Visual Elements
Packaging is a brands most valuable consumer touchpoint. DuPuis confirms that 'Every package is seen by 100 percent of a brand's consumers. As a result, the retail experience is in a constant state of evolution as brands and products are continually positioning them selves in new and innovative ways'. Packaging is a supermarkets largest and most effective tool in strategic communications. Evolving over time from basic utility to marketing vehicle, the simple package has become more complex (Silva 2011). Even the term 'packaging' has evolved, from package (a container) to 'packaging' (a container that has written communication about its specific contents). This transformation also took place around the nineteenth century alongside the concept of a brand. As societies and cultures grew, communication and clarity became important; therefore icons and words began to grace the surface of containers (DuPuis 2011). However, we now live in a society that looks beyond the functional aspects of packaging to how it makes us feel and look. From utilitarian function to emotional billboard the package only serves two means; hosting the brand and enticing the customer.
In todays market the definition of packaging can be broadened further to include the 'packaging' of entire brands, not just specific products. Leading food retailers especially such as WholeFoods and Starbucks are brands whose packaging extends to the entire retail experience. For them, the idea of packaging goes beyond container to total package of the store: a real brand experience. And it is the packaging of this experience that allow their customers to become enchanted and entertained. Consumers connect on a whole new level with the complete concept of packaging.
'Branding embraces and is associated with marketing, design, internal and external communication ad human resources. It becomes the channel through which the organization presents itself to itself and to its various external worlds. It influences every part of the organization and every audience of the organization - all the time, everywhere.'
(Olins 2008 PAGE NUMBER)
In todays market the definition of packaging can be broadened further to include the 'packaging' of entire brands, not just specific products. Leading food retailers especially such as WholeFoods and Starbucks are brands whose packaging extends to the entire retail experience. For them, the idea of packaging goes beyond container to total package of the store: a real brand experience. And it is the packaging of this experience that allow their customers to become enchanted and entertained. Consumers connect on a whole new level with the complete concept of packaging.
'Branding embraces and is associated with marketing, design, internal and external communication ad human resources. It becomes the channel through which the organization presents itself to itself and to its various external worlds. It influences every part of the organization and every audience of the organization - all the time, everywhere.'
(Olins 2008 PAGE NUMBER)
CONCLUDE
Waitrose Case Study: own-label Ranges
To better understand the realm of own-labels the branding of the Waitrose ranges will be analyzed, by dissecting visual queues, trends and design choices.
Waitrose began originally on the high street in 1904. Wallace Wyndham Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor opened their first shop in Acton and were successful in selling a wide range of grocers products. After two years, Taylor left, leaving Waite and Rose to form Waitrose Ltd in 1908. Today Waitrose has over 300+ stores in to UK, alongside a smaller convenience store version, found mostly in London. Waitrose's philosophy is as follows:
Looking at essential Waitrose first, the lowest situated own-label in terms of price and perceived quality.
essential Waitrose - 'We think everyone should be able to enjoy really good quality, affordable food. At the heart of our essential range is the belief that you shouldn’t have to compromise your standards.'
FIGURES
The Waitrose 'essential' range consists of over 1500 products that they describe as 'entry level prices with no compromise on quality'. The waitrose essentials range was created to increase the awareness of Waitrose's own-labels. Needing an entry price-point without compromising on their quality standards, it was a way to increase brand appeal without alienating their loyal consumer base.
For the designers, the brief was to create a bold identity that could be clear and consistent throughout all items and products and through this, essential Waitrose was born. Even the language is strategic, avoiding words like 'value' and 'basic', as seen in other low end own-labels, as to constantly reassure their customers of its quality. The clean white is a minimal and effective background to comfortably accommodate illustrations, photography and colour. The typeface again is a custom black sans, with the colours changing from product to product. The coloured elements of the packaging differs between block, gradient, and texture and yet still has a strong visual unity. The consistency of this range is impressive and is a result of confident positioning and vision; creating what is essentially a 'cheap range' with the confidence of quality as they would instill in high-end brands.
Essential Waitrose has been incredibly successful and has delivered the most impressive results in the history of the company. Within the first 12 weeks of its launch sales grew by 16% and after a year, Waitrose had grown to become a £1.5 billion brand.
'Looking as success stories closely, you'll see that design is always founded on innovative positioning and solid, consistent brand strategy' (DuPuis 2011 PAGE NUMBER)
The next range, that comes under the category of healthy eating is Waitrose's Love Life - 'A range of nutritious meals, snacks, drinks and groceries that taste great and should be enjoyed. Developed with the expertise and knowledge of our in-house nutritionists and award-winning chefs.'
FIGURES
This brand's identity was created by Pearlfisher London, the same team who created Jamie Oliver's brand. The LoveLife identity has since won awards from AIGA, FAB and DBA. In its first year, the bold and dynamic identity created sales of £60 million. LoveLife is a core range of nutritionally balance food. Pearlfisher cited that goals here were to create
'a new design language for pleasurable and healthy eating...A concise brand architecture, naming and segmentation were expressed through an exquisite graphic and photographic design language. This benchmark visual identity system inspired and created consistent expression from packaging, print advertising and digital.'
The designs are incredibly successful. The use of bold, high saturations are engaging and exciting with the varying colours complimenting each other well. They are striking and connote excitement and energy. The designs stand out on a shelf, helping customers subconsciously to make smarter decisions. The photography is the focal point and arguable the main design element of this range, with high quality photos of colourful, healthy foods. The positions and posing of the food depicts a playful cuisine style, with the use of expensive, quality food stuffs, again only reinforcing Waitrose's philosophy of approachable good quality food. The alliteration of 'LoveLife' is strong and easy to remember and will create a memorable loyalty for the range in those customers that are dedicated to a clean and healthy lifestyle, whilst the enticing design will encourage new customers to follow the growing 'trend' seen over the last couple of years with the rise of raw diets and superfoods.
'Health has been a dominant trend in the UK over recent years, affecting the food and beverage industry through the re-formulation and introduction of new 'healthy(ier) style' products in a number of categories.' (Leatherhead Research).
This is evidenced in the growing number of healthier ranges seen produced by almost all UK supermarkets. EXAMPLES
Waitrose's organic range is titled Waitrose Duchy Organic and is their widest ever range of organic food. 'From everyday milk to scrumptious biscuits, we’ve made it easy for you to make an organic choice.'
The green colour dominates the entire look and feel of the range and again, similar to the essential range, subtle gradients are used. The deep colour taken from the grassy hills of Duchy of Cornwall is the main factor. A simplified, negative vector of the Duchy shield sits atop the Waitrose logo comfortably. This partnership does wonders for customers bases. The Duchy shield as a logo, a symbol by it self already connotes so much; high quality, royalty and exclusivity in terms of class and price.
Symbols are immensely powerful. They act as visual triggers which work many times faster and more explosively than words to set ideas in the mind. Many symbols are, as we know from Jung [founder of analytic phycology] and others, an intrinsic part of the human vocabulary of expression and comprehension. (Olins , 2098) PAGE NUMBER
To have such a powerful symbol in conjunction with Waitrose's own reputation was a smart move and only broadens the respect and influence Waitrose has as being a respected, notable 'high-end' retailer.
The DUCHY sans type face is a simplified version of the original DUCHY logo type created by typographer Rob Clarke. The 'organic' is scrawled in a script handwritten style typeface using a lighter shade of green. The rustic hand rendered style of the type projects a personal touch and steers away from the signifiers of over processed and refined goods. This is seen almost always within organic and free-range packaging, with designers using stamp-like and hand-drawn typefaces alongside green, wood and nature influenced imagery.
As consumers we have been taught to read design queues, and this directly affects our shopping choices. We know green to means healthy and that handwriting means it was in contact with a person; grown my a farmer and not a factory. Language, colour and design all play a massive part of how we choose to feed our families. All these elements are used by supermarkets to continually entice customers into buying their product.
Waitrose's philosophy is clear: good food doesn’t necessarily cost less, it costs what it costs for a valid reasons. s.
To better understand the realm of own-labels the branding of the Waitrose ranges will be analyzed, by dissecting visual queues, trends and design choices.
Waitrose began originally on the high street in 1904. Wallace Wyndham Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor opened their first shop in Acton and were successful in selling a wide range of grocers products. After two years, Taylor left, leaving Waite and Rose to form Waitrose Ltd in 1908. Today Waitrose has over 300+ stores in to UK, alongside a smaller convenience store version, found mostly in London. Waitrose's philosophy is as follows:
"We believe there are a few things in life more important than the food we buy. That's why the modern Waitrose shopping experience enables our customers to taste products, seek advice and receive recommendations from product specialists as they shop."
Waitrose is known for being able to provide expert, high quality goods with the convenience that a modern supermarket brings. They pride themselves on champion British produce to indulgent and organic ranges.
Brand communications only became primary focus around 1997, when the aggressive pricing of rivals like Sainsbury's and Tesco began to take a toll on consumer preference. Around this time, Waitrose took in the largest amount of 'secondary shoppers' - a term that describes customers whose primary choice is elsewhere.
Brand communications only became primary focus around 1997, when the aggressive pricing of rivals like Sainsbury's and Tesco began to take a toll on consumer preference. Around this time, Waitrose took in the largest amount of 'secondary shoppers' - a term that describes customers whose primary choice is elsewhere.
Looking at essential Waitrose first, the lowest situated own-label in terms of price and perceived quality.
essential Waitrose - 'We think everyone should be able to enjoy really good quality, affordable food. At the heart of our essential range is the belief that you shouldn’t have to compromise your standards.'
FIGURES
The Waitrose 'essential' range consists of over 1500 products that they describe as 'entry level prices with no compromise on quality'. The waitrose essentials range was created to increase the awareness of Waitrose's own-labels. Needing an entry price-point without compromising on their quality standards, it was a way to increase brand appeal without alienating their loyal consumer base.
For the designers, the brief was to create a bold identity that could be clear and consistent throughout all items and products and through this, essential Waitrose was born. Even the language is strategic, avoiding words like 'value' and 'basic', as seen in other low end own-labels, as to constantly reassure their customers of its quality. The clean white is a minimal and effective background to comfortably accommodate illustrations, photography and colour. The typeface again is a custom black sans, with the colours changing from product to product. The coloured elements of the packaging differs between block, gradient, and texture and yet still has a strong visual unity. The consistency of this range is impressive and is a result of confident positioning and vision; creating what is essentially a 'cheap range' with the confidence of quality as they would instill in high-end brands.
Essential Waitrose has been incredibly successful and has delivered the most impressive results in the history of the company. Within the first 12 weeks of its launch sales grew by 16% and after a year, Waitrose had grown to become a £1.5 billion brand.
'Looking as success stories closely, you'll see that design is always founded on innovative positioning and solid, consistent brand strategy' (DuPuis 2011 PAGE NUMBER)
The next range, that comes under the category of healthy eating is Waitrose's Love Life - 'A range of nutritious meals, snacks, drinks and groceries that taste great and should be enjoyed. Developed with the expertise and knowledge of our in-house nutritionists and award-winning chefs.'
FIGURES
This brand's identity was created by Pearlfisher London, the same team who created Jamie Oliver's brand. The LoveLife identity has since won awards from AIGA, FAB and DBA. In its first year, the bold and dynamic identity created sales of £60 million. LoveLife is a core range of nutritionally balance food. Pearlfisher cited that goals here were to create
'a new design language for pleasurable and healthy eating...A concise brand architecture, naming and segmentation were expressed through an exquisite graphic and photographic design language. This benchmark visual identity system inspired and created consistent expression from packaging, print advertising and digital.'
The designs are incredibly successful. The use of bold, high saturations are engaging and exciting with the varying colours complimenting each other well. They are striking and connote excitement and energy. The designs stand out on a shelf, helping customers subconsciously to make smarter decisions. The photography is the focal point and arguable the main design element of this range, with high quality photos of colourful, healthy foods. The positions and posing of the food depicts a playful cuisine style, with the use of expensive, quality food stuffs, again only reinforcing Waitrose's philosophy of approachable good quality food. The alliteration of 'LoveLife' is strong and easy to remember and will create a memorable loyalty for the range in those customers that are dedicated to a clean and healthy lifestyle, whilst the enticing design will encourage new customers to follow the growing 'trend' seen over the last couple of years with the rise of raw diets and superfoods.
'Health has been a dominant trend in the UK over recent years, affecting the food and beverage industry through the re-formulation and introduction of new 'healthy(ier) style' products in a number of categories.' (Leatherhead Research).
This is evidenced in the growing number of healthier ranges seen produced by almost all UK supermarkets. EXAMPLES
Waitrose's organic range is titled Waitrose Duchy Organic and is their widest ever range of organic food. 'From everyday milk to scrumptious biscuits, we’ve made it easy for you to make an organic choice.'
This range is the product of the partnership of Waitrose and Duchy Originals, a company founded by Charles, Prince of Wales in 1990. The brand is named after the Duchy of Cornwall, which are estates help in trust by the Prince of Wales. After Waitrose announced an exclusive deal with the company, all organic products were relaunched as Waitrose Duchy Originals from August 2010 and today have over 300 products.
The design is a result of two already existing brands. The design incorporates the Duchy shield FIGURE. The fifteen circles within the shield equate to the fifteen golden 'bezants' found on the Duchy of Cornwall's Coat of arms.
FIGURE
The design is a result of two already existing brands. The design incorporates the Duchy shield FIGURE. The fifteen circles within the shield equate to the fifteen golden 'bezants' found on the Duchy of Cornwall's Coat of arms.
FIGURE
Symbols are immensely powerful. They act as visual triggers which work many times faster and more explosively than words to set ideas in the mind. Many symbols are, as we know from Jung [founder of analytic phycology] and others, an intrinsic part of the human vocabulary of expression and comprehension. (Olins , 2098) PAGE NUMBER
To have such a powerful symbol in conjunction with Waitrose's own reputation was a smart move and only broadens the respect and influence Waitrose has as being a respected, notable 'high-end' retailer.
The DUCHY sans type face is a simplified version of the original DUCHY logo type created by typographer Rob Clarke. The 'organic' is scrawled in a script handwritten style typeface using a lighter shade of green. The rustic hand rendered style of the type projects a personal touch and steers away from the signifiers of over processed and refined goods. This is seen almost always within organic and free-range packaging, with designers using stamp-like and hand-drawn typefaces alongside green, wood and nature influenced imagery.
As consumers we have been taught to read design queues, and this directly affects our shopping choices. We know green to means healthy and that handwriting means it was in contact with a person; grown my a farmer and not a factory. Language, colour and design all play a massive part of how we choose to feed our families. All these elements are used by supermarkets to continually entice customers into buying their product.
SILVA, J and DUPUIS (2011) Package Design Workbook: The Art and Science of Successful Packaging. Reissue Ed. Massachusetts: Rockport
JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP Products and Services [Online] Available from http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/waitrose/products-and-services.html [Accessed 20th December]
EFFECTIVE DESIGN (2011) The Grand Prix: Waitrose Limited [Online] Available from
http://2011.effectivedesign.org.uk/2010/grand_prix/waitrose.php [Accessed 20th December]
PEARLFISHER Design Portfolio [Online] Available from http://www.pearlfisher.com/work/waitrose-lovelife/ [Accessed 18th December]
BIG FISH Design Portfolio [Online] Available from http://www.bigfish.co.uk/blog/portfolio/waitrose/ [Accessed 17th December]
