v2 victorian business

8/2/2019 v2 Victorian Business

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Building a Better BiscuitAim:A series of activities which encourage students to investigate and participate imaginatively in the

process of researching, designing, packaging, advertising and retailing a new biscuit. The activitiescover a wide variety of curriculum areas and can be adapted for both KS2 and KS3 pupils. Activitiesmay be used individually or could be followed sequentially as a longer-term project.

A. Designing a biscuitB. Packing a biscuitC. Advertising a biscuitD. Selling a biscuit

Introduction: If the activities are followed through in sequence then having the students work in small groups of 3 or 4 can encourage excitement and engagement. Each group represents, in effect, a separatebusiness. Their ideas and products can, at the end of the process, be tested by being put on themarket - other students can be asked to vote for/buy the one they would prefer. Which biscuit willmake the biggest profit?

On the Huntley and Palmers website there is a 'Biscuit Millionaire' interactive. This covers some of the dilemmas faced by Huntley and Palmers in their early years. Students could be encouraged tohave a go at this, both to increase their understanding of the historical background and to foster asense of imaginative involvement.

The Building a Biscuit Business PowerPoint presentation has separate sections, which accompanyeach of these activities. They can be used to introduce each activity and to illustrate designsuggestions.

A lot of background information about the history of biscuits can be found on the Biscuits ThemePages on the H&P website. Note, too, that recipes for some early biscuits can be found on the lastpage in this section. A few samples of these early biscuits will underline the way things have

changed far more effectively than an hour of theoretical discussion!

The aim of this activity is to encourage pupils to think about how biscuits have changed over time,what makes a good biscuit and to design their own new biscuit.

Before looking at the PowerPoint presentation discuss some of the followingquestions:

What is their favourite biscuit? Why? (Each student could also be asked to bring an example of theirfavourite biscuit to class)

www.huntleyandpalmers.org.uk



How are biscuits different from cakes?How many biscuits do they eat each day? Each week?Do they buy their own biscuits? Or do their parents dictate their choice? Is there any conflictbetween them and their parents over which biscuits to eat? How important are adverts (or othergimmicks) in their choice?

A graph or other representational chart could be made to show which are the favourite biscuits

Biscuit HistoryLook at the Designing a biscuit section of the PowerPoint presentation. Some of the early biscuitsare, at least in terms of their shape, surprisingly modern. Several of the examples shown herehave a fancy design that is clearly aimed at children. Note, also, the Conversation Biscuits -biscuits with slightly saucy questions and answers (some of the ones shown here are in Spanish).

More information on these biscuits can be found by typing conversation into the Huntley & PalmersSearch Engine. Talk with pupils about:When they think these biscuits were made?Who were the different biscuits intended for?What modern food products use fancy shapes to appeal to children?What shapes can they think of which could be used for a new biscuit?How are these biscuits different from modern biscuits? (Think about the use of sugar, flavouringsand, in particular, chocolate)Why have biscuits changed, and is that change for the better?

A. Designing a biscuit

Ask the children to design their own biscuit. Encourage them to think about:What flavours do they like? What do other people like?Who they are making their biscuit for? Children? Adults? The luxury market, or for the corner shop?The health food market?What gimmicks they might use to make their biscuit stand out and sell - Colour? Shape? Or evensuch things as competitions, free gifts, vouchers-for-schools, celebrity endorsements, film or TVtie-ins, fancy packaging, and so on.What they will call their biscuit?

If the children are working as a group and as part of a longer project it adds to the excitement if they have to work out the cost of their biscuit design. A notional price list can be drawn up. Forexample:

1. Basic ingredients (Flour/milk/sugar) - 3p2. Chocolate coat - 2p3. Layer of chocolate inside - 2p4. Layer of jam - 1p5. Layer of toffee - 1p6. Nuts - 1p …. and so on.

Building a Better Biscuit



The children should also think about how much profit they intend to make from each biscuit. Arethey going for the luxury end of the market, or the cheap-and-cheerful end? In terms of shiftingunits the cheap-and-cheerful approach may be more successful than an up-market strategy. On theother hand, simply selling lots of items does not necessarily mean a large profit - a single sale of aluxury biscuit that has a 10 pence profit margin will make more money than selling nine biscuitsthat make 1 pence per unit.

B. Packing a biscuit

Designing the wrapper for an individual biscuit

Look at the examples of biscuit wrappers in the Biscuit Wrappers section of the PowerPoint

presentation.

As these examples from a salesman's catalogue demonstrate, individually wrapped biscuits are notas recent as some people think. Wrapping each biscuit adds to the cost, but does that meanbiscuits can be sold individually. The wrapper also acts as a kind of advertisement. These examplesare boldly coloured and often feature multicoloured foil. They make a vivid impression.

Talk with the students about these designs.How do these designs differ from more modern designs?How successful are the designs?What qualities make the designs successful/unsuccessful?What design features are used to give unity to the range of biscuits?

Look at some equivalent modern packaging.Which modern packaging is instantly recognizable? Why?How is packaging linked to advertising campaigns?The 1936 labels lack much of the information which can be found on modern packaging. Whatinformation - some of it is a legal requirement - can be found on modern wrappers? Think of product weight, ingredients, address of manufacturer and so on. Packages also generally containappropriate health information (the number of calories, or messages such as 'May contain nuts', or'Suitable for vegetarians'). Bar codes are another universal modern feature. Some products feature

information such as 'Fair Trade Product'.

Finally ask the students to design their own wrappers. They can either produce an individualdesign, or a set of designs linked by colour and imagery.Designs should feature some of the information found on modern packaging - so the design willneed to feature a front and back.Children working as a group could produce a mock-up presentation version of their packing - eitherflat versions, as in the 1936 catalogue, or three-dimensional models. In either case, coloured foilalways helps to make the designs stand out!




C. Advertising a biscuit

(1) Designing a rectangular tin

This is a variation of the previous activity - many of the questions used would be appropriate whendiscussing a tin or box design.

Begin by looking at the Rectangular Tins section of the PowerPoint presentation, which shows avariety of simple tin designs.

The aim of this activity is to teach basic design principles, so the shape of the tin/box should belimited to variations on a simple rectangular shape. Most tins produced after World War Two werevariations on either circles or rectangles. For more information about the way tin styles changed

over time see the Biscuit Tins Theme Pages on the Huntley and Palmers website.

(2) Designing a novelty tin with moving parts

The focus here is more on the technological challenges of the task. Until well after the SecondWorld War most biscuits were sold from large tins out of which the grocer would scoop loosebiscuits and wrap them in a paper bag. Fancy or novelty tins were made to be sold as presents.New tin designs were especially produced for sale at Christmas. Some tins were designed whichcould be used as a toy after the biscuits had been eaten.

As with previous activities, begin by looking at some of the examples in the Novelty Tins section of the PowerPoint presention. These images can be used as a stimulus for discussion and planning.

Students should design and create their own novelty tin. Their design should fulfil the followingthree criteria:

Their tin should be functional. That is, it is primarily a container for biscuits. Capacity should notbe compromised by novelty. There also needs to be lid to get the biscuits out!The tin should be usable as a toy after use.The tin should use moving parts.

The Powerpoint presentation includes some images of design boards created by the designers atthe Huntley, Boorne and Stevens tin factory. Students should be encouraged to produce similarlyneat and accurately measured designs. Obviously, creating an actual tin is not practicable -cardboard versions will have to do! In fact, such mock-ups of designs were regularly produced atHuntley, Boorne and Stevens as part of the design process.

Begin by looking at the Huntley & Palmers advertising material from different periods, which canbe found in the Advertising section of the PowerPoint presentation.Obviously modern advertising is dominated by TV adverts. Huntley & Palmers were alert to newadvertising possibilities. For example, they produced advertising gramophone records in the mid1920s (For Every Mealtime There's a Biscuit - which can be heard on the website) and in the 1930s




they paid for adverts on the pirate stations Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandie. They alsoproduced advertising films such as The Royal Baker in 1937. In the 1950s and 1960s they linkedmany of their biscuits with Hollywood films of children's TV programmes, such as 'My Fair Lady' or'Muffin the Mule'. Information about all of these developments can be found on the website. Herewe use only printed adverts. However, these reflect changes in the wider advertising industry andare a useful way to introduce the topic.

When looking at the advertisements on the PowerPoint presentation -

Note the way the earliest advert is all text. The first adverts were much like modern For Sale itemsin local papers - brief, imageless and informative. The history of advertising is marked by theincreasing emphasis on visual imagery and the reduction of text to catchy slogans.What is the audience for each advert? The audience dictates both the imagery and the text.

Note the use of slogans. What makes a good slogan? The most enduring H&P slogan was - 'Huntleyand Palmers, the first name you think of in Biscuits'.Note the prominent use of the brand name - Huntley and Palmers. In fact the firm would moreappropriately have been known simply as Palmers Biscuits, as the Huntley family no longer had anactive interest in the firm after 1857. However, even at that early date the name had becomefamiliar - a brand - and they wisely decided to stick with old formula. By 1900 the name wasknown all around the world. What modern brands are so well known?Where these adverts position H&P - at the top or the bottom end of the market? Huntley andPalmers liked to think of themselves as the country's premier biscuit manufacturer, using qualityingredients to produce a high quality biscuit. Can this be seen reflected in these adverts?

Finally, ask the students to design their own advert. Remember to include - strong visual imagery,slogans, a brand name and other features of contemporary advertising.

D. Selling a biscuit

Pupils who have worked in groups and produced biscuit designs, packaging and adverts shouldpresent a display of their work.

If they have priced their biscuits, pupils from other classes can be invited to inspect their displays.They can be issued with a nominal amount of money and asked which biscuit(s) they would spend

their money on. Find out, also, what factors determined their choice - the biscuit design?Packaging? Advertising?

Results can be collated to find out:Which biscuits sold the most?Which biscuit made the most profit?Which factors contributed most to the success of these biscuits?


v2 victorian business

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