Yesterday in Waitrose, I watched a 10-month old toddler in a pushchair lean over to the supermarket basket his father had placed by his pushchair, while his parents chatted, waiting in the queue to pay. He chose this product and some bananas from the other products in the basket. He recognised "his" product by the colours, shape and texture of the packaging. I could see him enjoying the colour and feel of the Ella's Kitchen pouch.
His young, new, mother looked at me and said: "I know I should be making him home-cooked food, and I do but sometimes it's so easy to buy these..."
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I repeatedly research pack design and pack communications for Firefly Tonics, innocent drinks, and Rude Health.
For Rude Health, we needed to compel attention for their - newly listed in 350 Tesco stores - granola. And explain what granola is - it's a new category - and unfamiliar. And compete with all those habitual brightly coloured cereal purchases in the cereal aisle. Off the back of the consumer research we did, Rude Health employed a bright colour, made the word Granola very big, made the product shot appealing (it couldn't be a window for technical reasons but it looks like one), listed out the ingredients clearly.
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Nick and Camilla Barnard of Rude Health asked if I could help with some questions they had.
I took their new product and, with Tesco's Head office and store permission, put it in the aisle to see if folk noticed it.
I asked customers whether this new product stood out and what it was saying about itself.
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I love Rude Health products. Not just because they taste good. But because they are made by a small company who are passionate about what they do and how they do it.
As marketeers of our products and services, we say what we do and how we do it. But we don't often say why. Here's my attempt to define my why.
Why do I love research work for smaller, growing companies (innocent way back in 2004, Rude Health now)?
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