global edition nielsen design impact awards · 7 copyright © 2019 the nielsen company (us), llc....

GLOBAL EDITION

NIELSEN DESIGN IMPACT AWARDS2019

At Nielsen, data drives everything we do—even art. That’s why we used real data to create this image. Copyright © 2019 The Nielsen Company (US), LLC. Confidential and proprietary. Do not distribute.

2 Copyright © 2019 The Nielsen Company (US), LLC. Confidential and proprietary. Do not distribute.

INTRODUCTIONThe design experts at Nielsen BASES believe great package design rarely gets the recognition it deserves. We created The Nielsen Design Impact Award to demonstrate the tremendous impact that effective package design can have, and to celebrate brands that are elevating the role of packaging in the marketing mix. Specifically, the award recognizes successful package redesigns in the fast-moving consumer-goods space around the world—ones that have helped to drive significant increases in brands’ bottom lines.

For the first time ever, we invited brand marketers and design agencies from around the world to submit their projects for consideration. Nielsen has a unique advantage of being a leader in tracking in-market performance. We leveraged that expertise to analyze redesigns that launched between Jan. 1, 2016 and Jan. 1, 2018 to discover the initiatives that drove a lift in sales. While we know a notable increase in sales is important, we also conducted primary research on a subset of initiatives to ensure the new designs were moving key brand drivers. So, we surveyed thousands of consumers to assess how well each redesign addressed its core communication objectives and to gauge purchase preference for the new packages over the old ones.

Based on our analysis, we selected 10 initiatives that leveraged both the art and science of design to make a truly remarkable impact. They represent a wide range of business situations across food, beverage, personal and homecare: transforming a retailer’s own brand into a “real brand” through pack design, an authentic new take in a saturated category, legacy brands adapting to new trends, and more.

Upon analyzing this year’s winners, we observed four key lessons learned that the winners employed when redesigning their pack:

1. Designing beyond category norms

2. Designing to promote health and wellness

3. Designing for white space

4. Designing for screen time and changing buying platforms

While our winners certainly aren’t the only entries we received that made a meaningful impact on brands’ bottom lines, they are some of the more extraordinary cases and use techniques most other brands can learn from. Read on—we think you’ll see why.


CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2019 NIELSEN DESIGN IMPACT AWARD WINNERS

M&M’S®U.S.

NICE!® BY WALGREENSU.S.

ICELANDIC PROVISIONS™

U.S.

HESS SELECTU.S.

ALPURA®MEXICO

WINNERS


WINNERS

ARAWANA OILCHINA

MAQSOUTH AFRICA

PLAYBOY FRAGRANCESSOUTH AFRICA

PRESTÍGIOBRAZIL

SATIS!®BRAZIL


STORIES OF DESIGN SUCCESS IN THE WINNERS’ OWN WORDS


NICE!® BY WALGREENS

Retailers develop private-label brands in order to offer their customers high-quality products that can offer a better value than national brands. Walgreens, one of the largest drugstore chains in the U.S., has a long history of developing its own brands, including Nice!, which was introduced in 2011. At launch, the brand spanned a wide range of categories, from food and beverages to household cleaners to bath tissue. However, consumer research carried out by Walgreens found that this approach could be confusing to their customers, and Walgreens’ owned brands team decided to reexamine the strategy behind Nice! Jodi Kier, Senior Brand Manager at Walgreens, elaborated, “Based on the breadth of categories the brand covered, we weren’t able to stand for anything. Our products are national brand equivalent or better, and consumers did not give us credit for that.” It was time for a complete brand overhaul.

Walgreens started by listening to its consumers. The team talked to over 7,000 consumers across both qualitative and quantitative positioning and packaging research. Where did they land? Nice! became food and beverage brand focused on great taste that its consumers can feel good about. The tagline: Simple. Honest. Delicious. Kier elaborated on how health trends played a role in this re-brand, “Walgreens is a health-focused retailer, and we wanted to ensure the brand laddered back up to our enterprise. It was important to our consumers to be transparent about balance. Our shoppers don’t necessarily buy into diet trends or run marathons, but they are trying to make healthy choices and don’t want to feel guilty about a piece of candy every now and then.”

U.S.

Listening to your consumers

OLD NEW


But, how do you start a redesign for a brand that covers so many items? Nice! covers more than 500 individual items across 30 categories. Kier explained how they selected key categories to focus on, “We definitely have some categories that are more strategically important than others. For example, nuts is a key category for the Nice! brand. We also wanted the brand to operate into three tiers—your everyday tier, a premium tier and an organic tier.”

Walgreens brought in a Chicago-based design agency, Soulsight, to work on the redesign. Jim Pietruszynski, Partner and Owner at Soulsight mentioned, “In this case, the brand strategy had to work across multiple categories to make sure that it prevailed and stood out on the shelf more than it currently did. Walgreens did a great job at introducing us to category managers so we understood the pain points and opportunities for each category. We wanted to know where other national brands live and where elements of the pack needed to be dialed up or dialed down, depending on the category.”

Next, Gina Grittner, Senior Designer at Soulsight, spoke about the design approach, “We were really trying to balance the emotion of this brand—the current design was playful, but it lacked that trustworthy, approachable component. We didn’t want to lose that friendly, bright aspect, but we wanted to make it more credible. The logo lock-up was intentionally made to look and feel like a smile, making the brand more friendly and approachable to a consumer.” Stephanie Crair, Creative Director at Soulsight, then added, “We wanted a color for the brand that was ownable and truly broke through. There was no doubt the blue color had that stopping power on shelf. Additionally, the old branding also lacked appetite appeal. We strived to find a flexible system that could show the food from different perspectives and angles and work on all pack types—horizontal, vertical and even the freezer case.” Laura Zoller, Senior Research Manager at Walgreens, also mentioned, “The food needs to be the hero, because why else would you purchase it?”


Then, Crair elaborated on how they designed the pack to showcase the brand’s core health and wellness components, “In order to bring transparency to life on pack, we created a “health corner” to showcase claims. We wanted to make it really easy and intuitive for the consumer to find all of those key benefits, so they don’t have to rotate to the back of pack. It’s a really simple and straightforward kind of shopping experience.” Lastly, Walgreens stamped every package with a 100% satisfaction guarantee to help dial-up quality and risk-free trial.

Next, Walgreens built a tiered rollout calendar to help build out artwork for each category, ensuring the design was nuanced in the right way across all items. The team focused on communication to Walgreens, 240,000 team members and key consumer influencers to build brand advocates to help guide consumers through the transition. Walgreens worked with Soulsight to create a video that took store managers and employees through the strategy, meaning and purpose of the new design, a way to reach a large group of people as quickly as possible.

As a result of all this hard work, the brand is up over 6% in sales1 after the redesign, with key categories exhibiting even higher swings. Zoller gave a piece of advice for any company thinking about a pack redesign, “It’s really important to listen to the consumer and let them guide your decisions.”

1 Nielsen Scantrack Database, 104 weeks ending in 12/31/2017


M&M’S®

What comes to mind when you think about candy shopping? There are so many varieties and sizes for consumers to decide between, and when the bags are laying down it creates more work for the shopper. This aisle can be very overwhelming, so Mars Wrigley Confectionery began an initiative in the U.S. after research showed that candy ranked last in consumer ease of shopping. “We wanted to improve the shopper experience and enable consumers to identify our products faster and easier, and so began the ‘M&M’S stand-up pouch aisle transformation,’” said Allison Miazga-Bedrick, M&M’S Brand Director.

Shopper experience and product design are key aspects to the success of M&M’S products and business. Package design is iconic for a brand like M&M’S, and the repositioning should be done thoughtfully and functional ease was an area the team identified as a differentiator in-market. The transition to the stand-up pouch was designed to bring new and lapsed users back into the chocolate category and improve the shopping experience for consumers.

“The primary communication objective was to showcase the M&M’S brand in a more prominent manner—standing face-forward at shelf rather than bags laying down. This allowed faster findability for consumers, helping to create a more enjoyable shopping experience in the candy aisle,” added Miazga-Bedrick.

Internationally, Mars Wrigley Confectionery has been an industry leader in the category transition to stand-up packs in the U.K., Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.

The redesigned packaging helped shoppers understand which pack is right for them and their usage occasion. With a 7% lift in sales2, consumers were clearly able to better identify the products faster on shelves. The resealable package and usage occasion labeling invited the new design to be preferred 2.5x over the old one3. It’s important for any brand to stay true to its winning identity, but especially large brands. For this redesign, 89% of consumers said the new package fits well or extremely well with perceptions of the M&M’S brand3.

New pack formats

2 Nielsen Scantrack Database, 104 weeks ending in 5/31/2018 3 Nielsen Primary Design Research, 2019

U.S.

OLD NEW


ICELANDIC PROVISIONS™

The premium yogurt category has been exploding with new brands, new varieties and new designs. Yoplait recently entered the premium category with Oui, a French-inspired yogurt, and Chobani made a splash with a package redesign and the launch of innovative new yogurt products. It’s a challenge to differentiate in such a competitive aisle in the grocery store —something Icelandic Provisions accomplished with its pack redesign in the U.S.

Icelandic Provisions partnered with Moxie Sozo, a Colorado-based full-service creative agency, to refresh the packaging of its Skyr brand, an Icelandic cultured dairy product available in dynamic, Nordic-inspired fruit flavors including Strawberry Lingonberry and Peach Cloudberry. Together, they sought to update the packaging in order to better reflect the premium quality and Icelandic authenticity of the product, as well as reduce a skew toward males through a more broadly appealing redesign.

Nate Dyer, Creative Director and Partner at Moxie Sozo, described the need to emphasize taste appeal and premium quality in order to stand out amongst competitors. The team went through an iterative process to determine the most compelling artistic representation of ingredients with the hopes of evoking appealing flavor cues. In the end, the team landed on an illustrative style, playfully connecting the product back to its Nordic origin. They weren’t afraid to push category norms either. For example in yogurt, big fruit imagery helps with navigation, but smaller pieces of fruit can too if it’s done in a big way.

Elliott Shifrin, Vice President of Marketing at Icelandic Provisions, echoed this sentiment and stressed the importance of conveying a premium product through refined fruit imagery. Another unique challenge was positioning the Skyr product effectively in the yogurt category. The brand team was tasked with conveying the commonalities Skyr and yogurt have, without losing its uniqueness. Additionally, Shrifrin explains, the team wanted to create a label that would translate well in the social media world, “We designed the product to be photographed well by even amateur photographers on social media, which is why we went to a more matte label.” In a social media driven consumer climate, packaging that will photograph well can increase online reach.

An authentic new take in a saturated category

U.S.

OLD NEW


Shifrin elaborated on how the new design played into sustainability trends, “Our connection with Iceland and the pureness of that country is important to us. We reduced the plastic in our packaging and even printed recycling instructions on the label. We also wanted to differentiate with a brand-new-to-the-category cup shape that was easier to recycle. Retailers were hesitant because they had recently seen one of the biggest brands in the category implement a pack redesign that led to sales declines. We convinced them it was going to be a different, unique new approach in a saturated category. In the end, we were able to have our cake and eat it too—nobody else has our package shape, but we’re also reducing our environmental footprint versus the competition.”

The Moxie Sozo team worked closely with the Icelandic Provisions team to launch the redesign across multiple touchpoints. They worked to bring the new brand to life across the packaging, a website redesign, shopper marketing pieces and a digital campaign. Leading up to the launch, Icelandic Provisions printed an image of the new design inside the lid of the old package, so consumers would expect to see the new pack on-shelf—a brilliant communication tactic that wouldn’t surprise their most loyal consumers. Additionally, Icelandic Provisions showcased its new designs on its website before they hit the stores, so consumers would still recognize them.

Their shared success has led to major impact in sales, doubling the size of their business4 and increasing trial and penetration numbers by 5x. “You can really transform business, especially one in our stage of growth, with the right type of packaging design. A drastic change doesn’t have to result in a decline. Brands shouldn’t be afraid to break some of the category norms as long as they stay focused on why is it that the norms are there,” concluded Shifrin.



HESS SELECT

What do you consider when shopping for wine? After narrowing a selection by variety and price, we often turn to design in making our final purchasing decision. This makes thoughtfully crafted labels essential for communicating the essence of a brand and catching consumer attention. However, in an environment focused on the product, production and heritage are often overlooked. Emphasizing these elements on wine labels is an opportunity to differentiate and stand out on-shelf. The Hess Collection Winery took advantage of this opportunity to stand out by refreshing and reinvigorating their Hess Select tier, resulting in wine as premium on the outside as it is on the inside.

Michael McDermott, Principal and Head Designer at Retifex, was tasked with maintaining current Hess Select equity and adding more power and dimension to the design, while tying it back to their master brand. In the premium wine category, high-quality production is essential in creating a quality product, and a well-designed label is crucial in communicating that. With this in mind, Hess focused its redesign by approaching it from a consumer perspective, including research within several parts of the redesign process. Hess Select was beginning to lose its presence on-shelf, and received feedback that the brand was outdated.

Hess worked closely with McDermott from the start of the project, who combined his creative approach and familiarity with the Hess line to the team’s branding and marketing priorities. This close, dynamic relationship contributed to their shared success. Nicole Carter, Chief Marketing Officer for The Hess Collection Winery, commented on the research they employed for this project, “This redesign started with a creative brief but then became very unique as we conducted multiple rounds of both qualitative and quantitative research, which narrowed down our designs and uncovered an opportunity to share the history of our family owned business. We leveraged these learnings and they’ve impacted how we think of our brand moving forward. Since a big piece of our business is at national retail accounts, we knew we had to be very careful about how far we pushed change while bringing our consumers’ opinion along the journey with us, and that’s why the research was critical.”

Celebrating heritage, inside and out

U.S.

OLD NEW


During the design refinement process, Hess continued to collect feedback and evaluate their label from various perspectives. Kristina Tarazoff, Senior Creative and Digital Strategy Manager at The Hess Collection Winery, talked about the importance of considering the labels in a competitive context to help the understanding of what the final product will look like from the consumer perspective. “We took the physical labels into a store and put them on a shelf because it’s surprising what you think when you’re reviewing in an office setting versus when you take them into a store and put them on the shelf with the competitive set and in-store lighting. This environment can really impact our design decision and is an important step in our final refinement phase,” explained Tarazoff.

To activate the new design, Hess launched a consumer outreach campaign in Texas and Massachusetts. The new label was released six months early in these markets, strategically targeting Texas as a chain dominated market, and Massachusetts as a primarily independent market.

The goal was to see how the labels would perform in these different environments and explore how a consumer outreach campaign could support a label change. Micro-tests were utilized to understand the impact of marketing materials across different markets, as well as a digital marketing campaign. Tarazoff shares, “it’s still a campaign running called “Look for the Lion”…encouraging consumers to go into the store and look for the lion icon knowing one, they’d be looking for any product of Hess because the lion is on every Hess bottle.”

Having previously thought of this premium wine tier as chardonnay led, recent research and marketing efforts have helped inform Hess’ strategy to convert to being cabernet-led. This has resulted in a 4% lift in unit sales5 with the new design preferred nearly 4x over the old one6.. Also, cabernet turn rates increased 2x compared to chardonnay. Involving trade partners in the redesign process also helped strengthen relationships, and provide a sense of ownership to everyone involved. Modernized color hues, a refreshed lion, and larger labeling convey a sophisticated and premium family owned wine that everyone is behind. Hess Select’s new packaging exhibits pride and the exceptional quality of the wine, and will inspire you to “look for the lion.”



ALPURA®

In 2015, a new player entered the milk category in Mexico—making a big splash—and was stealing share from Alpura. Alpura’s heritage is rooted in its core milk products, and Alpura certainly wasn’t going to let this newcomer with less credentials in milk steal their thunder. In addition, there’s been a trend away from milk in Mexico as something that adults shouldn’t really drink based on pseudo-scientific claims, poor cattle care practices and obesity concerns. So, Alpura looked to package design to battle these in-market threats and put their best quality products forward.

Victor Maldonado, Brand Manager at Alpura, commented on the situation, “We needed to reinforce the process, quality, care and naturalness starts from the origin in our cows and show the consumer that we are the best milk for them. Our brand stands for life—and helping you live the best one. We also wanted to show our consumers that we’re evolving just like they are; hence, why the redesign was so necessary.”

So, Alpura involved Foic Lecanda a Mexico-based agency on this redesign. The main goal in the creative brief was to enhance the product’s naturalness and origin through the design to showcase how they treat, manage and farm their cows. Alpura is very unique in that they pamper their cows, including feeding, sprinklers and special beds, this needed to come through on pack. The agency presented the brand with four different design proposals —all options had cows on the package. They gave us a view into what these directions looked like: an illustrative design of the cows, a farmer focused design milking the cows and a photography focused design of the cows. “Proposals are created with the flexibility of the brand in mind, but we like to create directions that are far from your current design as well as safer options that are closer to your original design,” added Marcela Perez, Design Manager at Foic Lecanda.

Enhancing naturalness and brand origin

NEWOLD

MEXICO


The challenge was selecting which one of these proposed designs would win over the new generation of milk consumers. They used market research on consumers’ opinions of the new designs to help guide their decision. Based on these results, they decided to move forward with designs that showcased real photographs of their own pastures and cows, enhancing the brand’s natural qualities, origin and making it more realistic rather than a montage or stock photo. After this decision, the agency even went to the ranches for a photoshoot with the cows and farms.

At the time of the redesign launch, they ran a marketing campaign about the process Alpura uses to make its natural milk—putting the focus back on the brand’s promise, the cows and the essence of the product. This allowed the focal point to be all about the milk. The new design was the centerpiece of various point-of-purchase displays, marketing campaigns, billboards and out-of-home experiences. Their brand block strategy for this design on-shelf really set them apart from the competition. This technique not only helped them to convey the natural message by each pack alone, but when aligned together on-shelf, you can see a full farm.

The additional promotional efforts of their sales team really helped make this redesign a success—the entire company was aligned on the same strategy and goal. “We have a strong relationship between marketing and sales known as ‘The Alpura Family’, which helps us make changes quickly especially against new competitive entrants. If you don’t adapt, you’ll be left behind in today’s world,” said Maldonado. Putting the cows front and center certainly worked with consumers in Mexico as the brand saw improvement in preference for the new design7 and an overall 5% lift in sales the year post-redesign.8

7 Nielsen Primary Design Research, 2019 8 Nielsen Scantrack Database, 104 weeks ending in 9/30/2018


ARAWANA OIL

The Arawana cooking oil company in China has two key premium segments: sunflower oil and rice bran oil. As the market leader in the edible oil sector in China, both teams had separate circumstances that warranted a change in thinking. Let’s explore both of their stores to see how the brand achieved an overall 7% sales lift.

The premium sunflower oil design has been on shelves for more than 10 years, and the Chinese market has grown at an incredible speed while shoppers are also demanding higher quality products. The old design looked extremely indistinguishable among competitors, certainly not making it seem very premium. So, the team had three goals: use the industry’s best technology to offer better quality protection for the oil inside the bottle, upgrade the user experience and enhance the brand’s core values—a tall order for a pack design.

Arawana did a lot of work finding the right agency to partner and selected Dongdao Creative Branding Group. The brand would need a noticeable change to take this design from old and conservative to contemporary and premium. They wanted a more ergonomic design to make the handle easier to hold and approachable for younger consumers. It was also important to have a natural, positive and dynamic visual image of sunflower field and to showcase the European origin of the ingredients, demonstrated through oil painting styles, curves, sketches and architecture.

SUNFLOWER OIL

Modernizing designs to appeal to younger consumers

CHINA

(Sunflower Oil) (Sunflower Oil)(Rice Bran Oil) (Rice Bran Oil)

NEWOLD


Overall, the design team explored very broadly with 10-12 different directions. They did research with consumers to analyze the designs that would win globally with consumers, and realized pack form could be a big factor. Shape and form has the ability to a huge ability to influence perceptions of a pack when combined with graphics and visuals. The team decided on an “eight shaped” design for the bottle and handle. “We tested the handle alone for 6 months to try out different materials that offered a good user experience. We did product testing with consumers, and learned the wrapping should be transparent in some place so the consumers can easily see the color of the oil at retail,” said Mr. Zhang, Brand Manager of Sunflower Oil and Corn Oil at Arawana.

Next, Zhang added, “To activate the design, we relied heavily on the symbol eight, symbolizing an ‘eight shaped silhouette.’ This created buzz especially for our promotion with the JD 618 online shopping festival campaign, which meshed perfectly with the symbol of eight.” Online shopping for this category in China is extremely popular especially for younger consumers, and this product does a majority of its sales online. These consumers demand small sized products, and more personalized packaging designs. To cater to their needs, Arawana created a few different product bundles for e-commerce.

“We learned how to listen to our target consumers and leverage their feedback during the design and refinement process which is what led to the final result,” concluded Zhang. As a result, the sunflower oil product saw an increase in sales9.

9 Nielsen Scantrack Database, 104 weeks ending in 11/30/2017 10 Nielsen Scantrack Database, 104 weeks ending in 11/30/2017

On the other hand, the rice bran oil’s development team reached a breakthrough using patented technology that allows the product to have a much higher reservation of two core nutrients, resulting in numerous accolades and recognition. So, the brand wanted to showcase these enhancements through design.

“The key goals expressed in this creative brief were focused: clearly communicate the ‘double 10,000’ technology breakthrough and upgrade the perceptions of premium, similar to the sunflower oil. This initiative was very unique in that we partnered with Posher Design agency to complete it within 6 weeks, but that doesn’t mean that attention to detail was lost. For example, the team went through at least 7-8 different drafts to finalize the color scheme,” commented Zhang Bo, Associate Director of Rice Bran Oil at Arawana.

Qualitative and quantitative research guided their decisions. The winning design uses only Chinese characters, but they explored the idea of using either English, numbers or some combination. The white gradient background was replaced with a gold color to modernize the look. Lastly, the label for the “Superior Taste Award” given by The International Taste and Quality Institution was added.

To activate the new design in-market, the team at Arawana released several clever online marketing campaigns that played into the “double 10,000” breakthrough and their awards. Rice bran oil was actually invented in Japan and usually Japanese brand win the prestigious ‘Super Taste Award.’ Thus, the Chinese audience was very proud of their victory. “We were aware of its importance and leveraged the emotional value. Most of the press coverage we received was organic and not paid or initiated by us,” said Zhang.

As a result, the brand saw a 34% increase in sales10 the year post redesign. Bo commented on some of their results, “A good package is never just about the look; ultimately, packaging is a ring of your value proposition, which for us involves technological breakthroughs and strong patriotic connections.”

RICE BRAN OIL


MAQ

MAQ hand wash is the flagship product of the MAQ home care brand in South Africa, but it was suffering from declining sales. Buyers weren’t loyal to the brand and it was mainly purchased on sale. Despite offering high quality products, the brand lacked equity. The MAQ team knew it needed to reinvigorate its image if it wanted to reverse sales figures and create a loyal user base.

At the time, the MAQ home care range was sold under multiple brands and one of the team’s goals was to unify them as a single range. It would be crucial to convey quality through a new pack design if it wanted to compete with the main players in the home care category.

The existing MAQ packs did not convey a clear message about the brand and didn’t stand out at shelf. “There was no real pride associated with using the brand,” explained Liezel Bygate, Marketing Director for MAQ. The brand worked closely with the agency to ensure they understood the history of the brand and their strategic direction for the future. “We wanted the agency to design with intent,” continued Bygate.

“MAQ had a high quality product, but this wasn’t reflected through the packaging,” explained Gee Van Veijeren, Business and Strategy Director at Fountainhead, the South African creative agency involved in the redesign. They needed to create a master brand image that could span a wide range of home care products such as laundry, dish care and surface cleansers, as well as convey functional and emotional benefits. Through this process, the agency created three broad themes with multiple variants within each theme. The designs ranged from safe to bold, all while fitting into a framework that ensured they would not alienate their current users. By keeping the brand’s end goal in mind, they were able to successfully choose a master brand that worked for current and future pack formats.

Reviving a declining brand through pack design

SOUTH AFRICA

NEWOLD



Armed with a powerful new pack design, MAQ activated its range with aggressive TV advertising. “We made sure there was a clear message link from the ad to the pack,” said Bygate. Before the redesign, MAQ sales were declining at double digits. After the launch, these numbers were reversed to double digit growth. Indeed, Nielsen sales data show an astonishing 487% increase in sales11 and a 177% improvement in preference for the new design12.

When doing a pack redesign you must not only grow equity but also give new meaning and purpose to the pack. Van Veijeren explained, “Pack design should be done with purpose with the larger end goal in mind, and you need to understand that you connect with the shopper through the pack.”


PLAYBOY FRAGRANCES

It’s not easy to strike a balance between maintaining a brand’s legacy and adapting to new category trends. Playboy prides itself on being a consumer-focused brand with loyal buyers. However, quickly changing category trends meant the brand needed to adapt to stay relevant. In addition, the packs lacked distinct personalities, which meant brand buyers regularly switched between varieties out of the brand or weren’t even aware of the full range. Playboy needed to modernize its aerosol range to stand out on shelf in South Africa, showcase its diverse range of fragrances, and win back market share from competition.

To achieve this, the brand wanted to take creative risks with the design by giving a unique identity to each variant within the range. The big challenge was balancing this with a singular brand identity. “We needed some diversification, but at the same time, we needed range cohesion,” explained Matthew Dees, Brand Manager at Playboy.

To complicate matters, technical limitations of the printing process imposed certain color and print restrictions on the brand. “We found a balance between creativity and the printing process to achieve a result we were happy with,” said Angela Driver, the Marketing Director of Sainsbury Design, the South African creative agency involved in the redesign.

In addition to modernizing the design, the team wanted to give the aerosols a new format to stand out from the competition. The long-standing norm within the category included a fitted cap that consumers often lose or throw away. “It doesn’t add any value to the product,” explained Dees. “We decided to move to a new format which included an actuator that could be twisted and locked into position. So you could throw it in your bag, take it around and it wasn’t going to dispense the product.”

A legacy brand adapts to new trends

SOUTH AFRICA

NEWOLD



They brought these challenges and goals to their design agency who came up with a wide range of designs, from conservative to out-of-the-box. “It was an awesome process, and it was really cool to see so many different iterations. We ended up putting three designs into consumer testing and there was one distinct winner that we ended up going with.”

This was the biggest relaunch this brand had experienced, so it went big with its activation strategy. The redesign allowed consumers to differentiate between varieties, and loyal brand buyers loved the new twist-and-lock format. As a result, the brand experienced a 12% increase in sales13. “The impact was so big, we even saw a subsequent increase in market share for our roll-on range. We also redesigned this range from the old, antiquated round roll-on bottles, to a new ergonomic design-sleek to fit the contours of one’s hand. The roll-on range achieved 50% growth as a result in the first year,” mentioned Dees.

This testifies to the importance of carefully choosing the right pack design. Dees added, “It’s extremely important. If you turn consumers off at the shelf, you’ve lost the battle without even starting.”


PRESTÍGIO

Prestígio has the unique advantage of being an indulgent candy brand combined with natural coconut flavors. However, its packaging left the brand to be forgotten about on-shelf. Nestlé found through consumer research that there was a need to modernize and adapt the brand while maintaining on-shelf recognition. Even though Prestígio is an iconic brand, consumers perceived it as outdated.

Throughout the process, the brand identity and design team, in partnership with consumer marketing insights, did extensive online research to understand which brand elements should be kept and slightly enhanced, and which elements had the freedom to be adapted in a bolder way. “For example, naturalness is a key attribute that we needed to maintain, however, the way Nestlé was communicating it came across as outdated. In order to compete in today’s changing candy landscape, we needed to communicate naturalness in a different way that younger consumers could relate to,” added Mayra Messora, Head of Brand Identity & Design team in Brazil.

So, Nestlé partnered with CBA B+G design agency to update the visual identity. Firstly, they conducted behavioral research to understand Generation Z and its visual cues and codes with the correct consumer target profile. The brand identity and design team did a sensorial workshop with Nestle’s proprietary methodology to understand how to adapt the layout on pack, and ultimately inform the creative brief. They researched everything from the best package texture to the right visual keys. “We examined the right way to represent coconuts, palm trees, beaches and more. Getting it right down to every detail was very important to us,” said Messora. The team landed on a more rustic and natural look while maintaining the Prestígio identity. Even though it was not a linear process, the team was able to incorporate all Nestle’s key milestones of package development.

Designing with strategic purpose

BRAZIL

NEWOLD



The sensorial workshop was an important milestone for the creative process. It makes you see which elements resonate most with your audience in relation to the brand attributes, making all aspects of brand positioning more tangible. “Owning ‘naturalness’ became our goal. Then, the agency started creating designs, testing several directions with consumers. Consumers’ memory of an iconic brand is the main constraint of any redesign; if they don’t recognize you, it does not work. You have to realize what to change or what can be leveraged while maintaining your ownable and unique qualities,” mentioned Messora.

When the redesign launched, there were no other marketing initiatives as the team felt strongly about their new direction—the design was the center piece. Messora elaborated on the design process, “Design changes can come accompanied by a lot of fear from your consumers that you changed something they loved. The process at Nestlé is designed to eliminate these fears and show when change is best. Still, it is a long and time-consuming process.”

The redesign certainly paid off with the brand achieving 46% growth in sales14. Demerval Santos, Consumer Insights Manager of Chocolates, added, “The pack change needs to have a purpose. Our process is guided by design but built by many hands. A successful redesign must be guided by respect to the original problem, becoming a catalyst for change.”


SATIS!®

It may seem simple, but what’s the core reason consumers buy products on shelves of their local stores? To solve a need using the product’s benefits. However, if those product benefits are unclear, any brand could be in trouble. Ajinomoto do Brazil identified through consumer research that the benefits of its Satis!® products were unclear and consumers had difficulty understanding them. Their team wanted to make it clear what the product does, how to use it and what the benefits are to consumers.

Ajinomoto do Brazil always seeks to listen to consumers, translating their needs into products so that their benefits are very clear in the packaging. Patricia Barbieri, Marketing and Innovation department manager for Ajinomoto in Brazil, commented on the situation, “Sometimes, after the product launch, we receive criticisms and suggestions via Customer Attendance Service, which are also evaluated by the marketing teams (brands and projects), which depending on the impact, can result in adjustments to the product formulation or sometimes the packaging. When we identify a more critical consumer request, such as when the product concept or some key benefit is not clear, we do research to understand how to best fix the issue.”

In this case, an evaluation of the current design was conducted to help write the creative brief for Arcwwbrasil, the agency involved in this redesign. The design agency actively participated in discussions with consumers both in the evaluation phase of the current design as well as in the validation phase to understand what truly worked. The goals of the redesign were to make Satis! product line’s function and benefits clear, showcase the product’s practicality and application on a daily basis and emphasis that there are three product lines with distinct functions.

Emphasizing core benefits

BRAZIL

NEWOLD


15 Nielsen Scantrack Database, 104 weeks in 7/21/2018

“After the initial research, we set up the briefing and the design agency presented three creative routes. We evaluated internally based on the brief and adjusted the design. We conducted research to validate the chosen route,” said Barbieri.

The final design presented high understanding of the product’s attributes and benefits by the end user. Various adjustments were made throughout the process, both after the agency presentations and the validation of the chosen consumer path. Several point-of-sale tactics were employed in-market at the redesign’s launch in addition to digital and publicity announcements in which the design served as the centerpiece. Design is critical to boost the sale of a product at shelf. With so many products available and with very little decision time, having a good design and clear benefits on the pack results in higher conversion.

Barbieri reflected on what made this redesign so unique, “Often, as we are very involved with the product, we believe that the information is clearly placed on the packaging. However, when we hear the consumer, whose repertoire and experiences are different from ours, we realize that something that seemed very clear is not so obvious on the pack design.”

This redesign certainly accomplished its goals with a 9% increase in sales15 in the year after the redesign launched in a category with declining sales. “Always listen to the consumer. They are the center of our actions, it is for them that we create and develop our products and, if there is not a good understanding of what the product can offer, it is because we (the industry) did not know how to translate correctly. We need to listen to what consumers have to say and adjust our communication and products accordingly. We have to adjust ourselves and our products to the consumer, not the other way around,” Barbieri concluded.


DIAGNOSE YOUR CURRENT DESIGNNielsen Design Category Audit quickly assesses how your current designs are performing relative to key competitors to discover threats and opportunities and to inform a higher quality creative brief.

Over time, categories evolve and so do consumers. An audit can help you know when a design improvement is necessary.

Designers ExploreMarketers choose up to 11 competitive designs for consumers to evaluate that your current in-market competition.

Consumers EvaluateProprietary web-cam based eye tracking technology measures consumers eye movements to reveal a design’s stand out in a competitive context.

Marketers and Designers PrioritizeConsumers evaluate designs personally and brand fit while interactive feedback mechanisms capture diagnostics including design strengths and opportunities for improvement.

Identify which designs stand out most against competitors and hold consumer attention effectively.

It all starts with a great brief. Audit helps you understand strengths and weaknesses of current design in the context of competition.

Determine if your design delivers on brand personality objectives, aligns with brand perceptions and if consumers have any unexpected associations.

Ensure a successful category entry by better understanding differentiation opportunities and consumer perceptions of the current designs in the category.

Discover what consumer like and dislike about your design and receive open feedback to help you opportunities for improvement.

WHEN TO USE IT

HOW IT WORKS

SUMMARY OF KEY DELIVERABLES

STAND OUT

HEALTH CHECK

BUILD EQUITY

REDESIGN PREP

DIAGNOSTICS

NEW PRODUCT PREP

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MAXIMIZE YOUR RETURN ON DESIGNNielsen Design Navigator allows brands and their creative teams to objectively evaluate more package design concepts, much earlier in the development process. By empowering broad creative exploration and removing subjective decision making, Navigator helps brands identify better designs – faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Design concepts explored and prioritized using Nielsen Design Navigator perform better.

Unleash creativity by allowing designers to freely explore a broader creative range.

Lift in standout over current packaging

Growth in forecasted salesIncrease in preference over current packaging

Find truly breakthrough design by suspending subjective judgment and testing with the intended market.

Get timely direction when it’s needed, early on.

BRIEF EXPLORATION SELECTION REFINEMENT VALIDATION PRODUCTION

VALIDATED RESULTS

+31% +29% +5.5%

Designers ExploreDesigners develop creative on their preferred platform, exploring a range of design directions and possible variations. A plug-in then seamlessly enables those files to be uploaded to Nielsen Innovation Studio, an online workspace that allows your team to visualize the design space, review design concepts and efficiently gather feedback.

HOW IT WORKS


Branding Visual Elements

Package Graphics Package Graphics

Re-launch / Restage

Line Extensions New Products

TYPE OF DESIGN BUSINESS SITUATION

Consumers EvaluateYour design concepts are holistically shown to your consumers online. Using webcam-based eye tracking, consumers first determine design standout. Next consumers are asked if they would purchase your product over competitors based on its design. Finally, consumers assess design concept personality, communication and brand fit. After measurement, consumers are asked to provide detailed feedback for further refinement.

Marketers and Designers PrioritizeUtilizing comprehensive measurement on design stand out, preference, brand fit and detailed consumer feedback, the team can prioritize which design concept(s) should be brought forward for further refinement.

DESIGN NAVIGATOR APPLICATIONS

Navigator evaluates pack design concepts for prioritization based on the three key jobs packaging must do to succeed: stand out, get purchased and build brand. Navigator also generates insights to help improve design concepts for refinement.

SUMMARY OF KEY DELIVERABLES

Identify which designs concepts stand out most against competitors and if there is any potential confusion when consumers are looking for your offering.

Determine if your design concepts fit with key brand messages, deliver on brand personality objectives, and if consumers have any unexpected associations.

Discover what consumers like and dislike about your design concepts and receive open feedback to help you better refine.

Find out which design concepts are more preferred by consumers and any target groups of interest.

STAND OUT BUILD BRAND REFINEGET

PURCHASED

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ABOUT NIELSENNielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHAT’S NEXT ™

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