Longview Vineyard is a family owned and operated winery in the town of Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills. It has established itself as one of the most awarded vineyards in the region.

Longview has been reinvigorated by the Saturno family who invested into the established winery in 2001. They realised that it was time to give the existing labels which were common and uninspiring a new look, as they thought that their dated packaging could not survive in such a highly competitive industry. Longview decided to redesign their entire range of packaging with the aim of portraying a message of quality and uniqueness and increasing sales amongst their 25-45 year old target audience.

Each distinctly shaped bottle has a unique illustration which draws on the personality and the name of the wine. This is consistent throughout the range, giving them a common appearance yet each one remains distinctive. These illustrations each tell a story behind the wine. This gives the bottles more depth and creates an interest for the consumers, drawing them into the region and allowing them to seek out more information about the brand.

Longview was rewarded for their new packaging as results showed a massive increase in sales. The new labels were engaging and different from their competitors as they stood out. The total sales in 2008-2009 were 9,879 cases domestically across 31 different labels. After the repackaging, domestic sales have increased to 14,787 cases across 17 different labels. They also expanded their exportation to 8 markets, previously 1, increasing international sales to over 6,000 cases. Their new, fresh and vibrant labels enabled them to become a more desired brand.

The first Weis bars were developed by Cyrill Weis in 1936 based on the concept of using natural ingredients, fresh fruits and ice cream. It wasn’t until 1957 that his son Les sold the iconic Fruito bar commercially in Toowoomba Queensland that distribution quickly expanded through the city and interstate making it’s way to becoming a national ice cream brand. Over the decades, the brand has had many packaging designs with the most recent in 2011.

With the ice cream market being extremely competitive, the Weis multipacks needed have enough visual appeal to be highly noticeable and connect to the target consumers and encourage them to try the product. The repositioning of the brand had to also incorporate the values of the brand and convey these messages clearly and concisely. The packaging designs had to be strong and focused on ‘real fruit and real ingredients’ to stand out amongst the cluttered market and promotional activity of other mainstream brands competing in the same space.

The red Weis logo is more dominant and visible on the new packaging design. This creates stronger brand recognition and recall. An abundance of fresh fruit was used as a visual to highlight the natural ingredients as the key selling point. The packaging uses bold colours for each of the corresponding fruits and reflects the intensity of each distinctive fruity flavour. The use of these colours also increases the visibility of the different varieties available on the shelves.

The result of the redesign has been positive for the growth of the brand. Sales have increased by 32% with no advertising support.

Carolyn Crewell, the founder of Carman’s Fine Foods was just an 18 year old university student when she established the business in 1992. She scraped together $1000 to pay for  when her employer placed her small business on the market for sale. Two years later, Crewell bought out her business partner. The first five years was very difficult, she was broke and had enormous responsibilities, often feeling completely overwhelmed.

Twenty years later, Carman’s now exports to over 32 countries (such as Malaysia, Singapore, US) with a philosophy of using food ingredients from the kitchen and enriching lives every day. Carman’s has done so well due to a customer driven brand resonating with it’s people. The company has ignored following the direction of other companies in their market and haven’t been afraid to try different approaches.

Up until 2010 Carman’s packaging lacked real passion and love and came across as cluttered, conservative and cold. Carman’s realised they were not living their values of sharing their love and passion which was stated on their packaging. They under went a redesign keeping elements of the initial packaging, such as the bold black colour backgrounds, and added small changes which made a big difference. Carman’s brought personality, quirky energy and warmth to the brand’s packaging through it’s visual fun illustrations. Each variety has it’s own friendly, yet quirky hand drawn chalkboard illustration that tells an individual story. A tagline was also incorporated to explain the brand’s ethos in a simple and effective way.

With it’s fun, refreshed and rejuvenated look and feel, Carman’s results were quite impressive. Over 20% of Carman’s customers surveyed purchased a Carman’s product entirely based on the aesthetic appeal of the packaging. The successful communication of their key messages was evident by the increase in market shares and distribution and sales increase of 47.1% in Coles and 62.6% in Woolworths.

Carmen’s relaunched without advertising their new packaging. Their only investment in 2010 was towards their brand and packaging redesign.

There are several factors that make up the life force for an effective brand, whether personal or corporate. Starting from the colors you utilise to the aspects you seek to emphasize, there are a lot of elements that must be managed. Unfortunately, this often results in some of the most important and valuable questions being overlooked. As you build a brand, ask yourself this essential question: Does my brand speak to my target market?

Isn’t it obvious when you think about it? You’d be surpassed how many professionals have devoted time, money and energy into creating a dynamic brand only to realize that their audience doesn’t appreciate it.

How can you be sure to avoid this brand misstep? Here are three tips to help you along the way:

1. Analyse the competition.
As you begin to build your brand, start by examining the competition. Successful businesses can serve as a good frame of reference, while less successful competitors should typically be considered examples of what not to do. From selecting colors to creating a brand tagline, start by taking note of what works and what doesn’t in your field.

2. Communicate common customer challenges.
What is the core problem you are seeking to solve for your clients and customers? Are you going to provide trusted legal advice? Are you going to give your customers perfect vision through surgery that has eluded them for years? Identify the central solutions you and your business will provide, and pivot your brand around them.

3. Reiterate your value.
Why should a potential customer pay attention to you? How are you going to change their lives for the better? The answer can be complex or simple—but you need to have an answer. If your brand doesn’t give your audience a reason to pay attention, they won’t. Identify your unique selling points and work it into your brand.

Successful branding is much more than a slick logo or a robust media strategy. In fact, you can invest millions into a brand and still miss the mark completely—if you don’t start with the fundamental goal of creating a brand that speaks to your audience.

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The art of successful design can be likened to that of a good film editor; it is what is ‘left out’ that creates an emotionally authentic experience for the user.

It seems the less ‘designed’ something appears, the more honestly it is likely to communicate. Indeed, it takes a very skilled designer to decide which elements to include - and a refined sensibility to the visual palette to know which elements to take away.

You may not be aware of the designer’s tireless pursuit for the perfect hierarchy of content – for the coherence of information found in colour, shape and legibility, yet these simple cues are what triggers customers emotions, memories and associations.

The pursuit of this authenticity and simplicity are at the essence of any good designers goal. After all, for the consumer of a piece of design, honesty of communication is at the heart of matters.