Brand strategy and packaging for Tesco – how we helped the nation fall in love with own label again.
With pressure from discounters, changing consumer perceptions of value, and an incoherent design system, Tesco needed help to revive its own brand sales. We embarked on the largest retail packaging rebrand ever done in the UK, telling the stories behind the food, and bringing consistency and clear navigation to over 9000 SKUs.
When every pack packs a punch.
The Change
Pressure from discounters, changing consumer perceptions of value and increased expectations of own brand quality were hurting Tesco own brand sales. None of this was helped by Tesco’s incoherent design system meaning products were difficult to find and variants were inconsistently presented across store.
The Opportunity
Tesco outperformed competitors in blind taste tests and their size meant they had longstanding relationships with great suppliers and their pick of the best foods.
Our opportunity was to change the perception that Tesco products were mass produced and uncared for by telling the story of the people behind the food.
We used Visual Planning to identify this solution and design direction. We then translated it to over 9000 SKUs. A coherent range architecture ensured clear navigation and a visual architecture brought it to life. 3 food story types, 8 cuisines and 12 determinants of choice (e.g. organic, low fat, lactose free), plus 3 sub brands, ensured simplicity and consistency across every category.
Extensive guidelines and a decision tree to determine the correct approach for any NPD effectively future-proofed the system and made it intuitive for Tesco stakeholders to follow.
We then rolled the design system out to the brand’s Asian markets, ensuring the local teams were fully equipped to understand what was fixed and what could flex to meet local needs.
Results
It was the largest retail packaging rebrand ever done in the UK, involving more than 300 sub-categories and 9294 individual products. There has been a sales uplift of up to 14% on ranges launched to date.
