Package Design | packagedesignmag.com

By Michael Osborne

An evolutionary redesign can be a difficult assignment. What changes are necessary and, more importantly, why? How much visual equity does the original package design have?

The impetus for an evolutionary package redesign is typically flat (or declining) sales. Yet brand managers naturally want to protect the loyalty the product has earned with retailers and consumers.

Such was the case with FRe, an alcohol-free wine from Trinchero Family Estates. The vintner sells more than 15 million cases of wine every year, through 26 brands including Sutter Home, Ménage à Trois, and Joel Gott.

Difficult to categorize
FRe alcohol-removed wines are the product of a dealcoholization process called the spinning cone column. This two-step procedure separates and collects a wine’s fragile aroma and flavor essences while removing its alcohol. The result is more than grape juice, but not quite wine.

Because FRe occupies an interstitial place between the wine and juice markets, it can be challenging to stock and find in the retail outlets. We found that FRe had been shelved in a variety of aisles, store by store. In different stores of one major grocery chain, for example, we found FRe shelved near the varietals, next to kosher packaged products, on a shelf by the boxed wines, and even in the juice aisle. The good news was that FRe varietals were already being shelved together at most retailers, giving the brand block more strength on shelf. According to the brand manager, the wine aimed to appeal to four types of female consumers in the 30-60 age groups: retirees, pregnant women, athletes and other health-conscious customers, and designated drivers and other “thoughtful entertainers.”

The redesigned packaging also needed a clean look with easy-to-read nonalcoholic/alcohol-removed messaging. It needed more traditional wine cues, plus a look that would help support a price increase to $6.99 per bottle. We needed to make FRe look like a $10-$12 bottle of wine.

Building on what works
FRe had been hard to find, and we didn’t want to make it even harder during (or after) the transition. We started with minor changes to the existing packaging elements.

The color palette already gave the brand the necessary pop to draw the consumer’s attention and helped her identify the different varietals. So while the redesigned wine labels have new type and graphic treatments, the vivid coloring stayed the same. For example, FRe Merlot still sports a large blue color block as a primary graphic element; we worked with label printer Collotype to ensure that the label colors are vibrant and bright. The color coding is carried from bottle label to capsule, where the FRe logo received new placement. The capsules are spun onto screw caps supplied by Amcor, to offer consumers convenient opening and resealing.

Unlike the still wine packaging, the sparkling wine received a completely different color palette from its previous packaging. Most notably, the black capsule was replaced by a light gold capsule, supplied by C&E Capsules. The new color palette conveys the sparkling light nature of the wine better.

Return-on-investment
When we started this project, the brand manager vowed she’d kill us if the million-case brand sold 999,999 cases the year after the package redesign. We’re still here, and she’s been promoted. We’d call that ROI. PD

Michael Osborne is president and creative director of the San Francisco-based graphic design firm Michael Osborne Design, Inc.

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