Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.
Zoom Advertising does some navel gazing and decides to go proudly-ZA; McNab’s foodbars redesign to keep in touch with their African roots – and spices; a host of new product launches left over from 2012; and our first packaging fail for the new year…
New brand CI for Zoom
One of the first things that Zoom executive creative director, Nina Daniel-Gruber, was tasked with, was the brand refresh of Zoom Advertising, relaunched recently on their 15th anniversary.
“We did an analysis of Zoom as a brand, where we wanted to be and what we wanted to achieve and who are our clients. It became clear that we have advertised to 90% of our market, the general population of South Africa, not to the elite 10%. From that, Zoom Advertising became ZA, tying the whole thing in with our iconic South African homegrown brands which are our clients.”
Zoom counts PEP, Motswari, Shoprite Group, Sportsmans Warehouse and Capespan, among their client base.
“Without trying to look too much like the AA sign, we called in an interior designer who is also an architect, who had a really good eye for space to advise us on our internal space. We didn’t want to be Karoo-chic. We had to be authentic – we are still an advertising agency, not a bank or a novelty store. We want to attract new clients and new talent. The front area is a first point of contact and first impressions is what it is about,”says Daniel-Gruber.
As an aside, Zoom took all the old stationary and recycled it into trendy notebooks and everyone also got a ZA mug with their name on it (also handy, says Daniel-Gruber, for pinpointing who never washes up their coffee cups). Cute.
L’Occitane goes braille
L’Occitane en Provence beauty and skincare products have launched packaging with braille to aid the visually impaired which make up more than 4% of our population. L’Occitane en Provence has incorporated braille onto about 80% of their products and product boxes; as well as working with NGO Orbis to provide access to quality eye care for people in developing countries.
McNab’s ‘FeelGood’ food bars
Packing can be effective, as Zoom found out when it redesigned the packaging for McNab’s ‘FeelGood’ Foodbars – doubling sales as a result.
McNab’s Foodbars are billed as a healthy quick snack for lunch boxes and the target is those on the run: mainly working professionals and moms looking for healthy snacks for their kids. The bars are made from natural products and it is a wholly African product. McNab’s do no above the line advertising and Zoom ECD, Nina Daniel-Gruber, said the results of the pack redesign were “spectacular” and sales “rocketed”.
“It is an African product, so the colours needed to reflect that. It is a fluid design, organic, holistic and with a natural feel. That earthiness needed to come through too.”
McNab’s Foodbars retail at most major retailers and forecourts.
New on shelf
And in case you missed them, these are some of the new products launched towards the end of 2012 that we thought were interesting: Kiehl’s skin and hair care products launched into SA with its first store inside Edgars Sandton City – they also tested the Cape Town market in December with pop-up stores.
Dentyne has added Strawberry Passion and Spearmint flavours to its slab gum range which also comes with a new envelope design; and, Canderel has launched a new sweetener, Canderel Green, with Stevia as its key ingredient.
Packaging fail
The idea for this column actually came about due to my frustration with the Huletts Equisweet dispenser – although I want to write about great packaging and design – not only bad executions. The Huletts dispenser looks pretty and the product is great, but the dispenser doesn’t work properly: sticking, jamming, and breaking open and showering product everywhere without much provocation. A total fail! Needless to say, I’ve switched brands, even though some other choices are more expensive.
– Shelf Life by Louise Marsland is a weekly column on MarkLives. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland.
– Want to sponsor Shelf Life? Contact us here.
Louise Marsland has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 18 years of her 25 year media career as a former Editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing; as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper; and is the co-founder and Publishing Editor of SA’s newly launched industry trendwatching portal, TREND. at www.trendlives.info, in partnership with MarkLives.com.
– Industry profiles you’ll make time for. Sign up for our free newsletter!