goodbelly probiotic juice brand changes its carton graphics to emphasize the flavor appeal of its products, while paring down its probiotic message to appeal to massmarket consumers.by anne marie mohan, senior editor, packaging worldgoodbelly the name says it all. but until recently, packaging for this line of probioticinfused juices from boulderbased nextfoods failed to deliver a clear message to consumers onshelf. while the product, formerly sold in the health store channel only, was a standout in its jetblack gabletop carton, copy dominating the front panel that focused on the product&rsquos probiotic benefits made it difficult for consumers to identify it as a juice. with goodbelly&rsquos imminent expansion into conventional supermarkets, nextfoods knew it needed to juice up the flavor appeal of the product to attract massmarket consumers.&ldquoshoppers who perused natural food stores had always responded positively to goodbelly&rsquos packaging, which conveyed it as a functional product that aids the digestive tract,&rdquo explains kelly reedy, ceo of advertising agency lrxd, which headed up the restaging of the brand. &ldquohowever, this was &lsquotmi&rsquo for a product pitched to the masses. this information interfered with the other important message that the package needed to communicate&mdashthe product&rsquos delicious flavor. it was crucial that the new design instantly convey the most important health benefits to fickle consumers without being too wordy.&rdquoinvolving more than just a small tweak to existing graphics, the redesign was a year in the making and relied heavily on consumer research, datadriven analysis, and focus groups. new package graphics introduced in early 2015 now emphasize flavor over functionality, while still conveying the probiotic message.consumers lay the groundworkthe goodbelly probiotic line comes in two formats a 1qt gabletop carton for seven varieties of juice, and an 80ml injectionmolded polypropylene cup for four flavors of plusshots. the product is nongmo, soyfree, vegan, and kosher, and contains the lactobacillus plantarum 299v probiotic strain, which helps promote healthy digestion. unlike many other probiotic products, goodbelly is dairyfree, making it appealing to those who have difficulty processing lactose.however, as reedy explains, while conducting consumer research for the redesign, lrdx learned that for the majority of goodbelly consumers, dairy is not an issue. &ldquoresearch concluded that ninety percent of goodbelly customers eat yogurt on a regular basis, so we didn&rsquot need to focus solely on marketing the brand as an antidairy probiotic alternative for, say, vegans or the lactose intolerant,&rdquo reedy says.research also indicated that despite onpack imagery that included raw fruits and vegetables, and even a glass of juice, consumers couldn&rsquot identify the product as a juice.&ldquosince this is one of the brand&rsquos major points of differentiation&mdashgoodbelly is america&rsquos only juicebased probiotic product&mdashwe needed to change this perception,&rdquo reedy explains.after the feedback phase, lrxd reassigned the packaging&rsquos visual hierarchy in a topdown approach that clearly communicated three key traits the probiotic function, refreshment, and dairyfree formulation. 
