The brandgym blog

Jordans show the power of packaging

I posted a couple of weeks ago on the re-launch of cereal brand Jordans, talking about how the brand was built on a foundation of real truth. This next post is about how they have harnessed the power of packaging for their re-launched muesli range.

A few things that I think the team did really well:

1. Boost the branding: The brand name and illustration of the mill in Biggleswade now shout out much more proudly at the top of the pack. This is key for getting impact at point of sale: the new packs stand out much better.

Beyond the stronger graphics, impact is also helped by the move from a plastic bag to a gable topped box. Many supermarkets used to fold down the top of the old bags, obscuring or even hiding the brand name. This shows how important it is to understand packaging "in situ", on the shelf, not just on a board room table.

2. Functional added value: the new box is much easier to store than the bag, and can also be easily re-sealed. So, it adds value for the Jordans user

3. Visible product: the little bowl visual on the new boxes is actually a window, allowing you to see the product for real. Makes the pack feel more natural and authentic.

4. Beautiful brand world: the design agency, Pearlfisher, created a whole brand world for Jordans, with cartoon drawings of what I call "Jordans-land": the mill, birds, butterflies, scarecrows, bees and, my favourite, the tractor. This has been used not only on the pack, but also on the website and press advertising, creating consistency across the whole mix.

And a couple of "behind-the-scenes" insights about the process to get to this result:

1. Creativity is a rollercoaster! The process of getting to this pack design was far from easy. It had its ups, but also plenty of downs, and zigs and zags.

2. "Get a good crash-helmet": this was what my first General Manager at P&G said. You need it to break through the brick walls that are put in your way when you want to make change happen. In this case, the brand team needed persistence and persuasion to make the gable top box happen. It was bloody hard for the factory, and at first they said it was not possible for the September re-launch.

If you live in the UK, look out for the new packs on a shelf near you, and let us know what they look like on shelf!

Brand Fuel 24 Part 1 - Power of Design - Lars Wallentin

This is the first of 3 posts on The Brand Fuel Express, the first 24-hour branding event on a high speed train!

It covers the brilliant presentation by Lars Wallentin, who has over 40 years of experience in communication and design with Nestle and a highly entertaining style. I'd wanted to see Lars in action for ages, so it was a real highlight to hook up with him.

Here are some of the key points I took out from his session, that had me nodding my head vigorously in agreement.

Simplify and amplify
Strip away all that is not essential from your brand's design. You can then amplify what you have left: the visual essence of your brand. I posted on this during my series of posts with design shop JKR last year, including the example of John West Salmon.

Lars used the Kellogg's Cornflakes pack as an example of how to simplify and amplify your visual essence, a design I have also admired.

If you can't be seen, you can't be bought
Simple, but so true. Forget about how creative your design or communication is. Or how well branded it is. If the consumer doesn't see you, they can't buy you. In another JKR-linked post, I talked about how every shopping trip is a series of thirty "1 in a 1000" decisions. For each product a shopper buys, there are another 999 they don't.

Push the brand boundaries

This was my favourite bit of the presentation, and a subject close to my heart. Lars talked about the opportunity to push the brand design boundaries and be really creative with packaging to stand out. He gave the example of Toblerone's gift packs, where the brand name is replaced with a seasonal message. So, this year for Father's Day the packs will say "The Best Dad"

And this isn't just being clever. It makes business sense. According to Kraft “Toblerone Milk was the best performing chocolate gift in the week leading up to Father’s Day in 2007", so it really seems to work.

I questioned Lars as to whether there weren't too many brands doing this trick now, especially in the UK. His response is that there are still only a few brands that do it right. This involves coming up with a brand idea, not just playing with the pack. He contrasts tow approaches to the Euro 2008 football tournament.

Good - Mars: the brand has changed Mars to "Hopp" in Switzerland, which means something like "Go on the Swiss!' There is a brand idea here, about Mars being giving fans physical and emotional energy to support their national team.

In contrast, he showed this pack of Toffee, another confectionary brand, where a football and Swiss flag had simply been slapped on the pack.

All in all, a truly inspiring session. Do check Lars out if you get the chance.

Next post: brand storytelling. 

Making secondary packaging more, not a bore

I've posted before on using secondary packaging can be a source of differentiation, with the example of Veuve Clicquot champagne. Well, here is another one on Apple.

I got my new macBook Air last week, and so far it has lived up to all expectations. This included the whole experience of opening the pack. It was more like opening up a package from Prada than a standard computer (yes, I know, sad Apple-geek).

There is the beautifully sleek black outer box cover, that slides off just so (I bet the fit here is engineered to the mm to slide off just right). See how minamlist the pack is? How many other brands do you know who are barve enough to strip the design down to the bare essentials like this? The  macBook Air is then beautifully presented with a little tab you pull to lift it out. With the computer lifted out, the accessories and cable are revealed. But even these bits, which could be checked in as an after-thought, are presented beautifully.

So, if you need to have secondary packaging, as you do with a laptop computer, than why not make more of it as a branding tool?

The other way to go is of course to remove as much it as possible. And Apple have done this as well. The first iPod came in a big square box, whereas new ones come in tiny plastic cases. Less waste, and also more efficient to transport and easier to merchandise on shelf.

Ferrero Rocher's packaging breathes new life into the brand

A clever move by Ferrero Rocher shows the power of packaging to grow the core business by targeting new user groups and occasions. Their handy 4-pack is a great way of breathing life into an established brand, introducing it to a whole new user base.

For years the gold wrapped balls of chocolate have been part of the Christmas routine, or perhaps taken to dinner parties as a gift. The product was only available in with a large number of units, typically 30 or 48. The brand's (in)famous 'Ambassador's party' advertising reinforced the idea of the brand being only for for sharing at special occasions.

However, the brand has broken free of the straight-jacket of special occasion usage with a new 4-pack suitable for individual consumption. This is sold in newsagents' shops and at the check-outs of supermarkets. With this move, the brand is now also an indulgent everyday treat, widening its usage and updating it.

The brand has also updated its communication, and I rather like the new ad which reminds me of the opening sequences of the James Bond movies. It is less cheesy now, and even close to being, dare I say it, aspirational!

The only trick I think they may have missed is 'premiumisation'. I bought a 4-pack for 75p, but this was the same price per unit as a 16 unit gift pack. However, shouldn't they be able to charge a bit more for the convenience of the 4-pack format?

Perhaps Ferrero could learn a lesson from the grand master of using pack formats: Coca-Cola. A trip round the same local supermarket revealed that I could buy Coke in at least 6 different formats, from 330ml chilled bottles to 2l big bottles. And with a price per ml of the most expensive pack being 3 times that of the cheapest!

Make it easy for your consumers to use more

I'm sure I'm not the only one to be suffering from a seasonal bout of flu. Ugh. As a result I've been consuming various pills and potions. And came across another good example of packvertising. I think this one, from Day & Night Nurse, is especially clever because it actively encourages frequency of consumption. But not just for the sake of selling more; there is a benefit in it for the consumer as well.

You know how hard it is to remember to take your medicine when you're supposed to. With Day & Night Nurse the tablets come in a convenient 24 hour sets. They indicate clearly 2 tablets each for morning, lunch and afternoon. And then two differently coloured ones for bedtime.

This is good for the brand, as they encourage frequency of use and so sell more. And its good for me, as by taking the medicine at the right time the stuff will (I hope) work better.

Splenda: sweet promotion (and free too)

I was picking up some sweetener for client coffees at a nondescript hotel and noticed something different about the brightly coloured, flow-wrapped packs of Splenda.  Each one had a different message on it.  From the functional ‘Perfect for sprinkling on cereals and fruit’ to the more emotional ‘Say yes to Splenda’. 

This is "packvertising", and a very effective and overlooked medium. Of course, cereal brands have for decades been using their back of pack for talking to their consumers over the breakfast table,  so the idea is not new. But it is nice to see it being used like this.  Here are the key reasons why I think it’s a good piece of marketing:

1. Innovative media use to cut-through: Sweetener is a low interest category for all but the die-hard dieter so messaging will always struggle to cut through in standard channels.

2. Communicating at the ‘moment of truth’: how do you communicate to people just when they are looking for something to sweeten their coffee?  Not many media spring to mind (coffee mats?) so this is a neat way to be right where the action.

3. Entertainment, not just information: they have not just stuck to pushing the brand, they have given themselves some creative space to be cheerful and chatty, just the ticket for a coffee break.

4. It’s free!  The perfect media choice is something you are already paying for, namely the design on your back of pack. 

So take a leaf out of Splenda’s book and think about how your product is used, right down to the inner sleeve, and see if there are some free GRP’s lurking in there for you!

David N.

Poland Spring show power of packaging

Another New York visit-inspired post. This time on one of my fave topics: the power of packaging.

Poland Spring is one of the leading US domestic water brands, and sold by all the street vendors on the streets of Manhattan. It was founded back in 1845, so has a long history. What impresses me is the way they have used different pack formats to grow. And no sign of any extensions, at least for now.

One I bought was the "Grip n' Flip" sports pack. As the name suggests, it has a flip-top and contoured shape that's easy to grip.

They have a cute, small "Aquapod" format for kids' lunchboxes.

And they've just launched the "Eco-Shape" bottle which has a series of innovations including a 30% smaller label, 100% recyclable bottle and 30% less plastic (whether we'd be better off drinking tap water is another debate for another day!).

What a great way to "refresh" a brand and keep it up to date, whilst finding new ways of meeting needs on different occasions.

Kit-Kat's clever "packvertising"

I posted last week on how Axe/Lynx had grown their core business by better promoting usage of their body spray: "spray more, get more". Here is another good example from Kit-Kat of better promoting your core product, this time by making more use of packaging. I call it "packvertising".

On the back of the packs you find a little cartoon with a suggestion on how to use a Kit-Kat. One says "The Scoop" and suggests using a Kit-Kat finger to scoop ice cream. Another is called "Kool Break" and suggests putting your Kit-Kat in the fridge.

What a smart use of packaging as an free advertising medium to drive extra usage through new occasions. And my guess is it also involved consumer insight work to uncover the ways that consumers had invented to use the product.

What are you doing with the millions of free GRPs on your packaging?

The method of method home

One of the cool things with this blogging lark is connecting with interesting people. Earlier this year I had a trip to Innocent's Fruit Towers. This week I invited Tom Fishburne, UK marketing director of method home, for fish and chips in my local pub in Putney. Tom moved to London earlier this year with his family to launch method home in the UK. Here are some of the things I learnt about the method of method home...

[BTW, If you don't know method, they are what I called in a previous post "the Green & Blacks" of household cleaning. They sell environmentally friendly, non-toxic products, but is the sexiest looking packaging you have ever seen]

1. ITS ABOUT THE PRODUCT STUPID
Most admirers of method home wax lyrically about the emotional appeal of the brand and their "higher order mission", and I dig this too. But what I really love is that the whole brand is built on fantastic products and packaging. Just look at this stuff, which is more like cosmetics that you average household cleaning products. No surprise, as they got uber cool design Karim Rashid to design the packaging. And they have a real point of difference in striving for efficacy, whilst being non-toxic. With products like this you don't need to invest  lot in fancy communication, as the products speak, or rather shout, for themselves.

2. WHAT are you FOR?
Talking to Tom I felt the same fervour as when I met Dan, creative genius of innocent. They are clearly part of an adventure that goes beyond just pushing products. In the case of method, they want want to make cleaning your home sexy, cool and at the same time less harmful. Like innocent, they have their own irreverent tone of voice and language which is shouts through in their manifesto. I've posted before about writing a brand manifesto; I find that breaking out of the constraints of a tradition boxy positioning tool really helps you express your brand. Here are a few snippets from the method "humanifesto" that you can download here method_humanifesto.pdf:

we see ingredients that come from plants, not chemical plants
we're entranced by shiny objects, like clean dinner plates, nobel peace prizes, and tasteful public sculptures
role models in bottles
a way to help each and every advocate put their method where their mouth is
once you clean up your home, a mess of other problems seem to disappear as well

3. DEFINE your BRAND SIMPLY but BOLDLY
I quizzed Tom about which sort of positioning tool they used to sum up the method brand; Tom knows a thing or two about this as he is ex General Mills. But guess what? They haven't spent months labouring over a pyramid or onion. They do have a couple of things which are clear, and because these words weren't messed with by a committee, they are distinctive and edgy.:
- An overall mission, "What we're for" which they summarise as "people against dirty"
- A slogan: "Detox your home"

Beyond this, people are free to find new ways of expressing the brand. As the products/packs are so distinctive, and as the leadership from the top is so clear, people "get" the brand without the need for a complex brand book.

4. BRING CREATIVITY INSIDE
This is perhaps the most interesting insight of all I got from Tom. Like innocent, Method have key creative people inside the company. In particular, the guy who heads up product design, Josh Handy, used to work as product director for Karim Rashid. Cool. So, rather than having to brief a design agency to come up with ideas, Josh sketches then up in a couple of hours, and then uses a nifty bit of kit to create a 3-d mock-up... over night. Wow. This is part of the reason why the brand can be defined more loosely (see above), as the key creative people live and breathe it.

5. HAVE A BRAND CEO, or TWO
The 2 founders of method, Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry, don't talk about the brand. They ARE the brand,  what I call "brand CEOs".What is really interesting is that Tom explained how they each bring to life one of the two key sides of the brand:
- "Sex": Eric Ryan is the ex-ad guy with the creative touch
Plus
- "Substance": Adam Lowry is the ex Standford scientist who was really into the environment

Their own version of "sausage and sizzle"!

6. BEING BRAVE ENOUGH to be DIFFERENT PAYS
Growing the method brand in the UK will be a long hard slog for sure. But the power of being differentiated shows in the fact that Tom and the team were able to get a listing in Tesco and Sainsbury in the first couple of weeks.

So, good luck to Tom and the Team in the UK. Click through to Ocado here to buy some of their stuff now!

Using insight to ignite your packaging - WTS? and JKR4

We touched on the power of insight to help dramatically improve packaging in the last one of this series, powered by JKR, when I talked about Scholl's Party Feet. This one goes into this issue in a bit more detail, and looks at a great story of the Molton Brown brand.

Molton Brown sell fancy toiletries, and the brand was built initially through a clever distribution strategy of selling to upmarket hotels. That's where you may have seen the brand. They now also sell in posh shops such as Selfridge's, and are the partner of BA's travel spa at Heathrow.

This case concerns the Xmas gift sets that the brand sells. These used to be pretty standard sets of different products (shampoo, shower gel etc.) sold in boring boxes or see-through bags. What JKR and Molton Brown found out through talking both to the end user (mainly women) and the main buyer (men) was that these Xmas packs were a bit of a second-class gift. A "distress" purchase when you were short of ideas. The brand was good, as were the individual products. But the presentation let them down. The other key insight, which is oh so true, is that most men are bloody lazy when buying gifts.

Building on these insights, the team transformed the special gift packs by designing a beautiful range of boxes that any man would be proud to offer. But wait, here's the real flash of brilliance. Not only did the buyer of this new pack not need to box up the individual products. By removing the external branding and adding a fancy ribbon, he didn't even need to wrap it up! Genius. That's this Xmas sorted.

The business benefits of this move were huge. First, they sold a boat load more. Second, they were able to charge a much bigger premium price. Third, stores loved the packs and so built huge displays of them, boosting both brand visibility and sales.

So, another example of deep insight being used as the catalyst for creative brilliance, executed with boldness and confidence, and delivering growth for the business.