Nielsen Global Connect | Nielsen Global Media – …...your TV commercial, magazine advertisement, and social media posts. Regardless, these complicating factors don’t mean that

THE NIELSEN DESIGN IMPACT AWARD CHRONICLES:

7 BRAND STORIES FROM THE DESIGN FRONT LINES2017 EDITION

Copyright © 2017 The Nielsen Company

2Copyright © 2017 The Nielsen Company

INTRODUCTIONIf you ask a brand manager to name the highest-impact marketing lever she knows, odds are that she won’t choose package design. In fact, it may not even make it into her consideration set. Why?

For starters, packaging seems analog in an increasingly digital world. It feels antiquated, and marketers are naturally inclined to believe that newer is better—surely we’ve come up with innovative digital campaigns that are light-years ahead of a package redesign. This is true in some respects, but patently false in others. For example, there is still no other marketing medium that reaches 100% of category buyers at the retail shelf—in the moment when they are deciding what to purchase. In today’s increasingly fragmented, time-shifted media environment, this fact alone should encourage marketers to rethink the potential of package design.

Secondly, the impact of package design is notoriously difficult to quantify. Unlike with advertising, it's not possible to measure packaging impressions—and, even if it was, package design would still be inseparable from your other marketing efforts; it’s often the hero of your TV commercial, magazine advertisement, and social media posts. Regardless, these complicating factors don’t mean that package design fails to deliver business value—far from it. In fact, one could argue that great packaging only amplifies the effectiveness of nearly all your other marketing efforts.

Over the past few years, Nielsen has taken strides to measure and demonstrate the power of package design. Our recent research found that optimized package redesigns generate an average 5.5% lift in forecasted sales revenue when compared to current designs.1

THE NIELSEN DESIGN IMPACT AWARDIn 2017, we created The Nielsen Design Impact Award in collaboration with The Dieline as another avenue to demonstrate the considerable 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 seriously successful package redesigns in the fast-moving-consumer-goods space—ones that have helped to drive significant increases in brands’ bottom lines.

In February, we invited brand marketers and design agencies to submit their projects for consideration. During the four-week window that followed, we received hundreds of entries describing successful package redesigns launched between January 1, 2014 and March 1, 2016. From there, we conducted a blinded review of the in-market performance for these initiatives, identifying those associated with a demonstrable increase in retail sales dollars and units in the year after the redesign when compared to the year prior. Next, for this subset


of initiatives, Nielsen surveyed thousands of consumers to assess how well each redesign conveyed its core strategic message and to gauge purchase preference for the new packages over the old ones.

Based on our analysis, we selected seven initiatives—five winners and two honorable mentions—that leveraged package design to truly remarkable effect. They represent a wide range of business situations: a category giant in rapid decline, a timeless brand whose packaging had run out of time, an iconic favorite that embraced the upside, a niche brand that managed to win over the masses, and more.

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. Read on—we think you’ll see what we mean.


CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2017 NIELSEN DESIGN IMPACT AWARD WINNERS

Lean Cuisine Marketplace

California Olive RanchOlive Oil

CHEEZ-IT Black Ink Red Wine

PERDUE® SHORT CUTS®Buchanan’s Scotch Whisky

Honest Tea

WINNERS

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

HONORABLE MENTIONS

5Copyright © 2017 The Nielsen Company5

IN WINNERS’ OWN WORDS: STORIES OF EPIC DESIGN SUCCESS


GRAND PRIZE WINNER

LEAN CUISINE MARKETPLACEHow one brand’s new design revived an entire category

The early 2010s marked the beginning of the “fresh Renaissance” for American consumers. Veggies were suddenly in vogue; “fresh, never frozen” claims on meat packaging became veritable consumer magnets; and convenient “grab and go” salads were godsends for health-conscious shoppers on busy days. To put it another way, the frozen aisle was beginning to look a little deserted.

From 2013 to 2015, unit sales in the frozen entrée category declined 7%. As a major player in the category, Lean Cuisine suffered a significant blow. “The brand had been declining for a few years; we’d lost hundreds of millions of dollars and a significant chunk of market share. Consumers thought about frozen food as very processed—not very healthy or tasty compared to fresher options. Additionally, Lean Cuisine was known as a ‘diet’ brand, an association which had fallen out of favor with consumers,” explained Daniel Jhung, vice president of marketing at Nestlé USA.

In an attempt to pivot away from this ‘diet’ association, the brand had attempted two relaunches in previous years, but the execution was too subtle to make a lasting impression on consumers. “We knew that if we wanted to make a real statement, packaging would be the most effective medium. We could convey the new positioning through TV, but not everyone sees a TV spot, especially in this day of media fragmentation. Everyone sees the packaging though,” said Jhung.

“WE KNEW THAT IF WE WANTED TO MAKE A REAL STATEMENT, PACKAGING WOULD BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE MEDIUM.”DANIEL JHUNG, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AT NESTLÉ USA

BEFORE AFTER


“The other reality is that, if your brand has lost hundreds of millions of dollars, you’re not going to have the same marketing budget that you did four or five years before. My budget was about half of what it used to be so, in my mind, packaging was probably the number one touchpoint over TV, digital, and everything else we were doing,” he continued.

The brand was in a free-fall, and the team had significantly fewer resources with which to turn things around, but there was a silver lining: “Because of the state of the business, we were able to really tear down the brand completely and build it back up again, one piece at a time. Everything was very thoughtfully researched and executed—I don’t see that with every redesign,” said Debbie Bester, design manager at Nestlé, who led the project.

From a pool of eight design agencies, the brand team selected Pearlfisher as its partner. “Prior to bringing us in, Lean Cuisine had done a lot of testing about how consumers perceived the brand—it’s a very large, complex portfolio, the architecture didn’t make any sense, and consumers just didn’t know what Lean Cuisine stood for anymore,” recalled Hamish Campbell, creative director at Pearlfisher’s New York office. “The first thing we did was to put in place a strong strategic foundation for the brand. We did an intensive immersion over a couple of days, working with Nestlé’s internal chefs and our own Futures team to understand the types of food and where food trends are going. We quickly realized that not only did we need to change people’s perceptions of the brand, we needed to change their perceptions of the entire category,” he continued.

In these immersive sessions, the concept of “food moods” emerged as one way to segment the portfolio and create meaning for consumers. The team eventually defined four moods, planning to provide each one of them with a distinct visual identity. They were:

• Marketplace: modern, restaurant-quality recipes made with trendy ingredients

• Comfort: familiar, go-to meals that deliver savory flavors and desirable benefits

• Favorites: classic and simple dishes

• Craveables: delicious bar-food made to satisfy a craving without overindulging

“At the time, Lean Cuisine packaging had a white background with orange typography, and everything was very plug-and-play—there was no difference between the varieties and no relation to culture and how we live life. The new visual architecture made consumers feel that Lean Cuisine understood their world. ‘They know that I’m rushing to pick up the kids from football practice or violin lessons. They know I need to get food on the table, and they’re making my life easier for me,’” explained Campbell.

Ultimately, Pearlfisher presented three different design routes to the brand team based on the “food mood” segmentation, ranging from relatively safe to bold. Consumer testing affirmed the team’s hunch: the design representing the biggest, most dramatic departure from the category—and the one that represented the greatest pivot away from “diet” food—was the clear winner.

“Often brands have an equity—a color or some other visual element—that they feel is a sacred cow. Lean Cuisine had used a white box for more than 30 years with orange as a secondary color. Many brands would think you can’t walk away from that. In the case of Lean Cuisine, it was a hard pill for some stakeholders to swallow,” recalled Jhung.


Nevertheless, Pearlfisher succeeded in convincing the brand team that, while the white box was an equity, it had become a negative one; as a frozen brand, Lean Cuisine needed to warm up its packaging.

“If you just completely throw out all your equities, yes, you’re going to have a dramatic failure. However, identifying and building on your foundation can give you more freedom in the areas where you’re failing. In the case of Lean Cuisine, going from a white box to a black box was one of the most dramatic changes we could make, but we did it in a way that took their core consumers along on the journey and helped them to discover SKUs that had always been in their portfolio but had previously failed to be noticed because they looked too much like everything else. Ultimately, if we’re working on a declining brand and doing something that everyone’s comfortable with, we’re probably not pushing hard enough,” said Campbell.

In addition to the new color scheme and brand architecture, the food photography played a critical role in differentiating Lean Cuisine from competitors and increasing appetite appeal. “We needed the box to look so appetizing that people felt compelled to eat the packaging,” remarked Jhung.

“With the photography, we tried to break category conventions. All the existing offerings in the frozen aisle had the food styled perfectly on a white plate. For the Marketplace line, we did away with plates; the food sits directly on a black restaurant slate—which reminds consumers of a chalkboard where daily specials are written—and it looks much more authentic and less staged, like a real chef would make it. Each image was true to the mood we were shooting for, right down to the last detail—including the textiles, utensils, ingredients placed off to the side, and so on,” explained Bester.

Lean Cuisine’s bold attempts to change category perceptions attracted an unusual amount of attention from their retail partners. “It wasn’t just Lean Cuisine that was declining—it was the entire category, and retailers were eager to find a way to turn things around. In addition to competition from other areas of the store, frozen was losing share to out-of-home options such as healthier quick-serve restaurants. A lot of those category dollars were walking out of the store, and that really concerned retailers,” said Jhung.

“We had a strong partnership based on our great shopper and consumer insights, and even had retailers come to our packaging focus groups just to hear what consumers were saying. They changed aspects of their shelf architecture to match up where they were going with our ‘food moods,’ and aligned their reset windows with our launch timing. Additionally, we launched a lot of new SKUs at the same time, and retailers took all of them. Bringing that volume back to the store and making those frozen doors—which are fixed assets for retailers—productive again was huge for them,” added Jhung.

Lean Cuisine launched its new packaging in April 2015. The brand’s dollar volume went from a decline of -16.9% in the year prior to the re-launch to an increase of +3.7% in the following year. The Lean Cuisine

“WE EVEN HAD RETAILERS COME TO OUR PACKAGING FOCUS GROUPS JUST TO HEAR WHAT CONSUMERS WERE SAYING.”DANIEL JHUNG, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AT NESTLÉ USA


Marketplace line alone generated an extra $58 million in retail sales during the year after the new design was launched. According to Nielsen research, 73% of consumers indicated that they would purchase the new design over the old one—making it the most preferred redesign in Nielsen’s Design Impact Award analysis. Additionally, 78% of consumers felt that the new design successfully addressed the key strategic objective: to position Lean Cuisine as a modern health and wellness partner, rather than a “diet” brand. The brand’s performance drove an incredible turnaround for the frozen nutritional meals category overall, reversing a declining sales trend of -9.9% in the year prior to re-launch to a near-stable -1.3% in the year following.2

“I knew the packaging was responsible for turning things around because there were three months where we only had the packaging on shelf—we had no TV or digital advertising during that time, and we started to see a significant lift in volume. Then the marketing we did afterwards really supported the packaging. I think the new design was likely the number one reason that the brand was able to turn itself around; it changed the brand’s equity and its fortune,” reflected Jhung.

“I THINK THE NEW DESIGN WAS LIKELY THE NUMBER ONE REASON THAT THE BRAND WAS ABLE TO TURN ITSELF AROUND; IT CHANGED THE BRAND’S EQUITY AND ITS FORTUNE.”DANIEL JHUNG, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AT NESTLÉ USA


WINNER

BUCHANAN’S SCOTCH WHISKYBringing an iconic brand into the 21st century

Truly timeless brands are rare—but truly timeless packaging is a virtual impossibility. “Buchanan’s had been a celebrated part of people’s lives for a long time, but one generation doesn’t want exactly what the previous generation did—and this is especially true with the younger generation today,” explained James Hernandez, global brand director for Buchanan’s at Diageo. By 2013, the iconic whisky brand had been sporting the same package design for more than 20 years. Not surprisingly, it had begun to feel a little dated when compared to other premium competitors.

“Some consumers would say, ‘it’s a great brand, but it’s not for me.’ Well, why is that? We kept digging and, of course, we discovered that there was some dust. It was starting to be seen as ‘my father’s whisky,’ ‘a little bit dated,’ ‘a little bit classic,’” explained Hernandez.

To win over the up-and-coming generation of consumers—who are notoriously aspirational and increasingly choosy—the brand needed a fresher look. However, the team made an important distinction: “We decided to make it up-to-date and modern, but not younger. The idea was to stay true to the roots while fully entering the 21st century.”

Additionally, the brand team had also observed a trend toward premiumization in the whisky category. The Buchanan’s name possessed the quality and credibility to capitalize on the trend—they simply needed a package that would further elevate premium perceptions, ideally justifying a slight price increase.

“WE NEEDED TO TAKE A BIGGER CHANCE, OR WE WOULD’VE BEEN BACK IN THE SAME POSITION IN A FEW YEARS’ TIME.”JAMES HERNANDEZ, GLOBAL BRAND DIRECTOR FOR BUCHANAN’S AT DIAGEO

BEFORE AFTER


With these objectives in mind, the Buchanan’s team engaged forceMAJEURE, a New York-based design studio, as their agency partner. “When initiatives end well, it’s often because they start well,” mused Laurent Hainaut, CEO at forceMAJEURE. “My entire team was invited to join Buchanan’s cross-functional team in Scotland for deep-dive meetings. We visited the Dalwhinnie distillery, the archives and the bottling facility—we understood things from a branding perspective, a structural design perspective, a consumer perspective, and so on. There was an incredible openness from the Buchanan’s team to share all relevant information up-front,” he recalled.

This in-depth briefing enabled the forceMAJEURE team to navigate a delicate and incredibly complex problem: how to modernize an iconic brand without alienating it from its heritage—or its current buyers.

“We hadn’t done anything to the Buchanan’s packaging in nearly 25 years. There’s only so close you can stay to what you are now if you want to be able to live with the result for another 20 years. We needed to take a bigger chance, or we would’ve been back in the same position in a few years’ time. So we told Laurent and his team that we wanted the design to be all new and different, but not to touch anything critical. Basically, we were asking for a hot ice cream,” said Hernandez.

“To find the right balance, we crossed the information we got from consumers and the information from the brand’s rich history, and tried to reconcile those. We said, ‘This element is important because it’s doing this and that at the consumer level, but it’s also true to the brand’s history—we can develop that story further. If something wasn’t serving both the consumer and the brand’s authenticity, then it wasn’t important,” explained Hainaut.

Through this process, the team identified four key visual assets that were integral to the brand, then worked to modernize their execution.

• The original label took its inspiration from the legal contract naming James Buchanan as whisky supplier to the House of Lords; it reflected Buchanan’s confidence in his product quality and his commitment to the consumer. The new label continued to feature Buchanan’s signature, but was modified to appear cleaner and more modern, with updated typography.

• The canteen-shaped bottle, reminiscent of World War I water canteens, symbolized sharing. The new design preserved the overall shape, but adopted a smoother, more rounded bottle.

• The James Buchanan seals on the sides of the bottle communicated quality and authenticity. The new seals were refined and adorned with ribbon—both of which were embossed into the glass itself.

• The color green evoked lush Scottish landscapes and strengthened the connection to the brand’s heritage. For the new design, variants were still distinguished by glass color, but the glass was infused with a tinge of green to bring this element into the Deluxe Master Blend and Special Reserve designs.


In narrowing down the potential design routes, the brand made a point of collecting feedback from consumers who were light users, reasoning that this audience would drive the greatest incremental growth. “When we started seeing that the design was particularly attractive to light users, we decided to take a gamble with our regular consumers—we wanted to focus on bringing new buyers into the brand,” said Hernandez.

After seven months, the team had completed the bulk of the design work. However, bringing their rendering to life required months of additional work, including developing outer packaging and a counterfeit-proof cap, as well as working closely with the supply and production teams to perfect the result. Eventually, in October 2015, the new Buchanan’s packaging launched.

After more than two decades without a packaging change, Buchanan’s new look demanded a total 360 media campaign. Advertisements showed off the modernized packaging while reassuring consumers that the product itself was still the same Buchanan’s they loved. “The package was the centerpiece—and practically the only piece—of our TV advertisement for Buchanan’s. It was very similar to a car commercial that shows you the beautiful wide shot and then takes you through all the little details. From beginning to end, our ad was focused on the bottle. It not only helped us to present the new design, but it actually strengthened core brand perceptions,” said Hernandez.

In the United States, the Buchanan’s brand experienced a 9% growth in dollar sales in the year after the redesign. The packaging fared extremely well in Buchanan’s other markets as well—including Mexico, Colombia and Central America—bringing the average value growth across markets to 20%. “The recruitment figures were strong in all markets, and this trend is still continuing today. We were expecting this launch to fare well, but I don’t think anyone expected the level of impact it has made,” concluded Hernandez.

“THE PACKAGE WAS THE CENTERPIECE—AND PRACTICALLY THE ONLY PIECE—OF OUR TV ADVERTISEMENT.”JAMES HERNANDEZ, GLOBAL BRAND DIRECTOR FOR BUCHANAN’S AT DIAGEO


WINNER

HONEST TEABringing a beloved brand into the big leagues

In 2011, Coca-Cola acquired Honest Tea—a small, but rapidly growing brand. Like many ambitious companies who’ve attracted high-powered benefactors, Honest Tea began to ask itself: “So, how do we become a billion-dollar brand?”

It was around this time that Ami Mathur, currently general manager and head of marketing, joined Honest Tea. To scale the brand, she knew that it would need to win over mass-market audiences. Honest Tea had fared very well at Whole Foods Market and was growing in mainstream grocery stores, but the team knew it had the potential to grow faster. “Initially, Honest Tea had been focused on highly engaged, health-conscious consumers—the people who read labels and prefer the cleanest ingredients. While this segment was important, we needed to expand to ‘first steppers’: consumers who care about what they’re eating and drinking, and want to be a little bit healthier—but not to the extent of our core buyers at the time. Balance was key,” said Mathur.

“From our initial research, we knew that our value proposition wasn’t resonating with these audiences. Honest Tea wasn’t viewed as delicious, which is a problem in a category where taste is absolutely the most important factor. The fact that it’s organic, while important, wasn’t the driving force for mainstream consumers. Additionally, from a shelf standpoint, the packaging didn’t really pop or persuade consumers to choose Honest Tea over competitors,” explained Mathur.

“MOST OF US KNOW HOW MUCH A GREAT PACKAGE CAN ACTUALLY IMPACT YOUR SALES, BUT NO ONE USUALLY PUTS A NUMBER TO IT.”AMI MATHUR, GENERAL MANAGER & HEAD OF MARKETING AT HONEST TEA

BEFORE AFTER


Despite Coca-Cola’s investment, Honest Tea was still relatively small with a proportionately-sized marketing budget. “We knew that there was an opportunity to broaden the ‘reach me’ appeal of Honest Tea, and my CPG experience told me that, when you have very few media dollars to spend, packaging can be the main way to drive awareness and stopping power. Most of us know how much a great package can actually impact your sales, but no one usually puts a number to it,” said Mathur.

The team agreed to move forward with a package redesign, and assembled a clear brief that focused on four goals: appeal to a mass consumer audience, improve visibility on shelf, better differentiate from competitors, and create a stronger linkage to the brand’s core values and benefits.

“I think the briefing is probably the most important stage of the design process. If we’re not clear on the communication objectives and success criteria, there’s no way to judge if we’ve reached our goals—it just becomes too subjective,” said Mathur.

As the agency that worked on the project, Beardwood&Co confirmed Mathur’s sentiment. “Even the initial RFP document that we received was crystal clear on the consumer situation and what it would take to grow the brand. Our team was invited down to Atlanta for a day-long session with a large group of people who were going to be involved in dramatically growing the brand. It wasn’t a half-hour meeting or just something done over the phone. There was definitely a sense that this was a big deal and that we were in it together,” recalled Julia Beardwood, founding partner at Beardwood&Co.

Beardwood&Co, a strong believer in the power of a clear, informed creative brief, uses a visual tool to encourage clarity and alignment at the start of a project. “Once the client provides us with a written brief, we bring together a large set of images and do a sorting exercise with the team. For this project, we said, ‘Alright, we’re saying it needs to convey tasty, but what tasty is Honest Tea tasty? We’re saying approachable. What kinds of approachability are we talking about for Honest Tea?’ This process helps the designers better understand what’s on-brand and what’s not,” explained Beardwood.

Beardwood&Co came up with eight initial design directions, ranging from close-in options to more dramatic departures from the current packaging. “One of the things that I’ve learned is that, if you’re launching a new product or if your existing product isn’t working well, then you have a lot more creative leeway when designing your pack. When your product is actually performing well and you want to keep your users, there’s only a certain level of change that you want to make. You need to ensure that your product is still findable and reflective of your current brand,” said Mathur.

“I REMEMBER WHICH DESIGN WAS MY FAVORITE BECAUSE IT DIDN’T WIN! I THOUGHT, ‘YES, LESSON LEARNED. THIS IS WHY WE DO RESEARCH.’”AMI MATHUR, GENERAL MANAGER & HEAD OF MARKETING AT HONEST TEA


“We ended up taking four designs into consumer testing, including qualitative research and virtual shelf testing. The ones that we ended up testing represented a fairly broad range. We played around with the background color, the amount of ingredients, which fruits were shown on the label, and the overall simplicity of the label. I felt like having a pretty wide range ensured that the process would yield something good.”

“I remember which design was my favorite because it didn’t win! I thought, ‘Yes, lesson learned. This is why we do research.’ We learned through the testing—and we should have known this going in—that, if our number one communication objective is to convey ‘tasty’ and ‘delicious,’ we need to select the design that delivers the best on those attributes,” added Mathur.

“In the end, we conducted quantitative consumer research on a few designs. We wanted to ensure that the design we landed on wasn’t just a win based on qualitative feedback or internal consensus. We wanted the numbers to prove we’d chosen correctly—because, in reality, that’s what’s actually going to drive your sales. So, based off of that research, we chose the final design. There was some minor stakeholder feedback, but we refused to give in on the construct of the design—the label, the colored banding and the ‘T.’ Miraculously, after our testing was done, the numbers were so strong that we were able to get everyone on board,” said Mathur.

The chosen design included a few significant changes: a taller, narrower bottle to bolster premium perceptions and drive shelf stand-out; a friendlier logo font with a leaf icon and additional leaf imagery in the “T” to reinforce real tea ingredients; an elongated “T” to make the packaging more iconic and recognizable at shelf; delicious ingredient imagery inside the “T” to drive taste appeal; and colored bands at the top and bottom of the label to reinforce flavor appeal. The textual communication was also simplified so that “Organic” and “Just a Tad Sweet” stood out.

In March 2015, the new design launched. “The results were phenomenal. They blew our expectations out of the water. I think the impressive thing is that we grew distribution as well as velocity. We were doing better, and I attribute much of that to the packaging because there wasn’t a significantly increased media investment,” explained Mathur.

“The amount of positive comments from consumers was really impressive as well—they wrote to say, ‘It looks great—I can’t wait to drink it,’ ‘It’s so refreshing,’ ‘It makes me feel like it’s clean, and I can trust it,’” added Mathur. The Nielsen Design Impact Award analysis confirmed a spike in consumer preference for the new design, with nearly two out of three consumers preferring the updated package to the old one.

The year following the redesign, Honest Tea’s dollar sales grew by 64%. The brand’s incremental sales exceeded those achieved in 2008 when Coca-Cola first invested in Honest Tea. “I think that’s just amazing for this brand,” said Mathur.

THE BRAND’S INCREMENTAL SALES FOLLOWING THE REDESIGN EXCEEDED THOSE ACHIEVED IN 2008 WHEN COCA-COLA FIRST INVESTED IN HONEST TEA.


WINNER

CALIFORNIA OLIVE RANCH OLIVE OILA modern design puts the “grow” in homegrown

Inspired by the spirit of the California wine movement, California Olive Ranch began creating premium, domestically-produced olive oil in 1998. Eventually, it climbed the ranks to become the top-selling U.S. brand that is actually manufactured in America.3 By 2014, the company had undoubtedly come a long way; California Olive Ranch products could be found on the store shelves of major retailers where they generated tens of millions of dollars per year—but their packaging had yet to catch up.

“Consumers would tell us that our packaging still looked like it was from 1998, so we definitely needed some updating in terms of style,” said Grace Rusch, marketing manager at California Olive Ranch. “From consumer emails and social media posts, we also realized that some people were confused about key messages that we wanted to get across. The main one was that our product is grown and crafted in California. The second one is that we’re a vertically-integrated company that uses sustainable farming practices—we develop the product from the ground up, and we have a strong connection to the land and to family farmers throughout California. Relatedly, we wanted to make it clear that this is premium, extra virgin olive oil,” she continued.

The brand had already grown tremendously by 2014 with no signs of slowing down. At that point, the team knew they wanted to refresh the brand’s look and feel—and what better time than the present?

“As we continued to gain new distribution, we thought it was a great time to ensure that we were being represented by a package and a logo that set us up for success. We did a survey of brand recognition—and while we’re certainly not Nike or Apple by any means—people were beginning to recognize our brand, and this seemed like a perfect window of opportunity to

BEFORE AFTER


update the look and feel of the package without losing the momentum we had created,” explained Rusch. She noted that a packaging change would also unify the brand’s current varieties and product lines, paving the way for future additions.

“First, we did some shelf research to understand the competitive landscape. What colors and bottle shapes were our competitors using? What are their key messaging points? We saw that we were already standing out against competitors because our color scheme was pretty different. This gave us the sense that we didn’t want a radical departure from our current packaging,” said Rusch.

The team engaged Design Womb, a Chicago-based creative agency, as their partner to develop several options for their new packaging. “The most interesting and challenging part of the project was putting a fresh take on their brand assets without compromising their core equities—quality, passion and sustainability—or alienating their current buyers. There’s a fine line between taking things too far and not taking them far enough,” said Nicole LaFave, principal, designer and creative director at Design Womb.

Ultimately, Design Womb explored various design directions while staying true to the brand’s objectives and key messages. “It can be challenging to show one concept we feel is our ultimate recommendation for a project. Someone might not be as visually well-equipped as we are as designers, and to have them feel really good about a solution, they often need to see something that isn’t quite right to know what is,” said LaFave.

“However, showing too many directions can be problematic in certain situations. Typically, I might aim to show clients one design—and up to three at most—for a packaging project. I do this because, if someone isn’t particularly visual or doesn’t have a strong marketing team behind them that can test things, they can get too tied to something that a friend or coworker said, and the process becomes very biased. On the other hand, if I think that my client can be more objective and a more organic part of the process, I might share initial ideas and concepts earlier so that they can be a more integrated part of the creative process,” she continued.

As part of the creative exploration process, LaFave and the brand team carefully considered which elements they wanted to push and which they shouldn’t. They discovered that a few of the existing assets worked well for the brand—namely, the blue sky and green landscape, the green square bottle, and the olive-shaped grips on the bottle.

For the elements that weren’t resonating as well with consumers, the team explored a number of new configurations. “We played with color, label shape, typography, logo, and the style of the rancher image. We knew we wanted to keep the rancher, but the older artwork was overly-detailed, and the man felt

“THIS SEEMED LIKE A PERFECT WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO UPDATE THE LOOK AND FEEL OF THE PACKAGING WITHOUT LOSING THE MOMENTUM WE HAD CREATED.”GRACE RUSCH, MARKETING MANAGER AT CALIFORNIA OLIVE RANCH


far away and a little abstract. Eventually, we landed on something that was modern and geometric, but didn’t make it difficult to discern what the image was showing,” explained LaFave.

“The original artwork was themed after Atlas holding up the world, but some people interpreted it as the olive actually being a weight on the rancher. We wanted to reimagine his relationship to the olive, and show how much care and passion goes into the farming of the olives, then suggest how that travels down into the actual production of the product,” added Rusch.

The team also focused on strengthening the “California” equity of the brand. “A key insight from our initial consumer research was that, although we clearly stated ‘California’ on our packaging, it still wasn’t coming across clearly to the consumer because the design didn’t really say ‘California,’” said Rusch. To remedy this, the agency chose a modern, easy-to-read font and changed the fields in the original illustration to be more representative of the hilly, Northern California landscape.

Next, the agency developed a visual language to differentiate flavor variants and product lines within the portfolio. To set California Olive Ranch’s more premium “Reserve Collection” line apart from its “Everyday” line, Design Womb employed a secondary color palette and special effects such as a gold foil, metallic ink, embossing, and premium papers.

To arrive at a final decision, the brand team collected feedback from colleagues, as well as from consumers. “We definitely did some in-store testing, especially on the Reserve Collection line, because our marketing team was divided on two different design routes for that line. Getting the consumer perspective was very helpful and served as a tie-breaker,” recalled Rusch. “That line had less distribution than the Everyday line, and I really wanted a departure from the old Reserve Collection design—I wanted to see how far we could take it. The consumer research was clear that the farther-out design was still recognizable and conveyed the right brand equities, but consumers really preferred the one that was closer-in. We made some minor adjustments to that initial design, but we stayed true to what consumers were telling us,” she added.

Reflecting on the importance of consumer response, LaFave commented: “Many designers want to make something amazing, but then they just don’t understand that it still needs to sell in the store. I used to design women’s luxury shoes from start to finish, and I saw the whole spectrum from design to commercialization. I learned that these design decisions affect what consumers notice in a store and ultimately what they buy—and some companies have to learn that the hard way. To junior designers, I sometimes find myself saying, ‘This drawing looks beautiful, but is it going to work in that situation? Is

“THESE DESIGN DECISIONS AFFECT WHAT CONSUMERS NOTICE IN A STORE AND ULTIMATELY WHAT THEY BUY.”NICOLE LAFAVE, PRINCIPAL, DESIGNER AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT DESIGN WOMB


this going to be too similar to everything else on the shelf with it? Is there a reason it should be different or similar?’”

Not surprisingly, LaFave routinely takes her test designs to the shelf so she can understand how the actual retail environment might affect their standout potential or differentiation in key areas. “When I was initially working on the design, I spent time at Target, Whole Foods Market, Costco—lots of places—just thinking about how the design would actually be viewed there. When we were at the stage of reviewing different design concepts, I would print it out and see how it looked on shelf,” recalled LaFave.

After conducting multiple shelf tests, the team selected the final design route and moved forward with confidence. “Once the decision was made, it was very clear that was where we were headed. One of the benefits of consumer research is that it helps drive consensus on the right direction,” said Rusch.

In January 2016, the new design launched, not only performing well with consumers, but also with retailers. “The Reserve Collection definitely received more interest from retailers because it was a more effective package than we’d had before. The Everyday line was already well-distributed, but we had launched two new varieties to that line prior to the redesign—‘Mild and Buttery’ and ‘Rich and Robust’—and I think the packaging helped gain distribution for those items because we had a more unified family feel,” explained Rusch.

Following the redesign, the brand relied primarily on the new packaging to drive incremental awareness and trial. “In terms of marketing support, we promoted the new packaging on our social media accounts, and we worked with a handful of food bloggers who are our brand ambassadors. We sent them the product so there was some imagery of the new packaging on influencers’ social media accounts, but that’s pretty much it,” said Rusch.

Remarkably, in the absence of mass marketing muscle, California Olive Ranch’s dollar sales grew 54%—a difference of nearly $15 million—in the year following the redesign compared to the year before. This reflects more than a 40% increase in market share from 2015 to 2016.

“Consumer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I think this was a fairly bold change that has cemented a great new direction for the brand. We’ve just had an amazing response,” concluded Rusch.

IN THE ABSENCE OF MASS MARKETING MUSCLE, CALIFORNIA OLIVE RANCH'S DOLLAR SALES GREW 54%.


WINNER

PERDUE® SHORT CUTS®How a new package form put one brand back on top

In 1994, Perdue introduced Perdue Short Cuts—strips of fully cooked chicken breast—to the refrigerated aisle, creating a new category of meal ingredients. Despite a steady stream of competitive launches over the years, Perdue remained the category frontrunner for nearly two decades. However, around 2012, Perdue began losing 3-4% market share per year—and eventually lost its first-place standing too.

“After two years of declining sales, we really started questioning what was going on in the category. Was our product still delivering on consumers’ needs? Through consumer research, we discovered that our buyers were satisfied with the product quality and taste. Our weakness was our packaging—consumers felt it wasn’t as convenient or easy-to-open as they would’ve liked. They also viewed the product as over-packaged; it was bulky, and it took up precious real estate in their refrigerators,” explained Gail McWilliam, vice president of marketing at Perdue.

In addition to wanting to delight its current buyers, the brand had aspirations to reach new consumers. “Through focus groups, we discovered that the current packaging was inhibiting us from attracting new buyers. To do that, we needed our package claims—such as the high protein content—to be stronger,” said McWilliam. Moreover, although Perdue Short Cuts carved breast strips was the only brand that offered resealable packaging at the time, non-buyers weren’t aware of this benefit. The resealable bag was obscured by the outer box, and the visual design did little to communicate this feature.

While a package update seemed like the obvious solution, the team still needed to ensure the rest of the organization was on board. “Any time you’re making a package structure change, it’s considered risky. It required our operations team to really get behind the idea—we needed them to streamline the process to ensure we wouldn’t be adding costs. First and foremost, we wanted to meet the consumer need, but we needed to show that there was greater reward than there was risk. The consumer research we had done also played a big role in making all stakeholders comfortable with what was perceived to be a dramatic change in format,” explained McWilliam.

BEFORE AFTER


Once the team secured the green light, they engaged an agency partner to develop a range of packaging options. “We took five different packages into quantitative consumer testing, both online and in-store. There were different form options—we looked at trays where you can peel and reseal the top, we looked at the tub form used for lunch meats, along with some other configurations. What we found was that these forms weren’t as convenient as the bag because they took up too much space in the refrigerator, a big issue since many consumers were storing the product in a meat drawer,” explained McWilliam.

“Reflecting back on the research, the online eye-tracking studies that we conducted with consumers were probably the most valuable piece. In addition to overall standout performance, we were able to really understand what consumers were noticing first on our package compared to what they were noticing first on key competitors’ designs. That allowed us to ensure our changes would naturally draw consumers’ eyes to the information that was important when making purchase decisions,” she continued.

Based on these findings, the team confirmed that there were three key areas for improvement: package structure, claims, and improving the appetite appeal of the product. “Resealability was the number one advantage that we had, and we needed to play it up. For the new package, we called out the high protein content and the fact that we offered more product than competitors to enhance price-value perceptions. We also emphasized the product’s taste and texture—we really focused in on that product shot, but we also enhanced the transparent window so consumers could appreciate the product quality. The older package had a window, but the contents were hidden behind a glossy bag and you had to shake the box to see the product, so the new design brought it to the forefront,” said McWilliam.

Leveraging their consumer research, Perdue’s sales team was able to protect their distribution and shelf position by demonstrating to retailers that the new Perdue Short Cuts packaging could grow the category. In 2014, the new package hit store shelves.

Soon after launch, the brand noticed an uptick in sales. “Our panel data showed that we were not only bringing in more consumers, but our current users were actually increasing the number of packages they were purchasing, which we attribute to the space-saving benefits of the new package,” explained McWilliam. The Nielsen Design Impact Award analysis confirmed that the new structure was a hit with consumers, with nearly three times as many consumers preferring the new package to the old one.

Originally, the team had set a goal to grow the brand by at least 4% in the year following the redesign—but it quickly became clear that the redesign would dramatically over-deliver. “The results in the first year were phenomenal; our year-over-year dollar sales increased by 20%. Within four to six months, we had reclaimed our category lead. The year after that, we continued to see double-digit growth,” said McWilliam.

“OUR YEAR-OVER-YEAR DOLLAR SALES INCREASED BY 20%. WITHIN FOUR TO SIX MONTHS, WE HAD RECLAIMED OUR CATEGORY LEAD.”GAIL MCWILLIAM, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AT PERDUE


HONORABLE MENTION

CHEEZ-ITThe value of embracing the upside, rather than minimizing the risk

Every brand manager knows a few cautionary tales of iconic brands who changed their packaging and suffered catastrophic consequences. As a result, redesigning one’s package is considered a high-risk move—a Hail Mary reserved for fast-declining brands that badly need to reboot. But what about making changes to a brand that’s still thriving? That’s a different story altogether.

By the mid 2010s, CHEEZ-IT had experienced more than 30 consecutive years of growth, getting closer and closer to becoming a one-billion-dollar brand. Notably, CHEEZ-IT’s packaging hadn’t seen any major upgrades in approximately three decades. The team would be barking mad to even consider a packaging change now… wouldn’t they?

“Ever since I joined the company six years ago, I knew I wanted to revamp the CHEEZ-IT line, both strategically and visually. It’s a great brand and was doing well at the time, but I thought we could bring it into the 21st century, align the packaging more with the current consumer, and broaden our base,” recalled Lisa Einat Day, Design Leader at Kellogg’s. CHEEZ-IT’s core buyers were families with children, but an updated look would potentially broaden the brand’s appeal, bringing in more teenagers and adults.

“THERE’S DEFINITELY A FEAR WITH BIG, ICONIC BRANDS THAT IF YOU BREATHE ON THEM THE WRONG WAY, YOU COULD BE LOSING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.”LISA EINAT DAY, DESIGN LEADER AT KELLOGG’S

BEFORE AFTER


Not surprisingly, Day’s desire to reinvent this iconic brand's visual and package identity was met with strong resistance. After all, CHEEZ-IT was one of Kellogg’s flagship brands, and leadership wasn’t particularly disappointed by its performance. “But we can do so much more,” Day had insisted.

“There’s definitely a fear with big, iconic brands that if you breathe on them the wrong way, you could be losing millions of dollars. It took about two years to convince senior leadership and the brand teams to consider the idea seriously,” Day recalled.

It wasn’t just Day’s persistence that changed minds. The CHEEZ-IT brand had recently launched other highly successful innovations—such as CHEEZ-IT Grooves, which represented a fairly bold departure from the brand’s traditional look. These launches helped CHEEZ-IT become a billion-dollar brand and provided the proof-of-concept that Day needed to convince stakeholders that the entire CHEEZ-IT line could grow through design. “People looked at Grooves’ success and said, ‘Wow, that’s Kellogg’s most successful innovation ever—yes, we can trust that,’” recalled Day.

“We learned a lot from these other launches, which helped serve as a bridge from where we were as a brand to where we could go. Once we decided to redesign the entire brand, it was important that we do it right; we started with a strong brand and design architecture, created a strong innovation pipeline, updated our brand identity, and ultimately created visual brand guidelines for all channels and media to use,” said Day.

“We also did a lot of consumer research up-front and throughout the process. We talked to consumers at the shelf and organized creative workshops in multiple cities to understand what consumers were buying, their purchase criteria, what they liked and disliked about different brands—including brands that they did use at the time, as well as those they didn’t. We had them express thoughts about packages in and out of the category, and sought to understand what the CHEEZ-IT brand could and couldn't change—both strategically and visually—starting with our brand identity and ultimately ending with the package. It was also essential to understand what shoppers see when they browse the shelf, so we did a lot of eye-tracking research before we even began the design process. Lastly, we did a deep-dive into the category and the competitive context. Visually, what’s happening in the category? What do different colors mean to consumers? We looked at every angle,” explained Day.

Day engaged her creative team to help define concrete design routes. “In the beginning, we had versions and versions, but eventually narrowed it down to eight to ten potential design directions. This project called for broad exploration because there’s always going to be risk when you’re making changes to an iconic brand, and this degree of exploration served in helping us to understand how much change we could actually make. We also needed to understand what our competitors were doing in order to help us better know where we could and couldn't play both strategically and visually,” said Day. For example, the CHEEZ-IT team knew they didn’t want to change the red color of the box, but was this the right move

“[THE BROAD CREATIVE EXPLORATION WE DID] SERVED IN HELPING US TO UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH CHANGE WE COULD ACTUALLY MAKE.”LISA EINAT DAY, DESIGN LEADER AT KELLOGG’S


given the category context? If they kept the red, should it be the same red or a different one?

“So, all of a sudden, the red component becomes a much bigger issue. You might have two or three designs where the shade of red is the variable, and another set that focuses on how much food to show on the package—do you show a serving size or a single cracker?” In other words, the number of potential design routes increases exponentially as the number of variants rises. When making significant design changes to an iconic brand, all of these considerations are important and warrant exploration.

“For the food imagery, the existing design showed a large number of plain crackers. That was very fitting for the 50s, 60s and 70s—it showed abundance, and it symbolized sharing. In today’s marketplace however, given that there are so many different brand options, we wanted to prioritize simplicity and appetite appeal. In the first moment that our consumers

look at our package we want them to be confronted with a big, yummy cracker,” said Day.

Day also wanted to bring an emotional component to the brand mark, while leaving the brand’s iconic block type untouched. She convinced the brand to replace the hyphen in “CHEEZ-IT” with a small cracker image, which added a

sense of friendliness and approachability. “At first, the brand mark was off-limits. Then we tested a few versions of it with consumers and found that it didn’t

interfere with the overall brand feel. The research we did was particularly effective in convincing the brand team—because if they’re not losing anything, then they can only gain, right?” said Day.

The CHEEZ-IT Team leveraged consumer feedback to further narrow down the design options. Finally, in 2015, the new design launched. In the year following the redesign, dollar sales grew 6% compared to the year prior—which translates to an increase of more than $50 million in retail sales. With no increase in media spending, the new package design served as a major growth driver.

“We used to live in a world where advertising was the centerpiece, and from there you would work on your brand design identity and packaging. However, today the most time you have with consumers—and it’s not more than a few seconds—is when they’re shopping in the store. It’s essential in today’s world to have a strong brand and design architecture that all touchpoints work from to create a holistic brand experience for consumers. This will allow for a much stronger connection with our consumers at the first

“TODAY THE MOST TIME YOU HAVE WITH CONSUMERS—AND IT’S NOT MORE THAN A FEW SECONDS—IS WHEN THEY’RE SHOPPING IN THE STORE.”LISA EINAT DAY, DESIGN LEADER AT KELLOGG’S


moment of truth—at the shelf—and will also allow our brands to leverage different media in a stronger way,” said Day.

Reflecting back on the initiative, Day concluded: “For me, the biggest learning was that if you have a strong strategic vision, a great team, a clear path and a lot of guts, then anything can happen. I didn’t know what was possible until it was possible—I didn’t really understand how much growth you can have on a big, already-successful iconic brand until I was part of making it happen. I think others are beginning to realize it too. At Kellogg’s, other brands are coming out and saying, ‘We want change for sure.’”


HONORABLE MENTION

BLACK INK RED WINEA mainstream makeover leads to massive growth

In 2014, Guarachi Wine Partners asked itself the weighty, time-honored question, “What’s in a name?” An enormous growth opportunity, it would soon discover.

“After 30 years in business, the company decided to make a dramatic strategic shift. We had been known primarily for South American imported wines—we had no mass-market domestic products at a value price point—and we knew this was a space that we wanted to play in. We looked at our portfolio to explore different strategies and creative concepts that would resonate with a mass-market audience. There was a brand called Black Ink: a boutique-production, high-end Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon. We looked at that intellectual property and said, ‘Black Ink is a cool name. Why don’t we do something with that?’” recalled Travis Arnesen, vice president of marketing at Guarachi Wine Partners.

“At the time, Black Ink had a $40 retail price point. It was only distributed in the state of California, primarily through independent bottle shops. Production was anywhere from 50-100 cases per year—it was high-end, but very small in terms of overall volume and revenue,” he explained.

Guarachi Wine Partners decided that the Black Ink name would provide a promising foundation for their foray into the mass-market, domestic wine segment. They simply needed an updated product and a label design that would do the moniker justice.

“For the product, we pulled a lot of data and looked at which segments were growing. Red blends in the $9-12 range were experiencing an uptick in sales, so we decided that was the place to be,” said Arnesen.

The team began to develop the product and packaging in tandem—but there was something highly unusual about the arrangement; for most initiatives, the product’s key attributes are pre-determined and they inform the package design but, in the case of Black Ink, the label design strongly influenced the development of the wine itself.

BEFORE AFTER


“The decision to choose a red blend had a lot to do with the packaging, which was being designed with Millennials in mind. Red blends attract younger, entry-level consumers who seem to be a little more adventurous when it comes to packaging. A lot of single-varietal wines tend to attract an older demographic that appreciates more traditional labels. We definitely wanted a flavor profile that would match the design and the name—something that was dark, black, mysterious,” he explained.

For the label design, the team engaged CF Napa Brand Design, an agency specializing in the beverage alcohol category. “We provided a detailed strategic outline and explained what we wanted to communicate and evoke—but we did this without limiting the creative process, and I think this made a real difference in the effectiveness of the design,” said Arnesen.

“There was a thorough briefing—both in terms of what Guarachi Wine Partners provided and the briefing process that we go through with all of our clients,” recalled Dave Schuemann, creative principal at CF Napa Brand Design. “We try to get a really deep understanding of the target consumers. It’s always amazing to me how many times companies give us a target demographic that basically includes everyone that’s 21-60 years old, with a 50-50 split between men and women. While that might be the entire group of folks that you hope will buy the wine, it’s important to pick out the key groups that will really drive velocity and growth, versus focusing on everyone. I always say that if you offend no one, you please no one,” he continued.

“We also drilled down into what was driving the red blend trend and what some of the opportunities for packaging were in that space. There was certainly something that was happening with black labels. For years, they had been viewed as overly passive and not engaging or visible enough. All of sudden, they were communicating a kind of chic, mysterious luxury. When you think about it, black has always been tied to luxury—think about tuxedos or limousines, for example—but, more recently, the trend really began taking off in the wine space,” said Schuemann.

Overall, the team considered eight different design directions. “We explored a number of different approaches, some that utilized tattoo-style type or black lettering. We also looked at creating some symbols. I remember that we even tied ‘Black Ink’ back to a newspaper concept in one the design concepts, so it was a pretty broad exploration,” recalled Schuemann.

Reflecting on the challenge of designing for Millennials, Schuemann said: “Millennials have a strong sense of independence—of standing out and being your own person—and that certainly plays into how they make purchasing decisions. However, there’s always this danger of overdoing it; you can become bleeding-edge rather than cutting-edge, and quickly create something that feels so over-the-top that it’s in danger of becoming a novelty or something that’s harder for more sophisticated wine drinkers to take seriously.”

“I ALWAYS SAY THAT IF YOU OFFEND NO ONE, YOU PLEASE NO ONE.”DAVE SCHUEMANN, CREATIVE PRINCIPAL AT CF NAPA BRAND DESIGN


The final design concept conveyed the dark, mysterious, brooding quality of the wine. It featured a black label with white lettering. “Although black labels are trending, they’re not a silver bullet. Looking at successful black labels in market, I would actually argue that the high-contrast lettering is the key element,” commented Schuemann.

“We also ended up including a squid image on the top of the cap—it’s not something that’s prominent or even located on the front of the label, but it’s something that helps support the brand story,” he added.

“I can’t tell you how much that squid on the top of the cap resonated with our trade partners because it was subtle. It was just enough to look cool and interesting and tie back to the wine—it played to that

mysterious side rather than being in-your-face,” said Arnesen.

“Overall, the package was instrumental in securing distribution. The design was cohesive and the concept made sense. It was clearly speaking to a specific consumer demographic—one that was growing and attractive to retailers and distributors,” he continued.

In late 2014, the new Black Ink brand launched. “It lined up nicely with the Halloween holiday, and we created some point-of-sale materials that were

Halloween-driven—including ones that had temporary tattoos on them, so people could actually pull off a little tattoo of the squid and put it on their hand or arm,” recalled Arnesen.

Even with a limited marketing budget, Black Ink’s dollar sales in the year following the redesign increased nearly thirteen-fold compared to the prior year. While the brand’s new mass-market strategy and additional distribution were key drivers, the striking label design paved the way with retailers and won over consumers at the shelf—a remarkable feat for a small brand competing with dozens to hundreds of other offerings on the typical store shelf.

“Getting Millennials to jump on board early created a lot of noise, and there’s no question that older wine consumers—whether it’s Gen-Xers or Boomers—still follow trends that originate from a much younger consumer segment. Though not Black Ink’s primary target, we saw an overwhelming response from female Boomers. The aspiration to be part of a younger movement really played out,” said Arnesen.

The Black Ink relaunch was considered the most successful product launch in the company’s history. “It really defined who Guarachi Wine Partners will be going forward. It diversified our portfolio, introduced us to a new consumer segment, and cemented our role as brand owners. This launch was the catalyst for our new strategy and structure going forward, and even made our import portfolio more relevant with our key trade partners,” explained Arnesen.

“OVERALL, THE PACKAGE WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN SECURING DISTRIBUTION. THE DESIGN WAS COHESIVE AND THE CONCEPT MADE SENSE.”TRAVIS ARNESEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AT GAURACHI WINE PARTNERS


When asked to reflect on what made the Black Ink relaunch different from others he had worked on in the past, Arnesen commented: “We really stayed laser-focused on what the target consumer wanted. Often we, as marketers, forget about the end-consumer. We prioritize our short-term business needs or what the trade is going to want. We fall into the trap of picking things based on our own personal preferences. Staying true to the consumer is extremely important, and the results we saw from this launch certainly confirmed that,” concluded Arnesen.


ABOUT NIELSENNielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy. Nielsen’s Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Nielsen Total Audience measurement services for all devices on which content — video, audio and text — is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry’s only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen also provides its clients with analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

To learn how Nielsen helps brands maximize their return on design, visit nielsen.com/design.

SOURCES1Nielsen, “Packaging Sells,” 2015.

2Frozen nutritional meals data is based on a custom category definition encompassing “better for you” frozen meal offerings, which often have low levels of fat and calories.

3Ranking does not account for private label brands.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSSpecial thanks to all the entrants of the Nielsen Design Impact Award contest, our partners at The Dieline, and The Nielsen Design Impact Award team: Allie Van Arsdale, Traci Brodnax, Catherine Downing, Kim Gaskins, Steve Lamoureux, Jenkin Lee and Al Lemieux.

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Nielsen Global Connect | Nielsen Global Media – …...your TV commercial, magazine advertisement, and social media posts. Regardless, these complicating factors don’t mean that