case study: breathing life into viridian with fresh ...€¦ · of sale material.” viridian -...

Case Study:Breathing Life Into Viridian With Fresh Product Branding

Breathing Life Into Viridian With Fresh Product Branding

Viridian Nutrition is a small, UK based vitamins and minerals company. Cheryl Thallon, the brainchild behind Viridian, previously worked for a large multinational vitamin company but felt its stance wasn’t ethical. This became the catalyst for her to create Viridian Nutrition. At the heart of Viridian is a philosophy strong on ethics that supports organic and ethically sourced supplements.

After a positive referal, Thallon approached WrightObara, aiming to utilise its expert storytelling and design skills. While having a strong ethical USP, Thallon didn’t feel they had effectively communicated this through a solid brand story. Here’s how WrightObara told the Viridian story, brought the Viridian brand to life and positioned it as a counter-culture competitor to large multinational corporates.

Loved it!Sent a tingle down my spine. I couldn’t have been more impressed.Shaun Higgs, Operations Director, Viridian Nutrition

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WrightObara’s first port of call was to understand the brand’s target audience. It set about visiting various independent health stores to speak to the owners about their customers’ values and pain points. “We established that independent health store customers were highly ethically minded, which was very encouraging,” says Phil Wright, WrightObara’s Managing Director. “They wanted to see products that were locally sourced, fairly bought and adhered to health standards such as ‘Certified Organic’. We ensured these were the cornerstones of the brand going forward, with a focus on natural, ethical ingredients and the company’s British heritage.”

VIRIDIAN THE BRAND


VIRIDIAN - LOOK AND FEELViridian already had a logo, typeface and an obvious brand colour (viridian is a greeny-blue colour, slightly more green than teal), and didn’t want the expense of updating these, as they already had thousands of labelled bottles in stock. Instead, WrightObara was tasked to use the logo as a foundation to build upon.

With a target buyer who is socially and ethically conscious, harbouring trust played a key role in the branding process. “We wanted the brand to feel both artisan and honest,” says Jan Obara, WrightObara’s Creative Director. “It previously had a very austere, pharmaceutical look which we wanted to divert from. We worked in partnership with the client to develop a creative style that felt ‘hand made’ and was honest and heartwarming. The ‘ligne claire’ (clear line) style became known affectionately as the Paddington Bear style, due to the similarities with illustrations used in the kids TV animation.”

WrightObara started producing a range of free-hand, black and white illustrations aimed at capturing the heart of the company. “Viridian cares. It’s an honest company with a respect for nature,” says Obara. “Each product contained unique ingredients, so we created beautiful free-hand line illustrations of all the ingredients. This hand-drawn approach was as honest as you could get, showing exactly what was in each bottle rather than trying to hide it. We also included illustrations of typically British animals such as rabbits, representing the company’s connection to the country and communicating its love of nature.”

These illustrations would form the base for Viridian’s entire brand, opening the door to an exotic menagerie of beautifully designed marketing material.

VIRIDIANBRAND MESSAGEWrightObara next looked at creating a stronger brand message by creating a strapline that succinctly communicated the brand’s values. “We wanted to get right to the heart of the brand,” says Wright. “At that heart was the fact that it was ethical and organic, so the strapline came naturally, ‘Ethical vitamins with an organic heart’. We then drew a heart in a viridian-coloured lozenge, circled by the strapline, to demonstrate the brand ethos.”


As it stood, Viridian had a miss-matched collection of product images with little consistency in style or quality. One of WrightObara’s first tasks was to rectify this issue. “We photographed every single product from the same angle and under the same lighting conditions to give them a consistent look and feel, ” says Wright. “This meant we could create ranges of products that looked natural when sat side-by-side.”

VIRIDIANPRODUCT IMAGES


Before

After

VIRIDIAN - BRAND VIDEODelighted with the illustration concept, Viridian requested WrightObara to produce a video. “Originally, Viridian wanted to make a product sales advert which mentioned its top sellers. The company had a salesy-type voiceover in mind but we knew there was more potential to be unlocked than a simple sales video,” says Wright. “We were confident an animated brand video utilising the illustrations would be more visually appealing, emotionally engaging and ultimately would help increase sales long-term. So we created the video pretty much without any client input because we wanted to show Viridian just how good it could be.”Dedicated to creating a brand video that captured the essence of Viridian and its love of nature, whilst resonating with its target audience, Wright went for a walk in the British countryside, taking in the sights, sounds and smells.

“I’m fortunate to live out in the countryside. Early one morning I went for a walk to think about the video we wanted to create for Viridian and was inspired by the rolling hills of the quintessentially British landscape. I started taking note of my connection to the countryside and my various thoughts started to coalesce into rhyming couplets. By the time I returned I had the basis of the script:

‘Away from daily stress and strife, the burdens of our modern life’‘Relax the tightly coiled spring, and take to flight with bird on wing’‘Over winding lanes and rolling hills, past lakes and rivers, bygone mills’‘Patchwork fields stretch far and wide, we celebrate our countryside.’‘The woodland trees, the birds and bees, the roots and seeds and shoots and leaves’‘All nature’s goodness, plant and sun, are bottled by Viridian.’”

Bringing the now established illustrative style to life, WrightObara then began to tell the story through animation. The voiceover artist was also an important choice to communicate the powerful brand ethos — the talented actor, Ian Brooker, set the right tone with his characteristic recital of the poem.

In keeping with Viridian’s ethical brand ethos, WrightObara was challenged with creating packaging that was visually engaging, robust and ethically produced. “Previously they had put it in a sterile-looking white box with very little design,” says Obara. “We wanted to make it as ‘green’ as possible in line with the brand story. We researched packaging companies and found Curtis in London, an ethical printer that uses vegetable inks rather than chemical-based inks. We used card that is FFC sourced and cut from a forest that is managed and replanted. We also wanted to go further still and create packaging that required no glue, so we developed a design where folding the packaging together alone would keep the box securely locked together.”

“This opened up great storytelling possibilities,” adds Wright. “Because it opened out completely we had a great opportunity to put plenty of messaging on the box. As the consumer opens the box, they’re taken on a journey, slowly understanding more about the brand ethos. We took the whole company’s ideological values and made it as much a part of the process as the end product.“ The unique packaging design incorporated Viridian’s illustrative style, but we also spotted an opportunity to turn the packaging into point of sale. “The design allows you to fold the packaging in two ways, with one side as the packaging design and the other to be used as POS display material,” says Wright. “They could also be sat next to each other to create a continuous landscape, visually engaging the consumer.”

VIRIDIAN - PACKAGING


WrightObara produced an array of branded point of sale merchandise, many standard printed items, others hand-made and installed in select stores. These included posters, leaflet holders and illustrative cardboard surrounds for electronic picture frames which played the brand video. Viridian succeeded in getting its products ranged in a multitude of independent health stores around the country.

“The majority of stores that range Viridian’s products are independents or have two or three stores,” says Wright. “This makes trade marketing tricky, having to constantly go and see clients. However, it’s encouraging for smaller manufacturers as it shows that you can really get your product in to a number of stores and drive sales if you have effective branding and point of sale material.”

VIRIDIAN - POINT OF SALE


VIRIDIAN NUTRITION TRADE SHOWSKeen to further engage retailers and create awareness of the brand, Viridian put WrightObara in charge of its trade show stand at the Natural & Organics Products Europe exhibition, Olympia. Exhibiting its Ultimate Beauty range, a collection of ethical beauty products containing natural ingredients, WrightObara was required to inject the same creative fervour it had built the brand’s roots on.

“Our first year, Viridian launched its High Five range, a collection of five vitamins all catering for a specific member of the family such as kids, dads and mums-to-be. The first thing to do is to have a key message,” says Wright. “We created 10-foot tall cardboard cut-outs of each family member to circle the stand and attract attention, similar to the paper chain cut outs you create as a child, in keeping with the honest hand-made feel. They all linked, holding hands, and at the heart of each member was the specific product.” Not only did the Viridian stands attract the attention of buyers, they also won ‘Best at Show’ for two years running.


“The following year, Viridian wanted to promote a new tea they were launching, titled ‘Beautea’, which included organic rose petals,” says Obara. “We created the signature illustrations to wallpaper the stand and decorated the stand with fine china tea cups, rose bouquets and chic branded furniture where buyers could sit and try the tea.”

VIRIDIAN BEAUTYTRADE SHOWS

WrightObara has over eight years’ experience branding companies large and small. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you create an emotionally engaging brand, call us now on:

020 70 60 2711

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case study: breathing life into viridian with fresh ...€¦ · of sale material.” viridian -...

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