Pipers Crisps Co- Are we singing to the same tune?

Can you guess which of the below brands has just been redesigned?

Ok, if you are struggling i'll give you a clue...

"They were looking to reinforce the perception as the tastiest crisp brand in Britain by discovering what makes the brand unique."

Still not sure...

"They differentiated the brand, drawing out the unique, quirky elements that that make brand recognisable and distinctive."

One last Clue

"They wanted to make it easier for the loyal consumer to select their favourite flavour, and allowing standout that encourages new consumers to buy the brand"

Pipers Crisps, now known as Pipers Crisp Co. has just completed their packaging redesign through design agency BrandOpus. I actually like the subtle name change and do agree with Paul Taylor, BrandOpus creative director, when he says, ‘The “crisp” element was very generic so changing it to “crisp co.” gave it a bit more of an idea of what the brand was about.’ But moving back to the point in question.

Can you guess which of the below brands has just been redesigned?

When an agency is tasked to undertake a redesign there should be a distinct research stage. Within this stage there should be a review of the competitor set. This enables the agency to review where the brand does or could differentiate. What brand positioning the competitors occupy. How will the rebrand align the packaging with the market vision, in this case"looking to reinforce the perception of Pipers as the tastiest crisp brand in Britain by discovering what makes the brand unique"

This product does not differentiate in the slightest. Pipers Crisps Co quite clearly just want to be in the mix. They have no desire to be a market leader, any market share will suffice. 

If we dissect the design everything that works is already being utilised by competitors and everything that is unique doesn't.

The colour ways clearly work, Tyrells, Burts Chips and Kettle already have them, although it's funny that Walkers, the market leader, doesn't - think blue for Cheese and Onion.

The strong type in clean and bold colours helps navigation, this is all Burt's and Kettle use on their packs so is a good indication it works. I would question the position of the 'Made by Farmers' text, it occupies the sub brand location between brand and variant. I personally would drop the 'Trade Mark' at the top of the design and move this text here. I'm not sure that 'Made by farmers" is a very good brand positioning anyhow so they should have left this off completely. Other brands focus on the fact that they use British potatoes, hand cook the product, use only natural ingredients or keep British farms in business. I'm not sure consumers associate the art of crisp making with farmers, Pipers are making the same mistake as Jordans Cereal.  Does a working farm with muddy fields, pigs, cows and hens evoke the write emotion when tucking into a bag of fresh and finest crisps? Has the farmer washed his hands after collecting eggs, mucking out the pens or miliking the cows?

The flavour origin such as 'Lye Cross Cheddar and Onion' is a new take on Burt's Chips 'Made in Devon', this will add provenance and help create parity with the competitor set, not differentiation but parity.

The Piper logo could become iconic, there is a natural energy about it, it reminds me of Johnnie Walker.  

I would have preferred him not to be in a field, anywhere but a field. Is it about the piper or about being made by farmers? they are not the same thing and the design conflicts because of this dual message. I would have based the design around the use of the Piper. Who is he? where does he come from? how does it represent the brand? This design lends itself to a silhouette of a farmer not a piper.

If you blink you will miss this design on shelf, so many brands are not innovative, unique or up for a fight. What happened to brands that wanted to be no.1 or no.2 in the marketplace instead of settling for scraps.