Recoding packaging to catalyse growth
The Challenge: Sugarfree Green, the stevia variant of the Sugarfree master brand was not showing the growth that the brand owners were aiming for. It was not altering the negative image about sugar substitutes – medicine not grocery; chemical not natural; only for tea etc that were holding back growth.
Our Approach: We interrogated packs, not consumers. We scanned 140 international packs of sweeteners/sugar substitutes, decoded 40-50 of them in depth, decoded sweetener products as well for their signs and symbolism. We also studied sweets, both Indian and Western for their connotations and identified how these meanings enabled or detracted from growth.
Insights from Semiotic Decoding:
The semiotic decoding identified the key signs, symbols and codes required in pack redesign, in order to activate growth. These were:
a. Authentic Naturalness code – source matters, with the ability to trace the source of the sweetener to an element of nature without doubt
b. Indian-ness code – intuitive comfort with Indian sweets and cultural heritage lowers fears and resistances
c. Sharing code – sweets are not eaten by oneself but are meant to be shared; are a shared pleasure
Results:
In 2 years from launch of the new pack (with improved product) of Sugarfree Green in January 2020, its shipments to e-comm grew by 10x from the monthly average of 2019 and 1.9x across all channels. The recoding of the pack as a meaning system, altered the Green variant’s growth trajectory.