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Wild Tonic’s Packaging Goes from Boring to Bee-utiful

Unique Jun-style kombucha brand Wild Tonic updates its packaging graphics to focus on the heart of the brand: honey, bees, Sedona, and Jun in general.

Wild Tonic packaging AFTER the redesign.
Wild Tonic packaging AFTER the redesign.

Sedona, Ariz.-based Wild Tonic occupies a unique space in the kombucha category. Rather than being fermented with cane sugar like traditional kombucha, the non-alcoholic, Jun-style kombucha uses honey, which is said to result in a smoother, lighter flavor and a better-for-you beverage. With the aim of delivering a “farm to bottle” experience, Wild Tonic infuses its kombucha with organic fruits, herbs, and botanicals, many of which are grown locally among Sedona’s red rocks. According to the brand, Wild Tonic is the only Jun kombucha nationally and is among the top 50 brands in the kombucha market.

However, despite its distinctive product positioning and premium, locally grown ingredients, Wild Tonic Director of Sales & Marketing Jessi Gerth says that before the recent redesign of the graphics for its packaging, which started with its slim can and expanded to its blue glass bottle, the can was so boring, “it totally got lost on shelf.” She adds, “You could literally stand in front of the set and still not see it.”

Wild Tonic packaging BEFORE the redesign.Wild Tonic packaging BEFORE the redesign.What the previous packaging lacked, says Gerth, was vision and design. “It’s hard to pinpoint a single element [of the design that lacked shelf appeal], we were just itching to change all of it,” she says. “It felt like, as a group, we are such quirky and fun people, and the labels weren’t serving that. It didn’t feel like us. The blue glass bottle was magical, but the cans and the labels lacked that magical element that felt inherently us.”

The initial starting point for the redesign—a collaboration with digital marketing and ad agency HOOK that began in 2022—was a mood board compiled four years previously by Gerth that she says was inspired by “beer cans and cool local breweries with landscapes and energy.”


Read article   Read related story, “Kombucha Calls on Champagne Bottle for Sophistication.”

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