Recycling Plastics in Costa Rica: Creating Environmental Awareness through Strategic Brand and Product Design

This Master thesis shows how to create environmental awareness through the use of strategic brand and product design in the country of Costa Rica. An adaptation of the Delft Innovation Model has been constructed to determine the strategy for a new company. Using this model, the external factors (environment) can be analysed and the internal factors (company) can be adapted hereon. A product (portfolio) can be designed using the results of the external analysis and the company structure can be adapted to the production and marketing of the product (portfolio). At the end of the external analysis, a business model is constructed that incorporates all the vital elements, such as the company vision and mission and the branding strategy, to clearly determine the strategic direction of the company in the future. In this project, two products have been designed: 1) a 'green' guide, made from a recycled polypropylene cover with a content printed on recycled paper 2) a waterproof wallet, made from recycled polyethylene plastic bags.