BY KIM VAN ELKAN MANAGING DIRECTOR, HORNALL ANDERSON
Boozy Udders, an alcoholic cocktail-inspired ice cream range, was unveiled to much excitement at the recent Food and Drink Expo 2016. The idea is a bit cheeky and offers excitement to the ice cream category, combing two of our favourite things. Unusually there aren’t many alcoholic ice creams on the market. It feels like a great opportunity that could really be maximised with some clear and clever thinking.
At present the brand isn’t listed in any of the big supermarkets. So how do you take a start-up brand from a farmers’ market or shop to major retailers like Waitrose or Tesco? The first thing the business should be asking about any start-up or challenger brand is what makes it special? What is the brand personality, its big idea and what is my reason to believe in it?
This product has so many selling points. But how do you emphasise them and communicate this to consumers effectively? We can’t necessarily fit all a product’s selling points on to the front of the pack. So what to pick out? Too many messages become wallpaper. Once a start-up brand has found the big idea, the packaging design will follow.
The packaging for Boozy Udders is quirky and playful, but it is trying to communicate a lot with its packaging. How can other media ease the burden on packaging and spread the brand personality? Web and sticky social media content can provide a cost-effective, relevant and responsive way to engage with your audience. The white tubs have a busy hand scribbled feel, with a flowery doodle-inspired logo, squiggles and even a sketched comedic cow with cocktail. Yes, it’s amusing, so is the chosen brand name, but the packaging could work harder for them to really connect with the consumer. In this instance what should we focus in on? Is it the alcoholic cocktail flavours, the alcohol content, the provenance of ingredients, the fact the ice cream is made on a farm in Kent or is it that the product is a little bit rascally? Once you have answered these questions, the packaging design will follow.
It is however definitely a luxury product. You wouldn’t eat it every day and it would be a real treat, given the high alcohol content. So premium design cues could be stripped back and minimalist, opulent and indulgent or a quirky approach could be taken. Structural packaging could play a part – could the pot be shaped like a cocktail glass or a milk churn? Every aspect of the brand should live and breathe the big idea.
Looking around at the ice cream sector brands such as Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s, they truly understand their brand personality and how to showcase it to their target consumers, they have clarity of thinking in everything they do from packaging to above the line.
This product has so many great aspects to it (strawberry daiquiri or whisky Mac Daddy anyone?) that by highlighting the big idea through packaging design, it will be more likely to appeal to its target audience and to supermarket buyers and become more than a one-off impulse purchase, a brand that becomes a regular in the shopping trolley. The dream of every start-up.
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