WPA Pinfold Leeds

ABOUT

Green’s Gluten Free Beers were the first beers to be specifically brewed for Coeliacs in the UK and were launched in 2004. The range includes both naturally gluten free and de-glutenised beers, craft brewed in Belgium.
Originally the target market for Green’s was Coeliacs and those who are gluten intolerant. However, as more people are opting to follow a gluten-free diet as a lifestyle health choice, the target market has expanded to both the Coeliac market, craft and beer enthusiasts.

Green’s previous branding was not fit for market. The packaging lacked equity and positioned the range more as a clinical product rather than a quality tasting range of beers. There was a need to realign the Green’s brand to meet the expectations of the changing beer market, and to extend its reach to non-coeliacs. Green’s needed to capitalise on the opportunities of the fast expanding craft beer markets (its beers are artisan brewed) and also add value to its current range of beers for existing customers. The goal for the project was to realign the brand as quality of craft brewed, gluten free beer and position Green’s as a premium, contemporary beer range to future proof the brand.

The scope of the project included:
– Rebrand Green’s Gluten Free beers and reposition for the mainstream craft and speciality beer category, as well as building a more added value position in the Free From category.
– Redesign, add value and taste appeal, to create shelf impact across the range of eight, Green’s Gluten Free Beers.
– Create simple and practical guidelines to manage Green’s brand assets and to help maintain brand integrity.

The original Green’s designs had almost a pharmaceutical look and had no real beer cues or taste appeal. The previous design certainly did not support the premium price point. We rebranded Green’s, creating a totally new identity centred on a specially drawn ‘g’ monogramme that incorporates a hop icon. The iconic brand logo (‘g’ with hop) takes centre stage in the label design, to build recognition and loyalty. The gluten free credentials are given prominence and the beer styles are also clearly communicated to emphasise the beers provenance. The bottle label designs are developed around this and strong, vibrant colours are used for the individual beers to create a dynamic identity and strong shelf stand out. This gives Green’s credibility as a range of beers and reflects the quality of the product, which has won several international beer competitions. The rebranding repositions the range as a credible beer brand – making Green’s a beer of choice, not a beer of necessity, for both coeliacs and mainstream beer drinkers alike.

Our design solution took on board the limited resources of the client, both in terms of budget and sales support. We built the design equity around the Green’s brand and created an iconic marque that had immediate recognition and stand out. Every other aspect of the brand communication and typography was painstakingly scrutinised and balanced (including back labels) to support the quality communication. Particular attention was paid to the Gluten Free claim to ensure that this was clearly communicated, without it appearing to be a negative part of the consumer proposition. The elegant simplicity of the design was enhanced and given real shelf stand out through the use of a carefully balanced palette of fresh, bright colours – that gave strongly branded shelf stand out and created blocks of Green’s owned space on shelf. We avoided the obvious and clichéd route (green monochrome) as this would not support the diversity of the range of beers, which was also a key USP of the brand.

However, a simplistic approach to colour can look ‘cheap’, especially when the label printing technology is limited (as in this case), so we worked closely with the printer to create a metallic colour effect to the labels. Conventional foil printing was not practical, due to cost, so all the labels were printed on the same metallic silver stock and over printed with a slightly transparent colour to achieve the final result. Sounds simple, but excruciatingly and painfully challenging to achieve, in practice... The results are stunning and were well worth the effort.

Green’s has managed to reinvigorate flat sales figures and put the business back onto a growth trajectory. This is a nano business with very limited financial and people resources. The rebrand and new packaging have been singular in delivering return on investment and placing Green’s in the mainstream craft beer category (in addition to the Free From category). For example, Sainsbury’s not only relisted Green’s (when it was about to be de-listed) but, on the strength of the redesigned packaging, it placed Greens in the Beer category – as well as the Free From category, where it had previously been listed.

AWARDS

DBA Design Effectiveness Award

Annual 2017 ShortlistGreen's Gluten Free BeerEffectiveness

Green's Gluten Free Beer

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