Seven years after Love Grown’s founders, Alex and Maddy (D’Amato at the time) Hasulak, decided to turn their homemade granola business into a legitimate health food enterprise, the breakfast food brand found itself at a crossroads. The Love Grown line of breakfast products had achieved national distribution through Kroger and had penetrated the Canadian market as well. Its granola and oat offerings were tasty and healthy, and its protein-packed cereal line was made with a bean blend that gave consumers a gluten-free alternative to corn and flour.
While Love Grown was a small but growing company, it was about to launch its seventh product, a children’s cereal that would propel the brand into a field with giants of the industry—giants with deep pockets. That playing field had to be leveled somehow.
On the recommendation of the company’s advisory board, the Hasulaks brought in a consultant, Tim Shanahan of Shanahan Advisory, to revisit the entire brand. “Tim’s strategy was to first understand our consumers and to really capture the energy and excitement of the brand,” says Maddy.
Shanahan’s final recommendation was a focus on empowerment, evident in the brand’s new tagline, “Inspired by Love, Powered by Nutrition.” Shanahan also felt the packaging was too soft and failed to deliver impact. “One of the major focuses of the rebrand was to bring consistency and cohesion to Love Grown’s packaging so consumers would recognize the company and not just the products independently,” he explains.
The Hasulaks trusted Hughes Design Group to create a design to appeal to their customers. As Maddy says, “We really felt they shared so much of our vision and the ability to bring the brand to the next level and that’s what we really wanted to do in the space.”
Hughes Design Group’s founder and president Barney Hughes immediately recognized one problem: Love Grown had a stealth logo. Placed far up in the corner, it was not brand-centric, and Maddy agreed. “It was often in the top right corner and the logo itself would change color per SKU, so there was no brand consistency,” she explains.
The new design incorporates three green circles placed in the upper right corner to call out the health benefits of each product. It’s also brand-focused. “On the new packaging, we really wanted the brand primary,” Maddy explains, “followed by the product line, and then followed by the callouts and the unique points of differentiation.”
The new packaging is colorful, fun, communicates the health message and creates a win-win for both kids and parents. It also creates what Hughes refers to as the ‘nag factor’ where kids run to the shelves and beg their parents to buy a product that appeals to them. With the healthy ingredients used in Love Grown products, parents aren’t likely to resist.
While the initial goal of the redesign was centered on packaging, it grew to include the development of a brand standard and guidelines that would influence the company website, merchandising, trade and promotional materials. “We worked with them in solving all consumer and trade touchpoints,” says Hughes.
With the rebrand and implementation of the package redesign, Love Grown has laid a solid foundation on which to build the company with multiple product launches in multiple categories throughout the supermarket. It’s a brand they can leverage. “Our buyers’ response has been so overwhelmingly positive,” says Maddy. “A lot of that stems from the fact that the packaging before was clean and simple, but it was definitely austere and it didn’t capture the excitement and the enthusiasm of the brand.”