Arla Foods has teamed up with the London office of strategic brand and packaging design agency Bulletproof to create a contemporary new brand visual identity and packaging design for global cheese brand Apetina. Bulletproof was appointed to the project in May 2016.
With an ambition to reposition Apetina as a cooking cheese brand, Arla Foods needed a design that would drive reappraisal, inspiring ‘casual creative cooks’ (those who enjoy experimental cooking and love entertaining in the kitchen) to become more inventive with their cooking habits and start introducing Apetina into their cooking repertoire rather than just using it in the salad bowl.
Bulletproof comments: “We had license to be bold and disruptive from the get-go in order to shake up the category and change the mindset of our target consumers. Through the established lighthouse identity, our rallying cry was ‘Let’s Play in the Kitchen’. This grounded our product firmly in the cooking arena, while giving us the ability to be playful and expressive.
“The current cooking cheese category is an ocean of cold blue and white, with lackluster photography focusing on salads and unappetizing white cheese. Our aim was to shake up the status quo and dynamically bring to life on pack the exciting culinary opportunities that exist when cooking with Apetina.
“Taking center stage in our design is the new Apetina diamond device, which frames an array of delicious, fresh ingredients chosen to complement each variant, alluding to the exciting variety of recipes that can be created with each cheese.
“The sumptuous photography is shot top down and captures a real moment within the cooking process without showing final or perfect dishes. This encourages individual expression through culinary experimentation, while ensuring our offer remains attainable. The packs also feature supporting copy on the lids and sides to reinforce the front of pack recipe suggestion.
“The brand mark has been simplified and locked up with the new Apetina diamond device, forming a consistent and ownable equity the brand can use on and off-pack moving forward, while ensuring portfolio harmonization for the 60+ SKUs. A fresh and bold, dark blue color palette set on a natural wooden texture finishes the design to give maximum shelf impact in store and add natural culinary cues.”
Arun Prabhu, category director for Cooking Cheese at Arla Foods said: “With big ambitions for the Apetina brand, we needed a new brand visual identity and packaging design that would showcase its culinary versatility when used in the cooking pot. Bulletproof used a rigorous strategic process to translate this into a beautiful and effective design, which we expect will drive reappraisal of the brand and deliver our business objectives. We are excited to see this design hit shelves soon and are looking forward to bringing this to life through Bulletproof’s communications campaign for the brand later in the year.”
The new Apetina packaging is now in store in the UK and Netherlands with Sweden, Finland, Norway and Poland launching later this year and the rest of the world in 2018.
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