France
Paris
A French brand holding a tradition in bakery decides to make bread for a target made of bread lovers and consumers. That was how we faced the challenge Norac brought over to us. Norac Foods Group, born 30 years ago in France is now in Brazil since 2011, with the brand Ateliê.
Ateliê produces and distributes fresh and ready-to-eat products in the sandwich and salad segments. The group decided, in the peak of its expertise in bakery and confectionery, that it should expand the business and produce larger amounts, just like the way it’s already done in its native country.
For jumping in this new opportunity, they needed a platform that was able to embrace the new business direction: a different brand in terms of range and production scale – but keeping the French baker, boulangère and bread expert essence.
The actual challenge was twofold: developing a unique value proposition for the brand, with such a motivation that it would hook people’s interest, making them consider and consume it; besides that, we would create this new brand from scratch. Actually not from scratch, considering the French core was always there to enhance it.
However, it would be necessary to shape the platform and create the brand’s strategy, identity, proprietary elements, and finally the packs.
As we use to say, ‘Art & Science’, a kind of work we love doing: combining strategic and analytic thinking with the creative and intuitive force of design.
Pushed by the brand’s pillars and its “brand pulse”, we jointly got to the conclusion that the name should be suggestive to evoke the brand’s territory, as well as sonorous, easy-to-get, reinforcing its French roots.
From that on, we set off to the defiant task of generating ideas for the name itself. It was a cheered-up, light and relaxed process, which in the end resulted in a name with the needed differentiation aspired by the brand.
With the name set up, we set off to its identity. As of the brand’s pillars – care, handcrafted, joy & practicality – as well as a look into the category, we went in search for identifying the visual codes. If on the one hand we wanted to convey the French expertise and tradition, we were also aware about the need of balancing modernity and tradition, also bringing up the matter of family in a different and singular way – after all, the sharing of bread is a strong symbol of care and affection. So we got to the point of grasping the consumption habits of customers, so that we could build up the brand’s strategic lines.
We carried out qualitative and quantitative researches with the brand’s potential consumers in order to get genuine insights, and then started developing a “look and feel” to the new identity, with a handcraft touch, fun iconography, colors, a joyful and positive graphic and photographic style.
The brand’s typical relaxation enables the interaction between the illustrations and the products, creating unwonted and fun situations. The icons give the sensation of being handmade. Just like Paderrí’s baguettes, madeleines and crepes.
Fresh products, prepared out from homemade recipes with an unmistakable handcraft touch.
Nutren is Nestlé’s line of nutritional supplements for all ages, with products that offer different nutritional propositions, such as Nutren Active, for adults that want a boost in energy levels and to improve the mood, Nutren Beauty, with collagen, among others. To offer an innovative nutritional supplement to the Brazilian market, under a global scope project – involving local professionals as well as ones from the Swiss headquarters, we developed together an in-depth strategy study aiming to understand the new product appeal for Brazilians and how to adjust it to the Nutren brand.
To assess the relevance of Nutren’s new proposition of nutritional cell protection to local consumers, our strategy and design team organized a squad lab with multidisciplinary professionals from Nestlé (local and global marketing teams), communication agencies and consumers. We carried out an intensive co-creation work with potential consumers of the nutritional supplements’ category, discussing the main inputs with the team after each group dynamic, in a Recycling process, refining visual and verbal concepts to be tested with the next group of consumers. Moreover, at the end of the squad lab, we conducted in-depth interviews with nutritionists, general practitioner and endocrinologists to validate the concept of cell nutrition as a supplement (Celltrient® franchising), its understanding and the best way to communicate its benefits, since it is an innovation in the category, with no competitors.
Once we defined the product’s unique value, the next step was to get the strategy and design team to work together on the product’s packaging design. The main insights lent by the squad lab, such as: scientifically proven, protection at cellular level against age-related damages, highlight for the benefits of amino acids (and not just vitamins), were applied to the packaging.
The result was the launch of a product that is unique in the world, offering nutrition and cell protection, described in a simple and direct manner for clear understanding.
