Category-Leading Sore Throat Remedy Reemphasizes Its Benefits and Brand

The Chloraseptic brand has maintained its No. 1 position in the sore throat category and nearly universal brand awareness among consumers even through several ownership changes. Once a Procter & Gamble property, it is now owned by Prestige Brands Inc., headquartered in Irvington, NY. Over the past few years, the newest owners planned a total line packaging redesign, developed reformulated products, and introduced a few exciting new extensions.

Prestige realized how badly the packaging had become cluttered with copy points, how there was little visual order across forms, and how the dated logo felt flat and ineffective. Prestige called upon applebrandsource, a global strategic branding and design consultancy firm in New York City, to breathe new life into the brand.

Consistent logos, colors, elements, and forms now unite the many Chloraseptic SKUs, topped off with a new tag line: "Real Relief, Real Fast."

Learning the purchase decision

The applebrandsource firm began the project by reviewing and fully understanding the retail, competitive, and consumer contexts of the category purchase decision. applebrandsource learned that consumers shop the remedies section first by the condition, or symptom, that they are suffering. It was obvious that "Sore Throat" was not coming across nearly as strongly as it should on the Chloraseptic packaging.

Second, consumers favor different sore throat remedy forms based on time of day and the severity of illness. Applebrandsource figured that the brand could increase product form penetration by making the benefits of each form speak more effectively at the shelf. Third, Chloraseptic had a "bad taste" image, and consumers were generally unaware of the positive flavor benefits of the more palatable lozenge products and the new "relief strips." The old cartoonish flavor designators did little to persuade consumers otherwise.

Chris Maynard, director of marketing and Prestige Brands Inc., also explains that the disparate Chloraseptic packages did not create an alluring "block effect" on the shelf. When private label products were intermixed with the old packaging, Chloraseptic's flat designs blended in instead of standing out.

In addition, consumers' knowledge of the category was not necessarily in step with Chloraseptic's strengths. Consumers don't always appreciate the difference between medicinal lozenges and sugary cough drops, and there is the perception that relief strips are not serious sore throat relief. The packaging was not helping aisle-shoppers make informed purchases. "The landscape was changing, becoming a little more modernized, a little more user-friendly," Maynard explains, and Chloraseptic was lagging behind.

A consistent plan

Barry Seelig, president and chief creative director at applebrandsource, believed that since ill consumers shop the cough and cold aisle by symptom, "Sore Throat" had to be front and center on every package. "We all go to the shelf with a set image or set mood in mind," Seelig explains. "Making sure the customer reads in a hierarchical way is very important."

Seelig also believed the "#1 in category" indicator, used inconsistently before, needed to become an integral part of the Chloraseptic logo, and "locked into" it. Though the logo is quite different when viewed side-by-side with the old, Seelig believes it is an evolutionary update. "I don't think the current user is not going to be able to find it," Seelig stresses.

The Chloraseptic logo now projects off the package with energy and clarity.

Seelig and applebrandsource focused on reducing the clutter on the packaging by keying on a few relevant benefits, which helps the consumer make a confident purchasing decision quicker. Another important strategy was to improve flavor perception with more realistic and appealing flavor indicators. The cherries, honey, and citrus graphics now shine, shimmer, and glow with flavor.

Perhaps the most artful part of the redesign is the logo, which was made much more accessible by a number of techniques. The letters are much more readable as they are narrower, more separated, and now have the consistent italic slant of the rest of the copy on the package. Shadows and shading add depth to the logo letters, making the Chloraseptic name rise off the deep blue field.

Another trick to add depth is the addition of the horizontal, shadowed lines in the background. The viewer sees these lines as distinctly in the background, and the foreground projects off the "ribbed" surface. Seelig believes that this background also provide a cooling foundation for the logo and makes the packages easier to read.

The new logo and architecture were applied consistently across the line to make it easy for aisle-browsers to find the right form and flavor. The Chloraseptic redesign affected over 20 SKUs, including new launches of Citrus Sore Throat Spray and Citrus Lozenges with Cooling Crystals, relaunches of Honey Lemon and Vapo-Mint lozenges, and a Salt Water Gargle line extension. The new Chloraseptic hierarchy by applebrandsource greatly improves Chloraseptic's brand identity by being both consistently strong and adaptively flexible across all SKUs.