Refreshing a heritage food pack for its loyal buyers

The question

The product had loyal buyers young and old, and the brand team wanted to hear from both before choosing among its agency’s new designs.

It needed to know which elements buyers still looked for, which could change to signal something new, and whether each design made the food look appetizing.

Our approach

We spoke with the people the pack had to keep: current buyers, younger and older, in small groups where everyone had room to talk.

Each conversation began with people’s earliest memories of the product, so we understood what the pack meant to them before anyone saw a new design.

Then each new design and the current pack appeared as real printed packs, first on a shelf beside other brands and then close up. That let us see how easy each was to find before asking what it said, whether it looked new and whether it made people hungry.

What the team came away with

The brand team had an element-by-element assessment of each new design and the current pack, heard from younger and older buyers alike.

It came with direction for the redesign, so the team could choose and refine a design knowing what to keep and what it was free to change.