Sol/o's California red and white wines were first to benefit from the redesign in December, followed by the introduction of three new fruit-flavored wines in March. Michael Osborne Design (San Francisco, CA) added bright blocks of color on the labels, along with illustrations of fruit and a prominent display of the brand's Web site, www.soleo. com. The de- sign firm also created an illustration of a bright sun on the back label, which shows through the clear front label.
Rob Celsi, Sol/o brand manager at the St. Helena, CA, company, hopes this striking design will woo consumers between the ages of 21 and 35 away from microbrews, prepared cocktails and cordials. "Sol/o and its packaging was designed to let folks in this age group know that there is a great-tasting product from the wine family that would be appealing to them," he says.
Now that Sol/o is exclusively aimed at a younger audience, Celsi says packaging is of utmost importance to the wine's success. "There are a sea of labels on the shelf," he says. "Standing out by creating a visual appeal is paramount in this business."
The 21/2-mil Fasson® Crystal FasClear® conformable polyolefin label material is from Avery Dennison's Fasson div. (Paines- ville, OH). Spear (Mason, OH) screen-prints the material using six colors for the front, three for the back. Trinchero automatically applies the labels to the Bordeaux-shaped glass bottles from California Glass (Oakland, CA) at its three California locations.
Sales have exceeded expectations since the package redesign and the release of the new flavors. "We've had a tremendous response. The [Sol/o] brand is up nearly 50 percent over the previous year," Celsi says.
Sol/o is available nationally in 1.5-L, 750-mL and single-serve 187-mL bottles that retail for $6.99, $3.99 and 99¢, respectively.
