Country Fresh and Farmhouse are brands that most of us have grown up with and have been a part of many family memories. One could confidently say that Country Fresh is the biggest local brand within the tub ice cream category. That accomplishment is tough to maintain – especially when one factors in the ever-growing dealer-own-brand (DOB) products and a dominant red global brand that-can’t-be-named.
Historically, and like most heritage brands, Country Fresh had updated its packaging incrementally over the years, and only just enough to remain current, but not enough to make a big leap and lead the category. This is a common trajectory amongst South African heritage brands who run the risk of changing too much on their packs at once, and the target audience either perceiving the product to be ‘fong-kong’ (a knock off) or rejecting the brand entirely.
This sense of risk, coupled with an unstable economy, has kept our biggest brands well within the boundaries of what has been considered ‘safe’ and conservative, and can largely also account for the big visual gap that we see between the more dynamic visual languages of international brands and those on our home turf.
In an effort to make the creative process more objective, and to be able to give our clients the reassurance that their packaging is not going to fail in-market, we introduced a new way or working to our agency at the beginning of this year. Utilising the same global testing platform as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Mars and many others, we now involve consumers throughout the design process. We are able to consult with them directly, getting feedback and validation early and often in the process – on everything from design and claims to brand equity and distinctive assets. Using this methodology allows us to eliminate subjectivity from both the agency and client perspectives – without the long timeframes and high price tags that are commonly associated with this type of research.
Being able to use the data to optimise designs and make decisions, also allows us to accurately predict how a design will perform in the market, providing our client with peace of mind and confidence in our solutions and recommendations.
Country Fresh briefed us to modernise and simplify their packaging. With their primary global competitor dominating freezers with red, we needed to be able to overshadow with a design that really heroes Dairymaid’s blue. Knowing that our client’s key internal stakeholders would not be open to a much more than an evolutionary shift, we used the consumer as the litigator. After testing a few of our design concepts (with varying degrees of brand stretch) against competitors, the most progressive, revolutionary option came up tops. Consumers really embraced a much bolder and more modern version of the brand!
Armed with their feedback and research results, the initial stakeholder resistance (much to their surprise) gave way to a unanimous approval and Country Fresh has confidently launched with packaging that is a distinctive leap forward for the brand and the category. (To note: the entire process of testing and reverting back to client with results all happened within the space of a day!)
This move has injected a lot of ownability into their brand assets, and notably increased the brand perception and quality. Those freezers also paint a distinctly different, and much bluer, picture.
Time will tell, but in a couple of months, we have no doubt that Country Fresh, with its bold upgrade, will be performing exactly as predicted. We don’t see how clients could even consider any other way of working. Why risk it?
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