PLATED

Retail Design

Expanding a direct-to-consumer brand into a brick-and-mortar space

 

In a nutshell:

Ask: Design Plated’s first ever retail space and experience.

Problem: Plated struggles to thrive as a culinary brand due to high customer drop-off. 

Solution: Refresh the joy of cooking with Plated through a play place for discovering culinary elements.

 
 

Situation

Plated started as a subscription service that delivered meal kits to customers’ homes. Each kit contained a recipe card and ingredients prepped for cooking, introducing convenience to dinnertime.

Today, Plated’s subscription service is discontinued due to high customer drop-off. Their kits are now only available in Albertsons stores. Since then, Plated has struggled to maintain its presence in customers’ kitchens.  

Problem  

When learning about why customers canceled their deliveries, we found out that they were cooking novices who saw meal kits as their training wheels. But after following a few recipes, customers master basic techniques. This confidence to get by in the kitchen causes them to outgrow the value of their meal kits.

Realization  

While recipes helped customers to learn technical skills, it didn’t help them to become inventive with food. After leaving Plated, most of them turned to advanced resources like Bon Appetit. But no amount of YouTube videos or cookbooks compared to the hands-on guidance they received from meal kits.  

Opportunity 

Launch a space where customers can develop their culinary craft beyond prescriptive recipes. 

Strategy 

Expand the palate of the cooking enthusiast.

 

Introducing…

PLATED MARKET

 

 Design Rules:

  1. Inviting

  2. Playful

  3. Experimental

  4. Fun

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First Floor

The Market

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The market is designed for discovery. Each aisle is based on a protein, known as the base for every meal. To guide customers through building their own dish, each shelf will contain complementary ingredients. This allows customers to imagine what they can create from the full view of one aisle. For example, a customer walking down the chicken aisle may piece together these ingredients for making fajitas: 

 
 
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To make our store navigation seamless, we built kiosks that catalog every product’s location with zoning codes. Customers can also use the kiosks to create and print shopping lists.

 
 
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For customers who want to skip the kiosk, we created a mobile app with the same capabilities. The app can also optimize in-store routes, which customers can update if they add or subtract items as they shop.

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Employees at Plated Market are called Sous Chefs instead of store clerks. They are trained to assist customers with their culinary vision. Their recommendations can range from complimentary flavors to cooking methods and best tools to use. 

 

 Second Floor

The Learning Kitchen

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The learning kitchen holds cooking classes with a focus on advanced tools. This allows customers to explore dishes that aren’t commonly made at home, such as handmade noodles or sous vide steak.

For customers who enjoyed using the tools from class, they can purchase them in the market’s Kitchen Tool section.

 
 
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 Cooks in the Kitchen

Jan Junloy (Art Director)

Yotam Ohayon (Copywriter)

Jackson Downey (Creative Brand Manager)

Annie Maddox (Creative Brand Manager)

Art Ross (Creative Brand Manager)

My Role

Brand audit 

Competitive audit 

In-depth interviews 

Service innovation

Retail concepts 

Design guidelines