COMMUNICATING QUALITY & STANDING OUT ON THE SHELF

How we helped a food brand develop a compelling packaging design.

Foster City living!LOCAL

SUMMARY

WHAT WE DID

Cucina & Amore, a premier food brand and producer of a family of products from around the world, was set to release a new line of vinagrettes produced in France. They had an innovative bottle, but no package design for the line which included seven varieties.

Here’s how we helped C&A position their delicious vinagrettes to reflect their top-shelf quality, even if the top shelf in the supermarket isn’t assured.

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  • ty-strategyBrand Strategy

CHALLENGE

Cucina & Amore has a diverse product line that includes everything from pasta, sauces, and heat-and-eat foodstuffs to cookies and snacks. Although these products have fairly consistent branding, C&A’s vinigrettes were a bit different. Sourced in France using a traditional recipe and extremely fresh ingredients, there was a desire to design packaging that told this story and gave these vinagrettes a strong shelf presence.

How could we get these premier vinaigrettes premier visibility, yet still tell the tale of a traditional French dressing made in an artisanal way?

INSIGHTS

One of the strengths of C&A vinagrettes is that they are offered in 7 flavors made with fresh organic produce. These ingredients could be featured prominently, and with 7 varieties, they would take up a block of space on store shelves. Vinaigrettes are not emulsions that stay in perpetual suspension. In order to get the best experience they must be re-emulsified. Cucina & Amore obtained a unique and visually distinctive bottle design that increased the mixing capacity from shaking the bottle.

Field research revealed that the predominant designs for competitors had a very typical design aesthetic, and it proved difficult to differentiate one product from the next at a glance without closer examination. This was mainly due to similarities in bottle shape, label design and color.

SOLUTION

FOCUSING ON INGREDIENTS& SHIFTING PRODUCT EXPECTATIONS

What really got our attention was that Cucina & Amore had some REALLY great favors for their vinaigrettes! In fact, several aren’t seen in the US at all. This got us thinking that this should be the spotlight.

Getting attention from the shelf meant designing labels that would offer the best product differentiation, so we took one grocery shelf convention and kicked it to the curb – black is generally a color that is eschewed by food package designers. For these vinaigrettes, however, it helped them stand out on the shelf and emphasize the ingredients. Finally, we played up the French origin story in the design. We incorporated classic French decorative elements around the bottle.

Crux device

THE INGREDIENTS ARE THE THING

Recognizing that new and novel flavors are offered would be the first area of emphasis in the label design. Just how often do you see Fig, Shallot or Mango & Ginger vinaigrettes? Let alone ones made in a traditional French style?

We made sure these ingredients would be seen in a visible and dramatic way. So, we captured them in beautiful photography. We really wanted these ingredients to burst from the packaging, we designed custom diecuts that freed them from the confines of the label and hit them with a gloss varnish to help elevate them even more.

A LITTLE BLACK DRESS

Black is a color that, for generations, has been avoided in the food industry. In theory it recedes visually on the shelf and can make products look unattractive. The subliminal association with death in many cultures sometimes comes into play too.

But these are not rules per se. They are more…guidelines. For our purposes the color would prove to be ideal! It created a perfect backdrop to enhance the visibility of the ingredients on the label – our primary mission – while also allowing specific key colors to be used that provided optimum differentiation within the product family itself. As a bonus, the unique color choice combined with the unique bottle shape worked well in tandem to separate the C&A vinagrettes from its neighbors on a store shelf.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

One final differentiator that C&A’s vinaigrettes enjoy is that they are made with a traditional recipe in France. On shelves with other, mostly local, dressings, this exotic point of origin cannot be overstated. We employed a few things to help establish this origin in the minds of the consumers. The most obvious was creating a Product of France badge to be proudly displayed. We also designed a subtle background pattern comprised of the fleur-de-lis, a true French icon, and created playfully ornate elements in a French style used around the label, including edging reminiscent of a bistro umbrella.

RESULTS

Cucina & Amore vinaigrettes were almost immediately well-received at the upscale food shows they participated in. The packaging design, in particular, sparked numerous conversations and generated interest in the product.

“The Adduci team took our look to the next level! We’re really getting noticed in a challenging space. Thanks for the innovative ideas and clever designs.”

– MO, VP Business Development

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