“From amidst the scattered flour and delicious smell of cookies and muffins, comes the rewarding satisfaction of home baking, shared by many a generation…"
This is the thinking by Brother Design in New Zealand that led to the new packaging for Pams Baking Flour range, which won Gold at the international Pentawards 2014, and Best of Show and Gold in Packaged Goods at the international Vertex private label awards. Brother also won at Vertex, Gold in Fresh for Pams Milk Cream & Butter, Gold in Frozen for Pams Premium Ice Cream and Gold in Body Care for Pams Baby.
The Vertex Awards are judged on creativity, marketability, and innovation. Brother’s work for Pams had beaten the designs that represent global retail giants such as Tescos, Asda, Woolworths and Safeway.
Pams is the private label (2500 products) for Foodstuffs group, New Zealand’s largest grocery distributor.It is targeted at matching or bettering the quality of the market leading brands in each category, while offering the consumer a price saving. Pams is the most recognisable and trusted private label in the NZ market, and is now the largest selling brand in the New Zealand grocery market with double digit sales increases since the rebrand Brother undertook in 2006.
PKN asked Brother Design about the relationship between brave client, Pams, and its design agency. For more, read our in-depth profile in PKN November/December print issue.
PKN: Pams is a big client for you. Describe your working relationship.
Paula Bunny, creative director, Brother Design: Foodstuffs encourages us to ‘break the category’ and achieve a fresh approach to packaging design formulas. This helps set us apart and importantly, it achieves returns for Foodstuffs too. We get to communicate each product range’s personality without being constrained within an umbrella look. The ‘surprise & delight’ is what connects each of the Pams products. It’s exciting to work on a brand that operates in nearly all categories of the supermarket – both food and non-food. It allows us to be non-formulaic and uncontrived. We get the opportunity to be clever and brave on every brief. Our working relationship with Foodstuffs is very collaborative. We work very closely together.”
Foodstuffs’ national private label manager, Jocelyn McCallum, commented, “Brother Design has been great to work with, they understand our business needs in creating attractive and effective designs which hit the mark. To have Pams receive such high praise and international recognition this year with our awards, makes us immensely proud and is a further confirmation of the calibre of Brother’s work.”
Foodstuffs’ general manager, Dave McAteer added, “It’s confirmation [through our international award wins this year] that not only are Foodstuffs great retailers, but when we team up with experts such as Brother Design, we can lead the world in key areas such as packaging.”
PKN: What are the guidelines that you follow to design for Pams?
Paula Bunny: Adopt a deliberately non-formulaic approach with a distinct and ownable personality and style to compete strongly in every category. Challenge the established traditional paradigms in grocery products and create real stand out and appeal.
Develop an ownable brand identity and flexible design strategy: mainstream to premium. Ensure clear benefits are communicated on all packs.
Create distinctive and effective packaging design. Each brief demands a fresh idea, while staying true to the Pams brand essence of ‘Simple, everyday pleasures’.
Ensure the brand remains recognisable through consistent personality and style: clean and modern, friendly and down to earth. The ‘surprise & delight’ mandate encourages a ‘break the category’ strategy where Pams offers a fresh, ground-breaking approach to often tired packaging formulas.
PKN: What are the strongest shifts in FMCG packaging in New Zealand that you've observed this year?
Paula Bunny: 1. Optimum use packaging. Life is moving fast and consumers want to make the most of it, so they are wanting packaging that’s easy to use, resealable, keeps things fresher longer and warns us when something is bad. They want to be worry-free. They want maximum benefits from the products that they buy. There is growth in brands with innovative packaging that keeps the contents in their optimum state.
There is a lot of growth in products containing separate portion options, eg. Hellers pre-packed cold meats – two separate trays with two separate best before stamps. Only use what you need and the rest stays fresh and unopened until you’re ready.
Already there are brands overseas (not here in NZ yet), where the barcode vanishes as the item reaches it’s best before date, then it is no longer able to be scanned – brilliant.
2. Crafted/Artisanal Brands: Consumers are more willing to pay more if a brand feels artisanal. Many more crafted, artisanal products are appearing on shelves and this has influenced the bigger mainstream brands to adopt more crafted, authentic looks to appear as if they are less manufactured and less processed. It’s becoming harder to tell, at first glance, the difference between the mainstream brands and the little guys.
