Stand-up pouches are the fastest growing pack format in the food industry, globally and in Australia, and have reinvigorated the ready-to-eat fresh soup category.
The pouch has been the chosen format for New Zealand soup and ready meal brand Pitango (owned by Beak & Johnston) for a number of years, but this month it will release new packaging designs for new flavour variants with the aim to increase shelf visibility and consumer attention.
Pitango has been on Australian shelves since 2007 and over 70% of products produced are for the Australian market, and the new designs have been tailored to appeal to Australians, according to Sharon Addington, Australian marketing manager for Pitango.
“Australia is without doubt our biggest fan,” she said.
“We kept that in mind when designing our new packaging and our new flavours. We wanted to make sure we were giving them tastes and designs that would appeal and showcase our delicious, authentic and natural brand offering”.
Pitango started working on its new packaging design last year aiming to create increased brand awareness and shopper visibility.
The company engaged Australian award-winning packaging design studio Jam&Co Design to help it create the new packaging. Jam&Co worked closely with the Pitango marketing team to create the design.
Jennifer Segail, managing director of Jam&Co, told PKN: “Following the acquisition of Pitango by Australian company Beak & Johnston, a vision to revitalise the brand and reach a broader customer base was being developed; and the packaging played a big part in that.
“Jam&Co Design was brought in to help re-focus and redevelop the existing range and also to complement the new world flavours range. While the classic soup recipes stay true to their origins, the brand was in need of an updated brand palette – one that embraced its heritage and reflected Pitango’s natural ingredients.”
Jam&Co enlarged and reversed the brand name out of the iconic stripe background, creating a clear link to the old design but with the addition of a more rustic texture to better reflect the quality of the products.
“The flavour panel makes it easier for customers to find their favourite Pitango product and entices them to try new ones. We felt that this new packaging and redesign strengthened the brand on shelf in retail making them more visible to the customer,” Segail explains.
“For the new world flavours we based the pattern on the iconic retro originals but aimed to reflect each country's cultural origins.
"For the Vintage patterns we went with three distinctive ranges:
·Flavour of the world – with a black band, pattern inspirations of world destination
·Soup – with a white band, pattern inspirations from existing range stripes but with a “modern” vintage feel
·Risotto – with a white band, pattern inspiration circles."
The multi-layered plastic pouch, supplied by Caspack Products, has changed structurally too, using a stronger substrate and increasing the gusseted base.
“We wanted to improve the presence on shelf at retail so the pouch would sit up straighter as opposed to slumping slightly as the older packaging tends to do... as a premium brand we wanted to make sure we gave our customers the highest quality pack appearance to showcase the high quality product inside,” Addington said.
Along with the new packaging launch Pitango will be adding four new flavours to its offering, including Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup; Spinach, Kale and Ricotta Soup; Free Range Spanish Chicken Paella Soup; Malaysian Vegetable Laksa Soup.
A fully integrated social, advertising and in-store communications campaign will be activated from July in support of the new packaging and flavours.
Pitango’s new packaging design will be phasing in stores nationally from this month.
The new range of Pitango soup flavours will be available 1st July, 2015.
