Sister's Ice Cream

Here is a little piece of inspiration that should make you smile and admire the creativity behind it.

Sister's is a homemade ice cream from Iran, made by three sisters. The packaging design has been done in a way to represent the identities of the manufacturers, clearly mentioning that it is homemade ice cream.

It has also been designed to ensure that the packs stand out in comparison to other big and small players in the market.

The spark of colour, representing the flavours on a nice and soothing white background stands out and gives it a fresh, cool and summery look. The smart use of the illustration to show the different hair style brings the fun element.

I am not sure how big the #brand is, how strong its distribution is and whether this concept has been scaled up or not. I do hope that this #packaging is helping the brand win the consumers' hearts and share of wallet!

UNBOX IT

#Unboxing is a phenomenon that gained momentum with the proliferation of gadgets and digital products. So much so, that the unboxing videos on #YouTube gets thousands of views.

Now if you are a smart #brand, you will pick up a trend of one category and apply it nicely to your category. This is what #Adidas does with their ZX 2K BOOST footwear, which are supposed to be quite advanced footwear in terms of design and technology.

So, these shoes also come packed in this specially designed box, which has been called 'Premium Artifact' by the design agency.

This custom engineered box offers a truly unique unveiling and comes adorned in its own retro, space-tech reusable carrying case. All the material is 100% #recyclable.

I find the #packaging quite cool and goes well with the brand personality.

CUTE WATER BOTTLES

Yesterday, I came across a little collection of #Evian bottles in the supermarket 🛒

While it brought a smile to my face, it also got me thinking on the strategy and logic behind these specially designed and packaged bottles 🍶

Some of my hypotheses of the rationale behind their launch are:

1. Shelf stand out: It goes without saying that these bottles stood out from all the other bottle brands on the shelf 🔍

2. Price value equation: Evian water is priced higher than the other bottles in the market. Other than the quality of the water, this kind of unique #packaging also helps in justifying the high price 💶

3. Increased consumption: A bottle design like this induces you to drink more water which is not only healthy for you but also healthier for Evian's business 💰💰

4. Getting children excited for water: If parents are looking ways to get their children to drink more water instead of other drinks, then a fun packaging like this can play a key role 🔐

COCA COLA WELCOMES CHERRY BLOSSOM SEASON

#Japan is extremely popular for its cherry blossom (sakura) trees which announce the arrival of spring. These trees bloom for a period of two weeks in different parts of the country and locals as well as foreign tourists flock to those places to witness this magic come to life. 

Since 2017, Coca Cola has been celebrating this season with the launch of specially designed aluminium bottles. Continuing its tradition, this year also, Coca Cola has launched a new set of specially designed, beautifully decorated, limited edition cherry blossom bottles. 

This year’s design and layout shows sakura-tree branches and artfully depicts falling petals as well as cherry blossoms in different stages.

This is yet another example of Coca Cola integrating the local culture into its strategy and seamlessly becoming a part of that culture. 

The image below shows the different packaging of Coca Cola over the years. 

PLASTIC WITH EXPIRY DATES

In order to bring change, sometimes it is important to shock people so that it affects their behaviour. This seems to be the approach that a few supermarkets are taking in UK. 

Since the last few days, lot of food and drink items in the supermarkets have started appearing with expiry dates of the plastic! Yes, that is right. 

All the labels show an expiry date of 2499 and state "please recycle me". This should be enough for people to rethink their purchase and consumption pattern as well as how they dispose their #plastic. 

This idea is the brainchild of Grassroots campaigners, Gagandeep Jhuti and Joe Foale-Groves, who have been labeling products since the start of the new year to get people to think before they buy. 

So far, they have been doing this without the supermarkets permission but I think it won't be long before supermarkets welcome them for this initiative. 

Would we also see similar activities in other parts of the world soon? Let us wait and watch.

FESTIVE FLAVOURS FOR WINTER

The Coca-Cola Company continues on its #innovation journey. 

After their recent launch of Coca Cola flavoured Tic Tac in the mints category in 70 nations, Coke has now come up with a limited edition range for winter in select markets.

They have introduced Coca Cola Cinnamon and Winter Spiced Cranberry Sprite - flavours that are relevant for the season and have a festive feel to it.  

                         

This #Coke and #Sprite range will only be available till 31st December, so the company wants to leverage #Christmas to drive their sales as much as possible, especially because cold beverage sale drops significantly in the winter months. So this is a great way to avoid the negative effects of seasonality on their sales graph. 

Good job by their #marketing and innovation teams.  

ROUND PIZZA BOX

Pizza Hut has recently announced the launch of round pizza boxes! They had been working on this concept since the last two years and it is finally being rolled out in one Pizza Hut in Phoenix, USA.

The key benefits of this round box are:
1. Round boxes will take much lesser #packaging than the standard square boxes, which is great for their costs and also good for the environment. 2. The box is industrially compostable. 3.. The pizzas will stay crispier, giving a better experience to the consumers. 4. The box has easier interlocking mechanism, saving the employee time in folding the square boxes. This means an improvement in productivity. 5. The round boxes also ensure that the pizzas stay intact in delivery. It is clearly a strong idea with lot of advantages. 

Once tested and found successful, this #innovation will be rolled out to other Pizza Huts as well. 

Will this revolutionize the #pizza industry? We will have to wait and watch. 


#launch #kunalviews #idea #brands

BEER IN PAPER BOTTLES

With the focus increasing towards protecting the environment and coming up with #sustainable options, paper #packaging will be one of the hottest trends of 2020. Few days back, Carlsberg Group unveiled two prototypes of their green fibre beer bottles in paper packaging. These bottle are made from sustainably sourced bio-based wood fibres. These are not the final designs and there is still work to be done, but it is a great progress that the company has made since the time they started working on this idea in 2015. 

They are not the only ones working on paper bottles. Other companies like Coca Cola, Absolut and L'oreal have come together with Carlsberg to form a paper bottle community. It is a joint venture called #Paboco. So keep watching this space as the excitement and announcements will increase in the months ahead!

hashtag#innovation #sustainability #kunalviews

I'M IN. I'M OUT. OKAY NEXT.

Let your expressions, emotions and feelings come out. That is what Diet Coke is saying to consumers in UK.

They have launched 8 Limited Edition cans with short and snappy expressions so that consumers can pick the can that reflects their mood at that moment of time. All of these expressions have been chosen from modern lingo to connect with the youth and the packaging has been done to stand out on the retail shelves. These cans are a part of Coke's new 'You Do You' campaign by that is being launched across media touch points.

I am sure that consumers would love to pick these up, have conversations using these expressions and probably also collect all the expressions.

This is another step forward by Coke to stay relevant and cool among its target audience. 

DONATE YOUR WORDS

hashtag#Cadbury has launched limited edition Dairy Milk packs in UK with no words on the front of the pack. They have partnered with Age UK to support loneliness in the older generation. Research found 4.5 million older people felt lonely in later life because people don't talk to them. The campaign 'Donate Your Words' will donate 30p to the charity for every limited edition bar sold. The initiative is to encourage people to recognize and speak to older people in their communities. The #launch is also supported with a film that tells stories of older people who feel alone. It is quite obvious that only #brands that have strong icons and colours can pull something like this without the fear of whether #consumers would recognize the brand or not.

HEINZ KETCHUP - POUR PERFECTLY

hashtag#Heinz is known for its thick ketchup that pours out of the bottle slowly, giving consumers the perception that it is made of the purest tomatoes in its most authentic form with no dilution. While the slow pour has been Heinz's unique selling proposition, consumer insights have also shown that it has been a frustrating experience for consumers when the ketchup has taken far too long to come out. So Heinz Canada made it easier for consumers by introducing the Pour-Perfect bottle, where the position of the label on the bottle has been titled to a 45 degree angle - the perfect pouring angle for the ketchup. Now consumers know the right angle to tilt the bottle. This takes care of the frustration of the consumers while retaining its competitive edge. The tilted labels are also breaking clutter on the store shelves making consumers stop to check out these new bottles. It will be interesting to see if this gets scaled up by Heinz to their other markets or not.

Video Credit: Heinz Canada

POWER OF COLOUR

There is a lot of thought that goes in every logo, packaging design, product design and other attributes of a brand. While multiple factors do play a role, #colour is definitely one of the most important ones because catching the attention of the consumer even before consumption is crucial, and visual cues like colour can help in that aspect. Here is an infographic from #Ogilvy USA that gives an insight into how most #brands use colour. The rules aren't set in stone and there will be quite a few cases of brands and marketers who have broken the norm, but it is a good indication of the usual approach. Now please have a look at your favourite brands and see if they are following this approach or not. 
I will be happy to discuss examples that you have come across. 

                               Image Credit: Ogilvy USA
shtag
                               #logo #packaging #kunalviews #design

CADBURY UNITY : CRACKING THE 4Ps of MARKETING

If you are in #India, I am sure you must have seen the new launch from #Mondelez India - Cadbury Unity Bar to celebrate India's 2019 Independence Day.

                              

To me, what was impressive was how #Cadbury was able to crack all the 4Ps of #Marketing in a brilliant way:

Product:

• The product is an interesting blend of milk, dark and white chocolate signifying the diversity of India and the relevance of the product to celebrate the occasion is perfect.
• The brand name chosen is apt for the occasion – Unity. Notice how the last three letters in the word Unity on the pack are the three colours of the three chocolates that have been put together.
• The packaging shows people of different religion, region and gender joining hands and it also looks like the letter ‘U’ of Unity. 

Price:

• The chocolate bar has been priced at an odd price point of INR 73. Why? Simply because it is the 73rd year of India’s independence so such an odd price point is justified.
• At a price point of INR 73 for a 130g bar, the chocolate is priced at INR 561 per kg, which is higher than the average price of chocolates in the country. This means that it gives a healthy margin to Cadbury with every bar that they sell.

Promotion:

•  Cadbury surprised everyone by taking the front page of The Economic Times editions and different cities and putting out the headline in a language that is not spoken in that city. So, the Delhi edition had a Telugu headline and the Bengaluru edition had a Marathi headline.
• For a few seconds the reader thought that the advertiser made a mistake, but if you read further, the ad said ‘The headline above is not a misprint. It is in Telugu (or whichever language the headline was in) and it says – Sweet things happen, when we unite.
• This unique approach led to a social media frenzy and people were talking about the ad, sharing it, commenting on it, thereby generating enough earned media for the launch.

Place:

• Cadbury Unity bars were being sold exclusively on Flipkart as limited editions. I am not surprised because blending three different chocolates in a single bar can be done only on a small scale and hence it is perfect to do Limited Editions.
• By calling out ‘Limited Edition’, Cadbury was driving the scarcity mindset and people who would want to experience this unique chocolate would not wait and rush to place their orders.
• By selling it only through an e-commerce player like Flipkart, Cadbury was able to achieve two things:
•  It did not have to incur the heavy logistics in distributing the chocolates across multiple retail outlets across the country. They could work this easily with a single partner – Flipkart.
• Pushing people to come to Flipkart to place orders was a great way to change purchase behaviour and get more people to become comfortable in buying chocolates online, which has a much lower penetration on e-commerce than other food categories.
• The product was sent out to consumers in a nicely gifted box along with a special letter, taking the consumer experience to the next level.

While the launch on its own isn’t going to shift the needle of the top line for Cadbury, but it surely will drive its brand equity and salience significantly and will have a much bigger impact on the mother brand Cadbury because of all the buzz, the PR and the earned media. I am contributing to that earned media as well by writing this article!

If you are a marketing student, you can easily put this one as a great case study in brands that have used the fundamentals of Marketing to their advantage and leveraged Philip Kotler’s 4Ps to their advantage. 

Oh, by the way, did I mention that I have had a love-hate relationship with Cadbury over the years. I did my summer internship with Cadbury back in 2003 and then when I was doing marketing for chocolates for Nestle, Cadbury was our competitor and arch rival 😊.

Let me know what you think of this analysis in the comments section.

KITKAT - AN ORIGAMI BREAK!

#KITKAT has announced plans to replace its plastic wrappers with recyclable paper wrappers in Japan, which can then also be turned into #origami creations.

Having worked on this iconic #brand for six years, I can say that this is a great initiative for a number of reasons:

 By replacing plastic with paper, #Nestle is staying true to its #sustainability commitment in tackling a world-wide problem.

 Through origami, KITKAT is becoming an even more integral part of the Japanese culture, which is the biggest market for the brand. KITKAT sounds similar to the Japanese words Kitto Katto, which translates to ‘You will surely win’ - the reason the brand has become so close to Japanese hearts.

 This launch is yet another extension of the brand and its #purpose of doing good for the planet and for individuals and families.

 It allows the brand to stay true to its positioning of ‘Have A Break, Have a KITKAT’ because now, consumers can have a break while eating a KITKAT and even after that once the #chocolate has been consumed.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/kitkat-japan-nestle-plastic-packaging-paper-wrapper-origami-cranes-waste-a9057356.html

#FMCG #CPG #innovation #packaging #kunalviews #recyle #sustainable #marketing 

COLOUR ME AND BRING ME TO LIFE!

In Australia, #Kellogg's has teamed up with #Crayola and launched special cereal boxes that come without the standard colours. They are then encouraging consumers to colour the boxes in their own way, upload the picture to a webpage that brings the colored image to life via Augmented Reality (AR). This is brilliant at so many levels: 1. It breaks the monotony on the retail shelves and makes their packs stand out. 2. They give an even stronger reason for parents to buy their packs in comparison to other cereal brands in the market. 3. By giving the opportunity of colouring the box, Kellogg's engages even with children who may otherwise not enjoy the cereals so much. 4. There can't be a bigger Aha moment for a kid than to see his or her own creation come to life through #AR. 5. The entire ritual from shopping, consuming, colouring, uploading and sharing brings the entire family together, thereby creating an emotional bond with the brand. 6. By giving daily prizes to the best creations, the brand keeps the conversation going even after the colouring has been done. 7. A simple #packaging hack like this brings in so much of #PR and earned media for Kellogg's as well as Crayola.

                                     #CPG #FMCG #marketing #brand #creativity #idea

LAVAZZA AND PEPSICO RELEASE ICED COFFEE

hashtag#Pepsico and #Lavazza have formed a strategic partnership and launched ready-to-drink iced #coffee in 100% recyclable cans in the UK market, starting with the #Wimbledon first. The partnership will be doing many more #innovations in the future and will be entering new markets as well. It is interesting to note that two potential competitors have joined hands. It is a WIN-WIN for both the companies, as well as the consumers.
Here are my observations: 1. The packaging is premium and cool and it has no mention of Pepsi on the front of the can, making consumers more likely to pick up the can as it comes from Lavazza.
2. This partnership gives the distribution muscle to Lavazza to enter new markets and channels.
3. In the beverages business, Pepsi can diversify and expand its portfolio beyond the colas and use the expertise of Lavazza to launch good quality coffee.

ashtag
                                        #FMCG #CPG #innovation #launch #recyclable