Transcript created by AI, there may be transcription errors.
Anne Marie Mohan:
Hello, I’m Anne Marie Mohan, senior editor with Packaging World, and today we’re diving into a compelling story of how packaging design can become a powerful strategic asset. I’m joined today by two experts at the forefront of this transformation. Michelle Beck, director of merchandising private label for The Fresh Market, and Glyn Robinson, senior creative director at Equator. Together they’ll share the story behind The Fresh Market’s recent private label packaging overhaul, an ambitious redesign that spanned more than 700 SKUs. Welcome Michelle and Glyn.
Glyn Robinson:
Hi, Anne Marie.
Michelle Beck:
Thank you. Great to be here.
Anne Marie Mohan:
So Michelle, could you start us out by providing some background on The Fresh Market? What differentiates it from some of the other retail grocery chains?
Michelle Beck:
Ah, great question. We are taste first and experiential. We are about welcoming hospitality and food discovery that is both accessible and approachable for any budget and palate. I think what makes us unique is the size of our store, the layouts of our store, and really how we think about food and the journey that we create for our guests. So when you walk into our stores, you are immediately met by the fresh smell of florals, that burst a color from florals, and then that directs you right into produce where you’re smelling the fresh produce and kind of getting all your senses flowing. And then we take you into the meat section where our butcher case is just filled with all these beautifully intentionally cut, crafted things like chicken roll-ups and different types of kebabs, just new things for people to discover with choice in prime meats because we don’t do any select.
And then we pull you in with a fragrance of fresh baked items into the bakery where you can experience whatever has been fresh baked that day, plus a lot of really amazing indulgent desserts for you to just try. We have a great program like a three for 12 where you can try all these great new items. And then we are also known for our coffee section. We have the largest whole bean coffee selection that you can find at any retailer, really top brands and our own brand that has been carefully curated and crafted just for that ultimate coffee drinking experience. And we do an amazing amount of flavored coffees as well. We have a candy island for people who just love discovery and just the fun of a candy store. We’ve also got that. And then I’d say we’ve got our center store area that really rounds out and finishes that shop and puts a finishing touches on that meal of all the fresh items you just selected and put in your basket from produce, meat and bakery. So it’s really more of an experiential journey of discovery on food throughout our stores, and we like to be very intentional in creating that type of an experience
Anne Marie Mohan:
That sounds absolutely wonderful, just very appealing. So I would imagine because it is more experiential and more sensory, that packaging is a huge part of that experience for your customers. So I understand that you didn’t wait until you saw any sales slip or any issues with your packaging. You decided to do the redesign of your own brand label packaging before that happened. What spurred that decision?
Michelle Beck:
I think exactly what you stated, because we are so experiential and our packaging plays a very large part in creating that atmosphere and experience in our stores, it’s crucial for us to stay ahead of that. Plus we are in a time where we are beginning to aspire to attract a new guest. And so this rebrand of our packaging was also part of a larger rebrand that had started from the environment of our store layouts, the signage, and then this was kind of like the final touch to just refresh our brand, who we were and who we were looking to attract.
Anne Marie Mohan:
And I understand also that part of this 700 SKU redesign that was comprised of three different tiers, were these tiers that you had before the redesign or is this part of the rebranding or is that a new thing or just a
Michelle Beck:
No,
You’re correct. We did have three tiers. I would say the first two tiers were the most relevant and prominent of the item assortment that you would find in our stores. So our three tiers, and these are not guest facing names, but they were Extraordinary Every Day was our first tier, which largely would be considered better. So you have good, better, best typically in the industry. And we aligned our first tier with better. And then Premium was our second, and that aligns with best. And then we had over here, what is more aspirational? The internal name was Uber Premium, and this is where we really wanted to lean into epicurean best in class, highly curated items. And so we spent a lot of time really looking through those three tiers. And so that is what we did. Those haven’t changed. That’s where we landed, and that was part of what was presented to them. And we also, because we don’t have guest facing names, it was really important from a tier standpoint that our partner was able to create a feel that was largely Extraordinary, Extraordinary Every Day and Premium that tied together. But the guests could see the elevation within the Premium tier basically trigger them that this is an upgraded experience or item for you that’s differentiated and elevated. So
Yes, three tiers and that’s largely where they stand.
Anne Marie Mohan:
So I wonder if you both could tell me a little bit about what the goals of this redesign project were. You talked a little bit about it, Michelle, already, but more specifically and what was lacking in existing packaging that you wanted to change?
Glyn Robinson:
I think when we first received this project, just as Michelle says, we were fortunate enough to go visit the guys out in your store in Greensboro, and it was just such a wonderful week and I think it was the dream project. As soon as we set foot in the store, it’s just beautiful. You wander around, the staff are amazing, the decor is beautiful, the produce is amazing. You feel like you’re wandering around the most beautiful florists into the best butchers, the bakers, like I said, the coffee’s swooshing over your head as it’s roasting away and things. And I think it was so inspiring because it almost immediately said that when you get to the aisles and you get to the packaging products, I think it’s fair to say, and I certainly don’t mean this to be rude, but the conversation seemed to suddenly stop where the packaging was previously.
It’s like, where’s the conversation? Where’s the magic? Where’s the wonder and things. So I think our initial ambition quite quickly was how do we replicate the amazingness of The Fresh Market store and inject it into the packaging itself? More conversation, more flavor, more taste Every Day Extraordinary or Extraordinary Every Day. It’s a beautiful working title if you like, because that’s just what we wanted. We don’t want to be missing about with things like core ranges or premium ranges. This is Extraordinary Every Day. So that was incredibly inspiring for what was the core range because yeah, just to have that wonderful conversation and just the intrigue and wonder that you enjoy from the rest of the store, let’s get that onto the packs as well.
Anne Marie Mohan:
Okay. Do you have any specifics to add, Michelle? Did you have ideas going into it of colors or artwork or anything that you had in your design brief that you wanted them to accomplish?
Michelle Beck:
Yeah, I think we were upfront. We had obviously the three tiers because we didn’t have guest facing names. It was how do you create distinct looks between these tiers so that guests can see that this is the Extraordinary Every Day more of a value high quality proposition versus these Premium upgrades? So that was part of it. And I think also we had kind of a weird evolution where we had always been a treasure hunt type of brand. And so we literally had design all over the place and then at the time we’re like, okay, nobody can understand what our brand is so unique across every category. So then we overcorrected went to the other ditch and got so uniform that it sucked every bit of personality, the story, we were missing, the story element, we were missing the things that make us special. We were missing the a hundred percent satisfaction guaranteed promise.
And so those type of things that we had lost needed to come back and needed to tell the story really of the product. And so the product is the highlight of that item and telling that story, especially on the Premium type of items and what makes those special was crucial. And also getting back that promise. I think they did a beautiful job of coming in and looking at what we had, seeing who we were, seeing who we wanted to become, and then creating this vision for us that honestly, once we brought them in and we literally, to his point, we immersed them. It was three days of deep dive immersion. They came in, we shoved food into their mouths continually from our prepped food section, our packaged foods. I mean literally everything. You have to try this, you have to try this, you have to try this.
They had to become who we were so they could know who we were to be able to really experience what The Fresh Market is. And so I think when we went through that with them and then they came back and we got that final presentation, it was everything we aspired to become, and they gave us a vision for it. And so I think that was, we did have parameters. I think they were loosely held. We really wanted to see which agency was going to come back, go through the experience and show us who we thought we were. And they nailed it. They made us want to be better than we were, which I think was really that the uniqueness of the partnership that started after we saw it, it was like we almost kind of fell in love with them. It was almost like a weird dating relationship in a way. Still is
Anne Marie Mohan:
Speed dating? Well, not speed dating if it was three days of
Michelle Beck:
Yeah, no, that was full on courting. There was no speed dating here. Yeah,
Glyn Robinson:
It was amazing. It was amazing. And I think I’ve said it before when I was back at the airport getting back on the plane, it was such a wonderful experience. I felt like I had The Fresh Market running through my veins. I felt like I could still describe every detail of the store. Now, Michelle, I can remember every detail, and I don’t want to say it made our job easy, but it did make our job easy because like I say, to soak up all the loveliness, the character and the conversation, we’ve got a beautiful tagline on all the packs now, Loved by Us. And I think that really did kind of embody what The Fresh Market are about. This is Loved by Us, loved by the guests obviously, but it’s also loved by The Fresh Market themselves. Everything that’s on shelf has been chosen with such passion and such care.
So I love how every pack now is signed off with Loved by Us and getting that conversation, that storytelling. I love storytelling on packaging design and those lovely surprises as you pick up anything from your tea bags to your olive oil to just have that beautiful love letter on the packaging itself, which is just narrating everything about The Fresh Market. And I think it’s worth mentioning as well. I also really loved the backstory, The Fresh Market where the origins were almost those lovely trips around Europe and going around all the artisanal food markets and things. Well, that’s our playground. This is the place that we eat, breathe, and sleep. So a combination of how wonderful The Fresh Market are, and also those roots of just that ambiance of wandering around a wonderful fresh food market on a Sunday morning and going to the authentic delicatessens and butchers and things, that all got soaked up because it was all so relevant for the wonderful products.
So this is why the packaging ranges now. We’ve managed to hit a wonderful balance of consistency and recognizable voice for the own brand packaging, the private label packaging that everything has just got that lovely touch of magic, which reacts to the different categories. The olive oil feels like a true olive oil. The cookies feel like the most delicious cookies. So it’s a system because we always have a conversation panel. We always sign off with Loved by Us. We do have consistency in typography and things, but that’s almost the kind of backbone for then allowing us to have some fun with the rest of the pack. And I think that’s one of the reasons why the range as a whole has ended up being so beautiful because there’s nothing I love more than just lining up all the products and just there’s a consistency that you recognize that this is obviously from The Fresh Market, but each pack has been given its own individual bit of love and attention, and its got its own character as well.
Michelle Beck:
We were so well aligned, but I would also say we were so well aligned in the fact that we gave them the freedom to be creative and for us to trust that they knew what they were doing. It was less we knew that we were stewards of our identity and who we are as a brand. But they had gotten it at that point so well that it was pretty crystal clear nailed. So it really wasn’t that hard. And in some cases we took a few chances, like our coffee cup, which won, I can’t remember one of the awards that won in Vertex, and I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but the coffee cup is amazing. It’s this illustrated scene of characters that weaves the story of The Fresh Market throughout it. And it is gorgeous. I wish I had one here, but that was a departure.
It was personality that we had not had, and it aspired and drew in a guest that we just didn’t have in our stores quite yet. So those were few times where we went a little outside of our comfort zone. That’s when we would bring in the CEO. But honestly, that was the only one that we had to do that with. And as soon as he saw it, he’s like, oh yes, that one. So I would say that’s a little bit more in depth probably than what you’re looking for, but it really was a great fun journey and continues to be.
Glyn Robinson:
The coffee cup almost is a wonderful example of how the whole process has worked that we knew we had our brand, we knew we had our tone of voice. And when it came to the coffee in the way that we’ve said a few times already, when you’re wandering around the store, if you are serving the most beautifully authentic and delicious coffee, what should the coffee cups look like? Well, they should look unique. They should look fun. Let’s dip into that lovely cafe culture. We have this all of a sudden this idea of fill in the whole coffee cup with this beautiful illustration, and then all of a sudden it’s like, well, let’s not just do an illustration. Let’s tell the story of The Fresh Market. We had lots of fun hiding lots of little hidden messages in these coffee cups, which I’m sure some are still to be discovered, but let’s tell the story of just how wonderful The Fresh Market are putting our marketing heads on.
It’s a wonderful opportunity because we want nothing better than people turning up at work and popping their coffee cup down on their desk at work or having a picnic in the park and things. That’s just our way of spreading the story. But that is a lovely example of we knew what we were doing. We knew we had the tone of voice and the feel for it. So let’s flex and have some fun. So this is from The Fresh Market, but actually it’s a lovely cafe culture, super cool coffee cup that nobody else has had the guts to do.
Anne Marie Mohan:
That sounds wonderful. I’m going to have to get my hands on one of those. I’m a big coffee drinker, so that sounds like something that I’d really enjoy.
Michelle Beck:
Yeah.
Anne Marie Mohan:
So you talked about the design of this cup. When I got the summary of this project, it said that the designs are using hand-drawn illustration, tactile substrates, rich color, and special finishing. Could you maybe pick out one or two examples and kind of walk me through some of those features that are used in that package and why they were chosen for those specifically?
Glyn Robinson:
I think one of my personal favorites, there was one of the projects that came up was to look at the bars of chocolate and before they were in the previous lockup and things, and we had these lovely conversations about, goodness me, when you’re buying yourself a bar of chocolate, you’re buying yourself a little gift. It’s a little present to yourself. So you almost want to pick up this beautifully crafted gift to yourself. And then again, the way that we worked so harmoniously, we mooted the idea of, goodness me, why don’t we make a little chocolate library, a little boxed set where you have five bars of chocolate that slot in, and actually let’s sell this as a lovely gift set of five bars of chocolate. And then that was just so wonderfully inspiring for us because all of a sudden these five bars of chocolates became almost five unique little book covers, if you like.
And they all popped in. And then I can remember the day now, Michelle, when you turned around with just this wonderful story of, Hey, we’ve got a good idea. We can pair this chocolate with cheese and wine. And all of a sudden there was this lovely cross-selling opportunity that not only are you buying the finest chocolate money can buy, and not only is it packaged up in a little chocolate library, but you can also experience, well, if I buy this bar of chocolate, this will go well with this wine or this cheese, et cetera, et cetera. So it was taking what could have been in a different circumstance, oh, well, let’s redesign the chocolate bars, yet they look great, move on to the next. And this thing was born, which we were all so incredibly proud of, and Michelle mentioned the Vertex Awards before. I think it reigned supreme at the design awards because it just looked so beautiful. The illustrators and the designers in the team were just still to this day saying it’s the project of their life as a few of The Fresh Market projects were. So yeah, just one example. But I think that happened quite a lot where we started off going, yeah, it’s a redesign job, but then some magic happens and we could turn it into something quite lovely.
Anne Marie Mohan:
Okay.
Michelle Beck:
Yeah, and I think we talked about the coffee cup, obviously. I mean, that for us is iconic in a shift of personality of who The Fresh Market is. It is very conversational to, like he said, nobody does this. Nobody has one that looks like this. So if you take it out, people are like, where’s that from? So I think there’s plenty of other options like the premium look that our gourmet popcorns were done, and that was a seasonal LTO. I mean, those are absolutely gorgeous. The tea cookies, they are beautiful. I mean, it makes you want to just pick that box up. But I’m even the mundane things like a canned bean. So we’re probably about 75 to 80% on shelf right now. Like I said, we just finished artwork last September, so it’s March, but we’re seeing so much of it, and I love to walk through the store and I don’t know if we can see this, but even this canned bean in the color.
So we have a line of these beans, you’ve got this, and then we’ve got almost like this apricot persimmon color. It’s like this bright rainbow that just draws you in. And I’m like, oh, I just absolutely love that. So we were super intentional with the color selections that were done even in Extraordinary Every Day versus the Premium categories. So the Premium categories have richer dark greens and ruby reds and those type of things. But then we kind lean into brighter a little pastel type of color ranges within, but on shelf when together. Even the tomatoes almost have, it’s not neon, that’s a really bad word for me to use, but they pop so much from the shelf. Like you walk up and it’s like, well, hello, there’s the TFM tomatoes boom, and I just want to reach out and pick it up because they’re so vibrant and colorful that even a canned tomato looks good.
And I think it’s important to me because as mundane as we think these things are, I walk into my pantry and I see this can, and it brings me joy. I love the color. I don’t know why. I just like everything aesthetically about it. And so it’s also intentional that when these things are in people’s pantry, it is a constant reminder of who The Fresh Market is. So it’s not just a canned bean, it’s anything that’s sitting in there, right? You open your refrigerator, you’re greeted by The Fresh Market, half and half or milk, or here’s our eggs. And so it’s just that constant play in the back of your head. This is a place that brings me delight, discovery, joy. I trust the quality. It’s high quality and the taste is great.
Glyn Robinson:
It’s the power of own brand packaging. These days,
Michelle Beck:
We’ve
Glyn Robinson:
Had this conversation a number of times, and back in the bad old days, private label, perhaps a little bit of a second choice purchase, a distressed purchase, whatever it is. But these days, own brand packaging, goodness me, they’re the new superheroes of the aisle. And I almost feel, I love the idea of the brands running with fear from own brand packaging these days, because you can speak in that wonderfully personable way, and it’s very ownable. I think The Fresh Market own brand range has just got, it’s just so much more powerful than a lot of the brands. I almost like the idea that some of the brands perhaps feel a little bit, I dunno, not fake or catching up, but a little bit overproduced, mass produced. They’re not able to talk in the way that we can talk in that very, very heartfelt and very authentic way.
Anne Marie Mohan:
So have you seen or received feedback from consumers on the new packaging?
Michelle Beck:
Yeah, I think a couple good examples of that. The one that really comes to mind is our bakery boxes. So the bakery boxes are these pink boxes with this midnight gray navy color. And then we’ve got individual stickers for whatever the cookie variety is or whatever the baked good item is, bread, you name it. And so when we finally got these pink boxes out and we arranged this selection, so with the bakery team, that items that were in a clamshell sticker and items that were in a box almost created this great patchwork pattern on the larger bakery display. So when you walked in to the bakery section, you were greeted by not just a host of pink boxes, but almost, wow, this is like a patisserie. And so when those first came out, our, I think our C, our CFO was in the store, no, it was our director of training communication was in the store and just watching this one guest literally had five boxes stacked, and she’s like, wow, you’ve got five boxes?
She’s like, I love these. I mean, they’re so giftable. I’m just going to buy these and give these to people now. So we had taken something that, it was an Every Day extraordinary cookie that used to be in a white box with green TFM logo now was this pink bakery patisserie thing. And she’s like, well, these are giftable to me now. So she just walked out with a five stack, and we kept seeing that same thing occur because we had just shifted. We were so intentional about creating more of a patisserie experience within the bakery, and they quickly caught onto that. And so that was pretty cool. And then I would say the seasonal packaging, so that’s like a whole nother story. So seasonal for us is a whole nother design occasion. We switched that out every three years, and so we updated it last year and launched that with the redesign. And it is gorgeous.
Glyn Robinson:
I think it’s got to be said as well though, Michelle, it only worked because the food itself is just sublime. When we came out that week, I mean, Michelle said that she fed us, goodness me, did we get fed and the cookies and the bakery section. I’m so pleased that that was the reaction of the bakery section because it did go back to the original story of no, when you wander into the bakery section, we want to wander into the most exquisite French patisserie. We want to have that feeling that the lovely powder pink color, they’re very, very refined and understated graphic design on there. It’s not going to work if when you open it, you’ve got something that’s...
Michelle Beck:
Yeah,
Glyn Robinson:
It was the first thing, particularly in the bakery section, I mean wandering around those amazing cakes and things, we just thought, goodness me, we can’t possibly oversell this produce. It’s just, it’s sublime. I remember me and the global creative director having a chat saying, goodness me, when you buy these products, you almost want the member of staff to walk around the counter and carefully hand it to you, and it really is that sublime. So that helped. It made things so much easier because you can design with authenticity because you know that the food is just
Anne Marie Mohan:
So Well. It sounds like that experience you had really had a huge impact on moving forward with the design. That’s
Michelle Beck:
Really
Anne Marie Mohan:
Interesting. Well, that is all the time we have. Thank you both so much for sharing all this information on this project. It sounds magical. I can’t wait to see some imagery of all these package designs, and I wish you the best of luck moving forward.
Glyn Robinson:
Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure. Anne Marie, thank you so much. Thank you.
Michelle Beck:
Yes, thank you so much. PW
