Shape
1. Understanding the brand: Category shaper
Yoghurt is a pretty healthy product, combining dairy goodness with low fat and, when sweetened with fruit flavours, a reasonably indulgent snack. It was also one of the first foods to get its own fully-fledged ‘diet’ category, using clever technology to eliminate fat and replace sugar with sweeteners to reduce calories even further.
Brands have come and gone over the years, but both Weight Watchers and Shape are stalwarts of the ‘0%’ category, expressing its role both in name and substance: helping women watch their weight and keep ‘in shape’.
2. Understanding the consumer: Diet conscious
Few of us like being on a diet but for a high proportion of women it is almost a default state. The biggest enemy of eating correctly is the dreaded ‘munchies’, that period in the day when people feel they need a little something (sweet) to keep going. That’s where Shape and plenty of other ‘diet conscious’ foods come in, promising a great-tasting break with as few calories as possible.
Women who watch their weight have plenty of choice of yoghurts, including 0% variants from brands that major on taste or health, so why choose Shape? The answer lies in the sense of control that a dedicated diet brand offers, sharing the goal and the challenges faced by its consumers.
3. Defining the task: Make me want one
Consumers might have valued the control offered by Shape 0% but they believed that it came at a price: less taste. This belief is a throwback to earlier, less sophisticated recipes, because blind tests of Shape’s new recipes proved that they had excellent taste perception.
The problem was traced to the supermarket shelf, where consumers described the packs as bland, ‘mumsy’ and unappetizing. Make that enticing, modern and yummy, and we would be in business.
4. Creating: Sensuality of taste
Taste perception was not a problem for Shape’s recently introduced desserts range, due to the more enticing name (Shape Delights) and recipes (mainly chocolate-based). Re-naming the 0% yoghurts as Shape Delights was a first step, but our challenge was to make them look delightful too, so that they instantly told the right story: the best-tasting 0% yoghurts on the market.
Shape acts as a beacon on shelf through its pink packaging, hence this had to be retained but carefully evolved to exude more naturalness. Appetite appeal of the product is important but easy to copy, so we chose to wrap the ingredients in a brand device that isn’t: A smooth, slinky, satisfying and shapely S-shaped swirl. Try saying that after a few glasses of rosé!
5. Believing: Staying in Shape
Julia Lowbridge, Marketing Manager: “The new packs successfully achieved our objectives to modernise the brand and unify yoghurts and desserts with a far more appetising look on the shelf.”
Tastefully put, Julia.
