TERRANOVA: A New Look
Over the past 10 years, we've designed many product lines for TerraNova, a Berkeley-based bath product company. In 2005, TerraNova noticed that the retail landscape was changing and shelf space was becoming increasingly crowded with bath and body brands. Anecdotal observation indicated a need to reinvigorate TerraNova's shelf presence with a stronger brand identity and more compelling packaging. The owners, Kathy Saunders and Ann Saunders Gordon, felt that it was time for the TerraNova brand to evolve.
Define the Challenge
We started from the ground up, and took a careful look at the marketplace and TerraNova within it. We checked out the competitors, price points, case studies, and researched product and packaging trends, growth areas for retail, store audits, and brand equities, just to name a few things. Armed with all this great data, we worked with TerraNova to define and realize their vision of the brand and the future.
Goals Defined
After many research hours and brainstorming sessions, we distilled the essence of TerraNova down to Simple Truth and Beauty. TerraNova promises customers (women aged 30-50-plus and their households) effective products made with integrity and natural ingredients that feature uniquely fresh and clean fragrances. We established the five main communication attributes of TerraNova as: 1) Real/Authentic; 2) Fresh; 3) Inspired; 4) Natural; 5) Upscale. With these attributes in mind, designer Sandra Murray set out to develop a new identity for the brand.
Design Challenges and Changes from Sandra Murray
We approached the exploration of TerraNova's new brand identity through packaging. Because it was clear that the packaging needed to be updated in order to stay ahead in the challenging trend-driven body care industry, the brand image and packaging redesign went hand in hand. Consumers needed to be able to find TerraNova on a crowded shelf, as well as trust, want to purchase and develop loyalty to the brand.
In the end, we opted to consolidate and simplify the look and feel across multiple product lines. We gave the design more white space—more room to breathe. We gave consumers easy ways to distinguish one fragrance from another through color differentiation and a well-defined area for illustration. The lower half of each TerraNova label, bottle, and box is a pattern, as if it were gift-wrapped, inspired by nature. The pattern is trimmed with a band of fragrance-specific color. The effect is simple, straightforward and beautiful. It is modern and sophisticated, yet it honors the fragrance it represents.
The objective in redesigning TerraNova's packaging, of course, was not only to increase sales by giving consumers something new to put on their bathroom shelves, but also to introduce consumers to a new way of looking at TerraNova, the brand. To do this, we created a visual vocabulary, starting with the logo, and including color, type style, iconography and layout. Each package reinterprets the specific fragrance within the language established for the brand.
For example, the logo: While TerraNova had adequate name recognition and a devoted customer base, there was general agreement that the existing logo—though clean and modern—was getting lost on TerraNova labels. By reconfiguring the logo in bold lowercase letters, and by reversing it out in a warm dark brown panel, visibility was no longer an issue. We positioned the brown panel as a tab element, making it the go-to visual and tying the entire line (and collection of lines) together. We also gave the tab an unusual placement on the package—running it vertically up and over the top of a box or cutting right through the center of a label. The boldness and impact gets us to take a second look, while its position on the package creates a positive "aha!"
The container: TerraNova's original packaging emphasized fragrance-specific all-over colors and patterns for each product line. As a result, there was heavy reliance on bottle shapes and a distinctive cap to unite the brand look within each collection. Those shapes needed updating, as retailers and consumers look for newness. As TerraNova transitioned away from the old shapes, the unifying elements were gradually becoming less effective. While our high volume manufacturing constraints did not allow us the luxury of designing a proprietary bottle for TerraNova, our brand identity parameters did give us the flexibility to opt for simple, clean packaging. We choose a slender cylindrical silhouette for the bottles, and added several boxes to the product line to enhance the communication of quality.
Result: As TerraNova adds product lines to its collections, the overall brand look is strengthened, rather than weakened. Furthermore, the design of the new TerraNova Body collection has left the company with the option of extending into additional categories when the time is right.
The Progress
In the spring of 2008, TerraNova soft-launched the new Lime Blossom & Jasmine line. In the winter of 2008, they launched the updated their classic Shea Butter and Rain collections and launched Peony Bliss. Of these, Shea Butter and Rain are existing products that we repackaged under the new brand directives, while Peony Bliss and Lime Blossom & Jasmine are completely new. "SDG is excellent at understanding our consumer and designing collections that truly reflect our company's soul. This new direction is not only exquisite on the shelf, but adding new fragrances and purchasing components and packaging has become much more streamlined. Therefore we are able to respond to industry trends much more quickly and efficiently!" says Kathy Saunders, vice president of TerraNova.
By taking the initiative, TerraNova has made the investment to start 2009 off with a splash, by being one of the few companies with new products to present at the trade shows. We at Spotted Dog Graphics know that they will be out on top and are dedicated to their future successes. TerraNova has everything you need for a successful venture: fabulous products, a brand that reflects the company and current market trends, strong leadership and last but not least, a strong and innovative vision.