions from APPA, we manifested these predictions into visual brand styles. Next, the OB China team provided feedback on whether the created styles fit their intended fictional brand’s identity.
After examining the feedback, we conclude that the use of APPA could be very beneficial for a design agency like OB. OB can benefit from using APPA as their clients often supply a design brief which leaves almost complete creative freedom. APPA could efficiently deduce the desired brand personality, which will narrow the design brief. Consequently, an additional step in APPA could also predict the associated Brand Archetype. Combining the improved APPA with generative branding tools like Tailor Brands, IDEO’s font map, Front brief, and Colour Thief can generate branding elements in a short amount of time and make the system usable from anywhere.

Our world is changing rapidly in various ways, forcing organizations to engage in continuous change to stay relevant. Therefore, it has become an essential capability of organizations to engage in and attempt to manage change to remain successful and sustain their existence (Stouten, Rousseau & de Cremer, 2018; Coughlan, Suri & Canales, 2007). Due to the increasingly fast-changing market demands, organizations recognize the need for a more outside-in approach in order to increase their resilience. This is why the customer-centric approach gained popularity (Ambaram, 2013). In order to become customer-centric, organizations need to enhance their customers’ experiences. As service design offers the means to improve customer experience, service design has become a capability that many organizations attempt to acquire (Ostrom et al., 2015).Initial assignmentA few years ago, Koos developed their service design maturity model: a model that describes different growth phases an organization can go through while trying to embed service design within their organizations, and the elements that affect this process. In order to realize the ambition of becoming a more strategic partner that guides organizations through customer-centric transformations, Koos feels having a solid maturity model could serve as a backbone. The expectation was that the model could both serve in order to predict in what way an organization should change, but also to “sell“ the transformation proposition. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis assignment was to validate and improve Koos’ maturity model, and identify how the model could be servitized by Koos. Reframed assignmentHowever, initial exploration through interviews with experts and Koos’ designers, combined with findings from literature, pointed out that the key stakeholders may have made the assumption that a maturity scan is what they need in order to concretize their transformation offer. However, Koos’ service designers and interviewed experts pointed out a more fundamental problem: the feeling that Koos might be missing skills that are essential in order to be able to help organizations transform. On top of that, literature research made clear that creating maturity models that accurately indicate how an organization might need to transform, or indicating how “mature“ an organization is, is impossible since every organization is different and requires a unique approach. Therefore, the new problem statement, formulated as a question, became:What does Koos need to do differently in order to enable organizations to become more customer-centric through service design, in order to form a more strategic, long-term collaboration with clients?Opportunity gapto focus more on exploring the organizational context elements to understand clients’ as-is situation, instead of trying to assess the context elements to indicate a maturity level. In that way, they can secure better implementation and thus enable clients to become slightly more customer-centric project by project. This will help Koos to concretize their transformation proposition in three ways:First, exploring the as-is state of the organizational context will enable Koos to improve chances of implementation, and thus make a more transformative impact. Secondly, having the as-is state made explicit will also enable Koos to express the transformative impact of service design to clients after a project has been implemented. Thirdly, more experience with implementation and organizational change on project scale will give Koos the expertise, the organizational sensitivity and credibility needed to serve as transformation consultants in the future.Organizational context framework and MiroBased on findings from 4 case studies compared with findings from literature and a co-reflection session with 24 of Koos’ employees, it was decided to design a framework that would explain which organizational context elements service designers should take into account in order to secure better implementation, and when and how they should embed exploration of these context elements into their double diamond design approach. This resulted in the Organizational Context Framework as shown in figure 1. The framework shows how designers should adress implementation from day one, by performing 3 different actions regarding the organizational context: exploring, aligning and anchoring. In order to enact the framework, the Organizational Context Reflection Miro has been designer. This Miroboard serves as a living document, in which the design team goes through a weekly reflection of all three organizational context actions. In that way, continuous alignment between the organizational context and the project approach is being stimulated, so that the project outcomes and required changes can be anchored and implemented within the organization succesfully. Change process KoosThe most important outcome of this project is not the organizational context framework or the reflection Miro, but rather the fact that this project set a change process in motion at Koos internally. Through the findings of this project, it has become apparent that Koos’ service designers need to extern their skill set and start approaching their projects in a more impact-minded, flexible manner. The framework and the Miroboard serve as artefacts that stimulate this change, but pointing out the blindspot Koos had, and starting the change process required to solve it is bigger and more important, and should make lasting impact long after this project ended.

Nowadays, social media plays an increasingly important role in people’s daily lives. Many brands make use of it and send out different information, for instance, sales, event notifications and sometimes even their position on social issues through platforms like Facebook and Instagram. However, the process of developing these manifestations have many small problems and interaction among stakeholders are not quite efficient. For example, brand designers often come up against difficulties, like lacking references and “endless” adjustment with brand managers. For brand managers, they wish designers to explain the story/strategy behind manifestations and there are no clear criteria to evaluate if a brand manifestation is qualified. This master thesis explores the possibilities for improving the current process of brand manifestations design in the context of digital platform marketing, specifically for brand designers and managers in the internal branding department, and introduces a series of methods and recommendations for both brand managers and designers. Process of this graduation project is illustrated in the picture on the right. A literature review was conducted at the beginning of the project and from there I decided to focus on brand manifestation design for digital platform marketing. Then I choose the simplified grounded theory method, supplemented by session, as my research methods to explore the context and decide design direction. After research, with common problems and root causes being identified and three ingredients of a good manifestation being decided (balance between “brand fit” & “innovative”, rationales behind visuals, and conveying right massages), I started the ideation phase to develop a series of methods which enable to enhance the experience of brand manifestation design in internal branding department. After idea iteration, conceptualization and two round of validation, three final concepts were developed and a new workflow was created. Future recommendation, as well as discussion, were proposed in the last chapter.

Oversea shopping is becoming increasingly popular among Chinese consumers. Nextport- China is a China-focused digital marketing agency in Amsterdam. The company is help- ing some Dutch brands to market in China. It wants to explore the possibility of selling Dutch products to Chinese consumers online.

In order to realize sustainable customer growth, a company could adopt different strategies: opening up a new market, developing new products, etc. Based on the SWOT analysis, No Label is small and lacking capital, while its main target group (middle-class men, aged 25-45) is growing rapidly. Thus, No Label’s biggest opportunity lies in focusing on the current market and attract more potential customers within the market. After several interviews with its potential customers, the designer found the main challenge for converting its potential customers to real customers is that those people don’t hold a strong belief that No Label is a “relevant brand” and “My kind of product”. The believes that the brand is relevant could result in higher brand loyalty and positive responses to brand-driven activities such as their willingness to pay a premium price, keep purchasing the same brand, adopt new products and so on. This project focuses on leveraging branding and design to elicit the belief of "relevant brand" and "My kind of product", thus converting potential customers of No Lable.

The urgent state of the world, the new wave of critical consumers and a renewed sense of social awareness amongst people is requiring traditional businesses to act on their social responsibility towards society (Echo, 2011). The uprise of social enterprises proves that businesses can do both (Bersin, 2018). Addressing larger societal issues while at the same time create economical value. Maybe the most well-known example of this is Tony Chocolonely. But not all businesses have the luxurity to start from scratch with a revamped strategy that focuses on creating Social Impact. The majority of businesses today are those who have existed for a while and started without a social mission (MKB Nederland, 2019). However, they do feel the pressure, internal or external, to keep up with their new social role in society but they do not know how (Raman, 2011; Lepoutre, 2006; Laudal, 2011; Polonsky, 2009). Cases show that those ‘traditional’ businesses trying to change often fail to position themselves which results in negative backlash and irreversible damage (Confino, 2013). The question is: how to effectively help traditional business in their progress to change? Que Heartbeat Strategy, a research and strategy consultancy, who helps businesses in creating both economical and societal value (Heartbeat Strategy, n.d.). Through exploration of the concept ‘Social Impact’, relevant insights are found that led to the conclusion that there are three key aspects that contribute to solving the issue. The first two key aspects are to focus on internal alignment and focus on internal communication. It seems to be the key factor in creating change within a business rather than the current focus on external communication (Yuan, 2011; Dawkins, 2004). Internal alignment is created by defining a strong Social Impact positioning (Bhattacharya, 2010; Morsing, 2008; Forehand, 2003). This is key to create before carrying out Social Impact related activities and focus on external communication. And last, within a traditional business it is crucial to create awareness about how to balance idealism and business (Mousiolis, 2015; Longo, 2005; Personal interviews conducted with Moyee, Lemonaid and MUD Jeans, 2019). Insights led to the creation of a toolkit. The toolkit provides practical guidance to create a strong coherent vision on social impact. The first step to create lasting change. The toolkit allows Heartbeat Strategy to co-create with their client towards a Social Impact positioning. The co-creative approach ensures that the participants feel an ownership over the created content. The created positioning provides a strong starting point for traditional businesses onto which they can build further to create Social Impact in a sustainable, relevant and credible manner that is valuable for both business and society.

Union is one of the oldest Dutch bicycle manufacturers, and is connected to the large conglomerate Pon Holding. They offer simple but stylish bicycles with a focus on the urban area, for the consumer market. Recently they have linked their brand to the Food & Beverages domain, and are keen to collaborate with businesses in this sector.The Dutch electric bicycle market has been growing rapidly in the last decade and is expected to continue to grow over the next decade. Since Union has the ambition to expand their portfolio, a new electric bicycle is a logical next step for them. The emerging trend of the food delivery market has been growing in the Netherlands as well, and an increasing number of food delivery companies are changing their mode of transportation from gasoline vehicles to electric bicycles. Union has realised that this combination of circumstances gives them a potential opportunity to combine the development of a new e-bike with an entrance into the food delivery e-bike market. Creating a product proposition only for the B2B food delivery market will not be profitable, in terms of sales volume, so Union would like to combine the product with its regular consumer sales. Accordingly, the research question for this project is ‘How can Union enter the food delivery e-bike market, with a product and commercial proposition that primarily serves the needs of food delivery companies, and secondly, is suitable for consumers as well?’Analysing the food delivery e-bike market has shown that (the few) competitors currently offer low quality bicycles for a relatively high price, which leaves room for improvements in terms of product, price and service. User research within both target markets has revealed several interesting overlapping problems, needs and desires, which are seen as key focus points. Generating creative ideas, based on these key focus points has resulted in a selection of proposed features and specifications, which are the starting point of the concept design.Ultimately, the design activities have led to the development of the Union DELI, an e-bike designed for food delivery companies. With a simple but robust design, integrated battery and mid-motor, it is optimal for daily intensive use and weight transportation. This in combination with the ‘connected’ e-bike service (a service that lets the client see and use relevant e-bike-data) food delivery companies can ensure an even better experience for their customers. The e-bike can be customised as desired through the use of modular lighting and transportation elements. The integrated lights can be replaced by one or two food boxes. This modular design makes the Union DELI also suitable for regular use. Client branding ensures that the e-bike represents visually the client’s brand. Repair and maintenance and financial services are all included in the lease construction of the DELI. The geometry and design appearance of the e-bike are based on user desires combined with Union’s brand positioning and portfolio. The DELI therefore fits well with the Union brand. Finally, recommendations for further research combined with a roadmap are presented to give an overview of the activities and next steps that should be taken to prepare for the launch of the DELI.