Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.

Design Partnership roars; a new creative hub in the Mother city; Nike gets technical with soccer; and an update on the latest tobacco legislation.

Hungry Lion roars in SA

There’s a new franchise ready to roar in the South African market. While having launched already in 1997 in Southern Africa, the Hungry Lion franchise has kept a low profile. Design Partnership is set to change that with a rebrand to “deliver stand-out pavement appeal” and lure new customers.

Hungry Lion, part of Shoprite Holdings, has a network of more than 150 stores in eight countries in Southern Africa and is currently rolling out new stores in Zambia, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Its food focus is on fried chicken.

Along with the plans for the new stores and its positioning in the market cemented, Hungry Lion franchisor Adrian Basson, thought it was time for the brand to find its voice and shout about its 100% homegrown South African offerings.

This is exactly what Design Partnership hoped to achieve with its daringly bright red and yellow colouring that brings to life the eye-catching new Hungry Lion logo, created by M&C Saatchi.

All exterior detail was stripped to a very monochromatic and brightly lit red and yellow to attract attention and increase footfall.  This was then blended with softer and warmer interior lighting and timber finishes to balance the strong yellow and red colours and create a harmonious scheme, explains Callie van der Merwe, CEO of Design Partnership.

Design Partnership created the new design identity against a backdrop of strict lead times due to a highly aggressive rollout strategy  – Hungry Lion plans to revamp and open approximately 200 stores within the next two years in order to gain market share.

Cameraland unveils new picture

The landmark Cameraland building in Long Street has been revamped and repurposed as a destination for “creative individuals”. There’s a coffee shop and a rooftop terrace that gives patrons a birds-eye view of the city, as well as a view of the latest techno gadgets.

A photography display winds its way up the refurbished staircase to the coffee shop, photographic studio and rooftop terrace. The various areas in the building are being positioned for creative conversations, meetings, training sessions and all types of gatherings.

Gary Shap, Cameraland’s CEO, has introduced ‘Be Inspired’ evenings to bring the creative community together for inspiring and motivating talks. And pssst… don’t tell anyone else, but they’ve got about the only free parking in the centre of Cape Town!

Nike plays away

Nike has unveiled its new home and away team outfits for FC Barcelona for the 2013/14 season. The “combination of the club’s renowned tradition with their modern and progressive approach” sees the traditional red and blue stripes returning for the home kit with a modern fade stripe on the sleeves. The away shirt has a yellow-ribbed crew neck with red trim, amplifying the design of the home shirt. The jersey also features a vibrant yellow V-neck collar to represent the Catalan flag, the Senyera, which is also fully integrated in to the back of the collar. Inside the back of the neck is a woven label featuring the club’s motto “Mesqueun Club” (More than a Club).

The kit is made of fabric weighing just 150 grams – 23% lighter than previous Nike kits. The fabric is also integrated with Nike Dri-FIT technology to draw sweat away from the body to keep players cool and dry!

Prohibiting tobacco trademarks unconstitutional

Here’s an update on a story we carried a few months ago on Shelf Life about proposed new tobacco legislation.

Legislation to prohibit the use of trademarks on tobacco products is unconstitutional and will make no contribution to discouraging smoking. This is the view of Prof Owen Dean of the Faculty of Law at Stellenbosch University (SU). Dean said many countries, including South Africa, intend to adopt legislation restricting or prohibiting the use of logos on cigarette packs, while only allowing brand names or product names depicted in a plain manner, to be displayed. As regards South Africa, he argued that such legislation infringes both sections 25(1) and (2) of the Constitution because it will bring about an arbitrary deprivation of property, in the form of trademarks, and indeed an expropriation of such property.

– Shelf Life by Louise Marsland is a weekly column on MarkLives. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland or email her at louise.marsland at gmail.com.

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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.

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