Welcome to Shelf Life 6 and the first edition of the New Year. We’ve been a bit busy.
The Brand stories analysed include innocent, Hairy Bikers and the London Olympics, making this blog the only place where it’s possible to read those names in the same sentence.
Next time I’ll be focusing on a specific sector and identifying the best and worst storytelling on shelf. Suggestions welcome.
The image on Wolff Olins’ website gives us a vibrant picture of what their controversial ‘London 2012’ branding can deliver, when the full might of the identity system comes into play.
I’m sure there’s an equally inspiring brand manual around, but someone forgot to give it to the people behind the posters, retail design and packaging now appearing. Or has it been secretly repositioned as the ‘austerity Olympics’?
The UK has a seemingly insatiable appetite for both celebrity chefs and big packs of posh crisps, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen the two obsessions combined.
However I wonder if the consumer will see the connection at all, because the Hairy Biker ‘brand’ as seen on TV is a totally different story from that being told by the packs.
Resplendent as they are in their Marks & Spencer graphics and pastel shades, I’m just not getting the throaty roar of the Triumph Rocket Threes, as the lads speed off to their next culinary appointment.
One of the things that helps a great brand story is a name so outrageously daft that they couldn’t have made it up. Well, apart from Haagen Dazs, but that’s one of the few brilliant exceptions.
Schweppes is so famous for fizzy grown‐up drinks that our client Shloer is often spelled ‘Schloer’ by consumers.
The current design balances that awkwardly long brand badge with a trail of effervescence, a theme that was cleverly built on in the pre‐christmas ads (weirdly still running at my local Sainsbury’s).
But shoe‐horned onto Abbey Well mineral water as a co-brand, the story of both is completely lost in favour of a blunt but soulless message: ‘we acquired this one’.
A 3 litre wine box comes with certain assumptions built‐in, foremost amongst these being that it’s for group consumption. It’s also more convenient and cheaper than 4 bottles, but as the host or hostess of the party how do you make sure that your selection reflects your good taste or zest for life, and not just an eye for a bargain?
Of the wide variety of brand stories on show here, I’m liking Lindeman’s warm sunset over the vines, complete with swirling glass. The strapline ‘hold on to the moment’ builds this theme, but which came first, I wonder?
Wine boxes have certainly upped their game in terms of visual appeal, now it must be the turn of the fiddly plastic taps inside.
The idea of letting your product show through a window in the packaging is a great temptation to producers and designers alike, provided it doesn’t affect shelf life and that the product ‘looks the part’.
Stories that work with windows are usually about product pride or authenticity, but there’s always the risk of accidentally shouting ‘commodity’.
Neither Natco nor Cigala can be accused of that, but the latter’s ‘crayfish garnish’ turns out to be a one‐trick pony, the only product in a large range that looks the same when cooked.
On the other hand Natco’s ‘authentic Indian cooking’ story frames its pulses so perfectly that it’s a shock when the product moves.
But unless a brand has a unique, robust and great‐looking product (in the raw), the window can only ever be a nice detail within a bigger story; not much evidence of that here.
I’m quietly impressed with innocent’s continual fine‐tuning of its brand story to attract new consumers, including the holy grail of kids and their lunchboxes.
Their wide‐eyed saintly blob is joined by the obligatory gang of fruity characters, whose online activities and choice of freebies strike a good balance between healthy fun and (buzzword approaching) edutainment.
The packaging also obeys the new design orthodoxy of kids products (less ink = fewer additives), whilst keeping the fun stakes high.
Meanwhile over at Pepsico’s planet lunch, the smart idea of combining nutritionally better-for‐ them drinks and snacks also tweaked its packaging: The monsters get a high‐gloss 3D look, and the pack inside reveals itself on the box ‐ in case you didn’t know what squeezable fruit looks like.
Despite the extra‐terrestrial online playground, I’m not sure if kids or mums are warming to this one‐stop shop concept. Still on test market in Sainsbury’s, at least they’re learning by doing.
I’ve just finished writing an article for Water Innovation magazine (page 43 if you’re interested), examining the different stories being told by water brands.
Naturally my focus is on their packaging, but after analysing lots of really interesting bottle designs, my attention turned to the fact that the main design feature on the supermarket shelf is a large area of stretched and distorted shrink film.
Despite its challenges this secondary packaging provides a great deal of space for brand storytelling, including sub‐branding and strategic promotions.
As the stories become more complex than ‘our mountain source’, embracing ethical and environmental dilemmas, the pressure to use this space effectively will only grow.
In my opinion these are the best (pre-packaged) bagels you can get in the UK, so I’m speaking here as a consumer first and design pundit (some might say guru…) second.
There’s no doubt that the redesign (the one on shelf) is technically ‘better’, with clearer product coding, neater typography and even a shinier plastic bag.
But in storytelling terms I’m missing a bit of the authentic “Hey, mister, blow it out your ass!” feeling I used to get from the old pack.
Go on, tell me New York Bakery Co. is in Hemel Hempstead and really make my day…