Unpacking the Recurrent Value of Digitally Augmented FMCGs

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) such as food and drink are sold quickly and are consumed regularly. This project will investigate how novel, but increasingly widespread digital technologies, such as mobile phone-based augmented-reality, can responsibly improve the value in use of these, for example by providing more detailed information, a playful or a mindful experience. We will work with a multinational company and a local SME to prototype and test new products. These hybrid products mixing both physical food stuffs and packaging with digital interactions could enhance the value of the consumption that is already taking place.

The project will investigate alternative forms of augmentation such as filters in the context of embodied product interactions of unwrapping, sharing, turn-taking and re-visiting. It will explore how consumers experience products both “in the world” and in the “domestic social setting” and how value in use arises from hybrid products verses their physical counterparts.

Project team: Martin Flintham, Chris Greenhalgh, Boriana Koleva, Joycelyn Spence, Emily Thorn

Project start date 1 March 2023 – 31 August 2024

Introduction blog,

This project sits within Horizon’s Consumer Products Campaign