Jordans Cereal- Field of dreams?

It’s January.
A time to clear the pantry of all those sugary delights,  sign up to expensive gym membership and cut down on booze and fags.The British community has a four week surge of energy  and optimism closely followed by 11 months of couch potato-itis. 

It is therefore not surprising that Jordans, the cereal brand, have redesigned their packaging in time for a January Launch. 

In a world of healthy cereal that covers such staples as muesli, granola and porridge oats, Jordans are trying to have a ‘point of difference’ a reason to purchase. They do this through a 10% land commitment to wildlife habitats.  This seems to be their brand promise, so much so that the logo states ‘Caring for the British countryside’. Whilst very commendable and also very single minded in a crowded market, it feels like strange ground to flog so heavily. Dorset Cereal states that they are honest, tasty and real and Alpen ‘the original swiss recipe’ so whilst Jordan are doing good behind the scenes I’m not sure I would base my entire refresh around getting this communication into the minds of the consumers, could a flash not have sufficed.

It has been billed as a new packaging identity and range design I would call it nothing more than a brand refresh.1HQ, the creative agency behind the refresh have stated “Jordans’ Countryside Commitment puts the brand in a unique position – cereals that are good for you, and good for the British Countryside. Birds, bees and butterflies all benefit from new habitats in the 10% of land that farmers actively manage as part of the Conservation GradeTM scheme. The previous pack designs had started to hint at these nature credentials, but in a very understated way. We have created a much more holistic design with the whole pack telling the story. The mill has been moved to a more fitting abundant landscape and the mill itself has been renovated to incorporate a water wheel which avoids the past confusion. We have used texture and depth of colour to add richness and taste appeal, and the foreground illustration of wild flowers and oats tells the Conservation GradeTM story, combined with the butterfly window delivering real honesty.’

My fundamental problem with this new design…it feels like it should be in the pet or garden aisle of a supermarket, the design cues make me think of both bird and lawn seed, sometimes on their own or occasionally as a combined offering. Buy lawn seed that is also good for the birds oh and it’s butterfly friendly too.

Heres my reasoning.

The logo in black and white isn’t very foody or taste appealing, long term it also isn’t very ownable, add in the brand promise of being good to the countryside and if I was to do research in isolation against this brandmark I would get responses such as weed killer, fertilizer, lawn seed and many more ‘Family Fortune’ responses. Moving down the pack you would therefore think it would soften and focus on being appetizing and tasty. This doesn’t materailse, the remainder of the pack is a panoramic horizon of the countryside with a field and prominent flowers in the foreground…are we sure it’s not fertiliser. The design is then nicely finished with a butterfly shape cut out to expose the product within.  When has a butterfly been synonymous with breakfast cereal, is there a piece of semiotics out there I’ve missed. In previous blogs I’ve championed the use of substrate and product to do more, so I can’t be too critical of the FOP cut out, yet muesli is hardly worth showing, Dorset Cereals have also fallen into this trap of showing us the wonderful wheat, dried fruit and nutty bits. Note to Cereal manufacturers, this product looks like hamster food, I would strongly advise using a wonderful photographic shot with the ‘serving suggestion’ text hidden nicely away.

Heres what I do like, and It’s not an extensive list. I like the use of rich colours , they feel very wintery and evoke warm emotions. This won’t be ownable by the brand however so my favourite part is easily replicable. I also like the side panels more than the FOP, which can never be good.

My gut feeling is that the agency have allowed the marketers too much say in a direction that isn’t right for a crowded category. Whilst Weetabix talk about ‘Fuel for big days’ for the whole family,  Jordans are busy promoting the countryside to a consumer set that is prodominently inner city urbanites.  Does the consumer even really understand this message more than the green wholegrain banner of Nestle? My money would say that they don’t and that the average consumer believes the juggernaut that is Nestle is better for the environment than Jordans.

A strong branding rule states that you should contract your category where possible but don’t reposition your category to be sold directly from B&Q and Wickes. That might be a marketing step too far.

08/2/12
See what I think of the new TV commercial and whether it received a warmer reception than the packaging.