CASE STUDY

Which visual assets drive
sales of bottled water?

Natural Fresh
The Challenge

A leading mineral water brand is known for its natural heritage, high mineral content and origins from the mountains. Nature, freshness and purity are key brand attributes.

Whilst undergoing a brand refresh, the client and agency were exploring new directions, which led to a new packaging design. In the new design, several visual assets were thought not to be key and were dropped as a result.

Since the introduction of this new packaging, sales began to stagnate and even decline. This was in the face of an aggressive campaign claiming strong natural credentials from a major competitor.

The Solution

When Split Second Research were appointed to investigate consumer sentiment, it was revealed, through implicit market research methods, that the brand had unintentionally jettisoned its core heritage credentials. 

It was revealed that the new direction had confused and ‘lost’ its loyal customers and that two of the three assets that were dropped from the original packaging, were in fact shown to be key drivers in the category.

The results proved that customers trusted the original visual assets and believed in the source of freshness and purity and they were confused by the new approach.

The Outcomes

The implicit market research study gave the brand new insights to inform their pack design – a confidence that their original branding was successful, as well as insights into key areas in which it could be improved.

As a result, work is now underway to renew the brand’s former successful foundations by restoring the previous visual assets with a contemporary update. They even decided to enhance one of the two assets, making its presence clearer on the pack, since it is a crucial asset for the brand.

If you’d like to understand how this approach can be applied to your own challenge, get in touch with one of our market research experts, here.

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