Brand Britain is continuously pushing the boundaries of packaging design
With over two decades of brand design experience under their belt, and a somewhat rebellious approach to packaging design, Brand Britain has developed a following with challenger brands that want to stand out from the crowd.
Brand Britain provides brand owners and retailers with strategic design services across multiple functions, from NPD visualisation and ideation to packaging design and in-store marketing.
Clients have ranged from some of the biggest brands – from Nestle, to one of Scotland’s oldest distillers, Glen Scotia, who they helped achieve a 2,484 per cent up-lift in global sales.
Manchester Drinks, a leader in the ‘ready-to-drink’ sector, first knocked on Brand Britain’s door five years ago. The challenge? To breath new life into their growing range of drinks.
At the time, the Manchester Drinks brands were being designed to perceived limitations – production capability and shopper drivers. The brands were self-limiting without any real rational for being so.
Richard Benjamin, Manchester Drinks’ Managing Director said: “The first growth challenge we faced was that we were making brand decisions based on assumption. We assumed that a discount range needed to be positioned as such to avoid looking too premium.”
“Secondly, our design and label production partners had previously been working in silos. They weren’t communicating – meaning that the design was also ‘assumption-led’ rather than ‘possibility-led’. Meaning design impact was being suppressed.”
One of the first packaging re-designs to benefit from Brand Britain’s joined-up approach was their design for the launch of Manchester Drinks’ Spiced Rum range. Insight pointed to a resurgence in rum popularity amongst craft and liqueur variants. Research suggested the global rum market is reportedly looking set to garner significant exponential growth by 2022.
Keen to help Manchester Drinks harness growth potential, we researched the audience profile to ensure the visual tone hit all the right notes.
The result is a brand that defines the essence of the drink and re-enforces its quality. Considered touches, including foiling and traditional illustration work together to boost character, authenticity and heritage values.
Russel D’Ambrosio, Brand Britain’s Creative Director said: “Manchester Drinks briefed us on designing their new spiced rum which would be sold exclusively in one of the UK’s leading discount retailers. We knew that the design of the product would be a key component in building trust with shoppers, articulating good value and a high quality proposition. The brand needed to look every bit as good as it tasted.”
Gareth Jenkins, Senior Designer, added: “We spent time with the client’s label producers and printers. Gained a better picture of where they were in terms of innovation and established the constraints. Many of the special flourishes which would really elevate the brand design weren’t cost prohibitive and could be achieved on budget with an understanding and communication between parties. Knowing what finishes could be achieved, we were able to evaluate potential sales up-lift against spend to define a deliverable brand strategy.”
Richard Benjamin continued: “By adopting a closer and more collaborative relationship with production partners and retail customers, Brand Britain surpassed expectations. The design execution Brand Britain delivered pushed the boundaries and challenged the category norms often adopted by competing brands. Early sales indicators are extremely encouraging.”
Brand Britain continues to grow its FMCG client base – confident that by working closely with all stakeholders involved they can continue to design and create brands which create a real impact.
0113 2854595
team@brandbritain.co.uk
www.brandbritain.co.uk
