A Reversal of Fortunes

G&B is now the fastest growing confectionery brand in the UK (with annual growth of 61% in a sector growing at 1.8%) and it commands 7.4% market share. There are already biscuits, drinks and ice cream to accompany the chocolate ranges.

13/07/07 Rebranding a pack can turn an underperforming product into a global success story – and vice versa.

WAITING FOR TAKEOFF

Design brief
Design Bridge was briefed to rebrand Beefeater Gin as less of a tourist takeaway and more of a modern London classic. Group creative director Graham Shearsby says Design Bridge was told to make the bottle suit Pernod Ricard’s aspiration for the brand; it had to have vitality, tradition and originality. So the firm redesigned the bottle to be reminiscent of a London brick, redrew the Beefeater to make him “more iconic and less like a ladybird logo”, redesigned the logo so it always features ‘London’ underneath the word ‘Beefeater’, and reinvigorated the colour red all over.

Market response
Beefeater Gin was launched to the trade this January. It still has to make its debut on the shelves at duty free, but the response from those who have seen the pack suggests that Beefeater is no longer just a drink for tourists. As well as designing the packs, Design Bridge has helped Pernod Ricard create an identity for the brand online. An interactive website suggests ways and places to drink the gin in London and extends the brand’s quintessential character.

Expert analysis
Jonathan Sands, creative director at Elmwood, gives some tips for designers tasked with rebranding packs. “Too many designers design for themselves rather than think of design as a communication mechanism. Talk to the consumer in the aisles. Understand what people are looking for and what attracts them first. The actual product function is what needs to stand out, and the brand is a comfort.” Shelf standout is key, he says, and as Beefeater looks set to take a sturdier space in shops, the packs have all the features that should make for a successful rebrand.
OVERSEAS ACCEPTANCE

Design brief
Coley Porter Bell radically redesigned the packs for Kotex sanitary protection products in 2003 after consumer research told them women wanted to feel empowered and proud of their feminity, rather than hide it. The design firm took the bold decision to use striking photographs of red feminine objects on a bright white background. When the firm tailored the designs for the US market in 2005, it chose red again, but on softer pictures of flowers. “These worked better in the US as they found them more sensual than the lipstick and knickers imagery used here,” says Stephen Bell, creative director at CPB.

Market response
Kotex relied on nothing but its pack designs when it rebranded in 2003, but it changed from being a weak brand with declining sales to being a stand-out product that 780% more women than before could recognise. It is another good example of how packaging can lift a brand without any other marketing spend. The brand started to hold its own against big players like Always and has gone on to make an impact abroad. The change of designs for the American market was successful and sales increased “substantially”, according to Bell.

Expert analysis
Jane Clancey, head of marketing strategy at the BBC, said of Kotex, when it won a Design Effectiveness award in 2004, that: “The design crosses cultures and has a positive impact on sales as well as consumer perception, making Kotex a nicer necessity.”
The packs answered the difficult challenge to make a product that had traditionally been discrete, stand out and be noticed.

REPOSITIONING A BRAND

Design brief
Pearlfisher had a budget of around £50,000 for the task of repositioning the Green & Black’s (G&B) brand from ‘worthy’ organic to luxury, premium chocolate. The new identity emphasises a mass luxury appeal with a dark brown corporate colour communicating the intense, rich chocolate flavour of the product. The gold typography of the logo denotes the brand’s premium status and the word ‘organic’ is placed at the bottom of the logo, making it a supporting differentiator rather than its lead message.

Market response
Green & Black’s was launched in 1992 and by 2002 had achieved sales of £4.5m. However, this was only 1% of market share and the brand was struggling to break into the big time. But sales rose to £30m after Pearlfisher’s work went on shelves at the end of 2005, and Cadbury Schweppes bought the brand for around £25m. G&B is now the fastest growing confectionery brand in the UK (with annual growth of 61% in a sector growing at 1.8%) and it commands 7.4% market share. There are already biscuits, drinks and ice cream to accompany the chocolate ranges.

Expert analysis
The 2006 Design Effectiveness Awards judged G&B winner in the Brand Identity category for its “spectacular” increase in market share. Andrew Woodward, marketing director at John Lewis Partnership, says: “The highly distinctive identity has undoubtedly been central to its phenomenal success in recent years.” He added that the effectiveness of the identity was demonstrated by G&B’s decision to feature it prominently in its advertising campaigns. “The use of simple pack shots in advertising underlines how strongly the identity articulates the brand.”

GOOD PACK, BAD SALES

Design brief
Turner Duckworth was asked to redesign Mr Kipling’s packs as part of a complete product, brand and packaging overhaul in 2004. The new look focused on the product with up-close shots of the cakes and pies and very little else to distract. The logo was redrawn and the ‘Exceedingly Good’ catchphrase took centre stage. If the mantra ‘less is more’ is true, this pack should have worked.

Market response
Mr Kipling was the leading producer of packaged cakes with an 11% share of a £1.2bn market before designs by Turner Duckworth hit the shelves.Shortly after, sales dropped. Bruce Duckworth, creative director of Turner Duckworth, explains: “Mr Kipling consumers did switch off when the packaging changed, but that was part of a brand repositioning, so that they could put the price up and implement some product improvements and put the new products in new packaging. However, the packaging changed, the prices went up, but the product improvements never happened.”

Expert analysis
Mr Kipling rebranded again in late 2005, returning to its more traditional pack designs with the help of Vibrandt. It is planning another brand refresh later this year. Simon Preece from Elmwood Design says that the Turner Duckworth-designed packaging let the brand down as much as the unimproved product it contained. “Consumers couldn’t find the pack on-shelf,” he says, and if the redesign alienated existing customers, Mr Kipling had a lot to lose. As a critique in Eye magazine in May 2005 said of Mr Kipling’s packs: “There has never been a reliable correlation between design quality and commercial success.”