Evaluating New Branding For True Citrus

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Marcus Harrison
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1 Evaluating New Branding For True Citrus October 17, 2012

2 Background True Citrus is a powdered citrus extract that comes in a variety of citrus flavors: lemon, lime and orange. It is marketed in two ways: As a powdered soft drink aimed at the health-conscious, primarily women, who want a natural and delicious way to drink more water throughout the day. As a condiment that can be used in cooking. True Citrus products employ a proprietary cold-pressed method of extracting citrus crystals from fruit which which is completely natural, distinguishing it from competitors who use artificial ingredients. True Lemon is the flagship product and comprises the bulk of sales.

3 Situation True Citrus is exploring new branding and packaging. The aims are threefold: modernize the brand increase overall appeal communicate the brand as natural and healthful The current branding:

4 Situation The Blue Marlin Group in New York developed a number of new branding options, four of which would be put into qualitative testing. Bracket Emblem Cold Pressed Eclipse

5 Objectives Qualitative research would be used to assess the new branding options according to the following: 1) likeability 2) memorability 3) unprompted communication of brand message and uses 4) prompted communication of brand message and uses The results from the qualitative study will then inform a quantitative study to help decide whether True Citrus should change its branding at all, and if so, which brand option(s) to move forward with for further development.

6 Methodology Four two-hour focus groups comprised of women, age respondents in total Non-users or infrequent users with low brand awareness Avg. Household Income: 55K-95K Health-Conscious Occasional to regular purchasers of powdered soft drinks Selected from the metropolitan Baltimore area New brand designs used as stimuli at real and enlarged sizes For simplicity and as a control, we only tested the new True Lemon designs, not adding in the variable of other True Citrus flavors

7 Findings

8 Likeability Respondents were given a 4-second peak at each of the designs, to mimic what might occur if they were passing by the packaging in a store. The order of the designs shown were varied. When asked if they felt positive, negative or neutral about the designs, they answered as follows: positive neutral negative Cold Pressed Bracket Eclipse Emblem To the extent that there is a winner, one could go with Cold Pressed. Emblem was the most polarizing.

9 Memorability Overall, the respondents remembered that they were seeing a product that had something to do with lemons. When probed, they recalled they had seen something that was "bright" or "refreshing." Moreover, they tended to remember things they very much liked, or disliked. For example, even though quite a few disliked Emblem, a great majority remembered that they had seen something that "had a ribbon," or looked like "a tattoo." Respondents also remembered the red diamonds on Cold Pressed though it was not understood as an abstraction of crystallization, as intended by the designers. If we put Emblem to the side for a moment, no design among the other three seemed to jump out as clearly more memorable than the others. Cold Pressed Bracket Eclipse Emblem

10 And Then There Were Three After the initial brief exposure to evaluate immediate likeablility and memorability, the respondents were given the chance to spend some extended time with the designs, each design individually and then together as a group. And here's where things started to get interesting. Emblem appeared to lose the appeal it had for some respondents during the immediate likeability segment of the research. Though a handful of respondents maintained their attraction to it, in general it was dismissed as looking too much like "candy" or something "targeting a kid." We will therefore dismiss it from the rest of our analysis. Cold Pressed Bracket Eclipse Emblem

11 Taste Appeal, Naturalness and What s Inside Taste Appeal: Bracket and Eclipse appeared to elicit the strongest positive reaction, with some respondents viewing the water drop on Eclipse as "refreshing" and the lemon skin of the Bracket design as "natural." Cold Pressed seemed to elicit less taste appeal. Naturalness : All three designs connoted naturalness. 100% natural certainly reinforced this point. What s Inside : This is related to "naturalness." In general, respondents understood that what's inside the True Lemon box was "powdered lemon," or "freeze-dried lemon," or "lemon crystals." (continued on next page) Cold Pressed Bracket Eclipse

12 Usage What s Inside (cont): Although at ﬁrst there was, among a few, some skepticism whether or not this was truly natural, the preponderance of opinion seemed to suggest that consumers understood True Lemon as a natural product, in a diﬀerent form. This became even clearer when we imagined the box within the context of its placement on a store shelf next to Crystal Light. (More on this later.) Usage: Respondents understood that True Lemon is something you put in water. Though a few made the leap to its other uses, in general this was not readily apparent from the initial designs. When we started exploring additional phrases that might appear on the package, the non-water usage understanding improved. (More on this later.) Cold Pressed Bracket Eclipse

13 Design Intention vs. Understanding In a number of instances, the respondents understood the designs in a way not intended by the designers. However, this was not a negative. For example, only a few, and only after some discussion, understood the red diamonds of Cold-Pressed to indicate crystals. More likely they understood it to be "netting," the kind in which a bunch of lemons are often sold. This seemed to reinforce the idea of naturalness. So even though the respondents didn t quite "get it," what they did get was positive. Similarly, none understood the brackets on Bracket to indicate just that, a bracket enclosing the words "This is True Lemon." However it in no way disturbed the communication. It might have even helped. It was understood merely as a design element with no other semantic meaning other than it simply "outlined a lemon." Cold Pressed Bracket Eclipse

14 What The Words Mean We spent some time exploring the words "cold-pressed" and "crystallized." Here too was one of those instances in which the respondents were not totally sure what these words mean, yet the net result was positive. Few were quite sure of what these words actually signified. When probed, however, the respondents offered up the correct meanings even though they felt insecure about whether they were getting it right." Some identified "cold-pressed" positively with olive oil, with "freshness."' Another suggested "fresh-pressed" as an even more positive phrase. "Crystallized" was a little more problematic. Respondents certainly understood it as some kind of process, which results in a more convenient form of lemon. However, introducing anything that signifies a process was, for a few, negative. For them, how can True Lemon be totally natural if it's processed? Whatever misgivings the respondents had seemed to go away, however, when True Lemon was placed into context.

The Power Of Context Whatever minor misgivings respondents had during the in-depth analysis of the designs, everything seemed to fall into place when we placed the

When positioned in this way, our respondents seemed to clearly understand how True Lemon is used. (Or at least, one of its uses).

15 The Power Of Context Whatever minor misgivings respondents had during the in-depth analysis of the designs, everything seemed to fall into place when we placed the True Lemon package next to a Crystal Light package and Country Time package. We also asked the respondents to imagine these on a supermarket shelf. When positioned in this way, our respondents seemed to clearly understand how True Lemon is used. (Or at least, one of its uses). Quite simply, you put it in your water. But more important, they made a clear distinction between True Lemon and the other products on the shelf. For the vast majority of respondents, True Lemon was diﬀerent, and more natural.

16 For More Than Just Water? We then moved on to read a statement by the brand s official positioning for True Lemon. This includes usage above and beyond water. Of course, by placing the product on the Crystal Light shelf, we are already stacking the deck and clearly communicating, whether we want to or not, that this is a product primarily, if not exclusively, made for use in water. The question then is whether or not consumers understand its multiple uses, and if not, what might be adjusted in the design to communicate this. Some respondents had already made the leap from water to "more than water" during our lengthy design analysis. But when we showed them some words that might be added to the designs, this helped significantly, in some ways we didn t even expect.

17 For Water, Teas and Recipes This was a highly meaningful phrase. The respondents now clearly understood that True Lemon can be used in more than water. But it had a fascinating added benefit. It also appeared to reinforce that True Lemon is natural, and that it is something completely different from a product like Crystal Light. As said by the respondents: "this makes it different from Crystal Light, because you can't use Crystal Light in recipes or tea it must have actual lemon taste if you can put it into tea this makes it feel more real and natural it would also taste more natural." Equals X Lemon Wedges The phrase "lemon wedges" may also be helpful. By putting a picture into the mind of the respondents, it too helped to reinforce the idea of real, natural lemon. Equals X Lemons This phrase also put a picture in the mind of the respondents, and was therefore positive. But the real interest here was that it introduced the possibility of making a value argument.

The Packets For Restaurant Use After showing respondents the package designs they were also shown the designs of the packets size that come inside, each one corresponding in design to the package.

18 The Packets For Restaurant Use After showing respondents the package designs they were also shown the designs of the packets size that come inside, each one corresponding in design to the package. As True Citrus wants to expand sales to restaurants, with True Citrus packets presented on tables as an alternative to sugar, we posed the question "Which one of these would you most likely see in a restaurant? Among the designs, no clear winner emerged. Some respondents indicated that an explanatory word or two might be helpful on the packets.

19 Words On The Packets The use of words on the packets, as shown to the respondents in the Brackets concept, was very well received. Not only in the context of appearing in restaurants, but also as they would use the product at home. The possibility of words on the packets seemed to spark their imagination. Respondents could imagine packets with recipes, marketing messages, fortunes. They also understood the packets as a place where they could learn about True Lemon's multiple uses. Using the packets as an area for messaging seems to have great potential.

20 True Lemon s Current Design At the end of the groups, after spending hours with the new designs, we exposed the respondents to True Citrus current designs. Unanimously, among both infrequent users and non-users, they considered them inferior and less appealing that the new designs under consideration.

21 Summary and Recommendations

22 True Citrus should move ahead with a new package design. The current design was summarily dismissed as the respondents viewed it alongside the new options. Eclipse and Bracket should be further developed. (But don t throw out Cold Pressed just yet.) Eclipse and Bracket appeared to be the "leaders" for most of the study, drawing the most interest and attention as time wore on. Nonetheless, Cold Pressed scored high in the opening likeability exercise and by the end of the study was enthusiastically supported by one of the groups. This group s reaction was indeed anomalous, but signals that Cold Pressed might warrant further study. Words matter. For water, teas and recipes should be included. It will be the design team's call as to how and where to include this in the package in order to retain the integrity of the designs. However, this phrase not only helped to explain multiple usage, but also reinforced the idea of True Lemon as a natural product.

23 Wedge should be included (somewhere). Once again, not everything can be included on a package, but wedge appeared to reinforce naturalness and could be included somewhere in the communications. The use of words on the packets is a real opportunity. Bracket was the only concept that explored the use of words on the packets. Whether or not words on the packets work (design-wise) with the other concepts is a decision to be made by the designers. But overall, as a messaging device, it has great potential. Respondents like the idea and it sparked their imagination. Test in Context. As you move ahead, I suggest you test the designs in the context of where they actually appear in the store. This had a significant influence on the respondents' understanding of both naturalness and usage.

24 Thank you

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