Londonbased branding agency path has created new identities for two major cooking sauce brands in the uk ragu and chicken tonight. The relaunches follow the recent purchase of the two brands from unilever by privately held foods group symington&rsquos, based in leeds, uk. Ragu is being repositioned, with new recipes, to highlight its italianamerican heritage, dating back to 1937 in rochester, new york. The new jar has heavy embossing and a robust feel like a &ldquomason jar&rdquo, and the branding has been simplified and redrawn to deliver a &ldquobold and authentic look&rdquo with a rustic label texture.
A particular challenge for path was to achieve this on modern highspeed packing technology. Tom herman at path says &ldquowe are conveying that ragu is traditional and relevant &ndash a great modern classic, which offers good honest value. &ldquopreviously the packaging design lacked depth and didn&rsquot convey the quality of the brand. We have set about changing all that, both with the jars and the graphic treatment.
The brand is now far more engaging and remarkable.&rdquo for chicken tonight, path says it has &ldquotapped into the convenience brand territory&rdquo, targeting &ldquomainstream households, often with kids, who are time poor and can be less confident cooks&rdquo. The concept is &ldquoall about making the family happy&rdquo. The redrawn brand mark is carried in a &lsquopostit&rsquo note style frame, which might be seen on a shopping list or on the fridge door as a reminder for dinner.
The rest of the pack delivers layers of information, inspiration and advice while &lsquoromancing&rsquo the ingredients and the recipes &ndash all set on a background of full colour bold ingredients to &ldquodeliver impact and standout over competition&rdquo. &ldquowe are aiming to reengage with busy mums shopping for the family,&rdquo says herman. &ldquowe&rsquove abandoned the plated meal cliché on pack preferring to highlight the vibrant ingredients, the brand and the benefits messages.
This allows the products to be remarkable rather than just like the rest.&rdquo acquired by symingtons in 2011, the chicken tonight brand originally launched in 1991 in the us, before entering uk in 1993 and quickly becoming a wellloved brand in assembly cooking. Path has been working in partnership with symington&rsquos for nearly three years, in which time the leeds based company has grown from a £50m value towards £200m.
