RED LION

THE BRIEF

The consumer-facing sub-brand of Franklin Electric, a global leader in systems for water movement, Red Lion produced high-quality personal water pumps that were struggling to capture greater market share. Their primary challenge, they realized, was packaging design. This challenge was broken down into three sub-challenges, including 1) aesthetic differentiation, 2) clear and concise messaging, and 3) pump category identification/system creation. Red Lion has its own highly accomplished internal design team, however they wanted fresh and insightful direction to guide their packaging re-design.  

THE OUTCOME

After in-depth qualitative and quantitative research into the company, the competition, the consumers, and the sales channels, we produced a packaging design guidelines document to direct Red Lion’s internal design team in their packaging refresh. Some of our suggestions included: eliminating an industry-standard color coding system; foregrounding Red Lion’s brand color story; condensing information through iconography use; and more.

OUR STRATEGY

1. Unearth: We began by meeting with the C Suite of Red Lion to learn about the company. In this meeting we touched upon: historical and recent commercial performance; internally-perceived product and brand differentiation; core sales challenges and industry trends; and recent design approaches and results.
2. Competitive Analysis: Investigating the client’s 16 main competitors, we conducted a shelf comparison trends matrix to identity patterns with relation to key packaging questions, including: product selection guidance; product photography size; use of white space; and other considerations.
3. Develop Customer Insight: In order to develop baseline consumer attitudes toward packaging, we interviewed them on-site, at retail outlets where Red Lion products were sold. These interviews were quick and automated using ThinkWow, an innovative, visual-based polling system. With this and additional information, we then conducted a national, virtual focus group that included an exhaustive cross-section of potential consumers.
4. Formulate Packaging Guidelines: After analyzing all of our collected data, we developed a comprehensive, illustrative packaging guidelines document, which made a number of concrete suggestions while allowing Red Lion’s team to remain creative within that strategic design framework.