Package of the month looking better than ever at 75

Dairy Foods, Dec, 2002 by Donna Berry

Penn Maid Dairy's three-year brand building strategy nears completion with the rollout of newly designed package graphics

A Philadelphia tradition since 1927, Penn Maid Dairy recently made the decision to grow the brand's regional franchise and to strengthen its relationship with a new generation of consumers. To assist with this brand revitalization, Penn Maid's management turned to Hanson Associates Inc., Philadelphia, (www.hansondesign.com), brand strategists and designers that have earned a national reputation for brand building.

"We contemporized the entire packagelabeling system, yet maintained the familiar aspects of the past' says Gil Hanson, president, at Hanson.

Penn Maid's new look recently debuted on its cottage cheese, dip, sour cream and yogurt lines. In 2003, butter, cheese, condiments, cream cheese and desserts will get the makeover. The redesign builds on Penn Maid's reputation for quality and the communication of: You can taste the local difference.

Penn Maid professed this message from the start, when founder, Harry Goldberg delivered milk and other dairy products to area homes by horse and carriage. Home deliveries are no longer made, but his legacy continues through the company's logo and "spokescow," Queenie, who replaced the original Penn Maid logo, a Quaker Maid, in the late 1960s. Goldberg named the recognizable cow logo after his wife Blanche, who he lovingly called Queenie.

Since the inception of Queenie, her presence has graced all Penn Maid products. The original Queenie logo remained the same until 2000, at which time it was updated as a result of findings from qualitative research focus groups with Philadelphia consumers. The findings initiated a three-year brand-building project, which is nearing completion as redesigned packages hit the marketplace.

"Findings from the research showed that consumers associate the Penn Maid brand with a down on the farm, homey and dependable feeling that had always been a part of the family' says Kim Goodwin-Beavers, group brand mgr., at Penn Maid. "The image already defined by consumers allowed us to build on Penn Maid's existing perception rather than trying to create a new mind set."

Penn Maid's brand building plan started with the logo update. Queenie became more prominent and her features were slightly altered. And a red "Dairy" banner was added.

"By following our three-year strategic blueprint, which included evolving the logo, highlighting Queenie, sampling and sponsorship programs, communicating our local/dairy message through consumer advertising and web communications, we were setting the stage to use the excitement of our 75th anniversary to launch a campaign to build our brand image by updating our packaging to a more premium image. We created a fun and exciting billboard effect across all categories, giving consumers yet another chance to know that 'We Do Dairy,'" says Goodwin-Beavers.

Hanson adds, "Penn Maid's new package design was created with the help and guidance of consumers given through a series of focus group sessions. Consumers helped the creative team to understand what current elements were important and needed to be retained, such as the 'black' background on the current package. Consumer panels immediately identified the black color with Penn Maid and a feeling of a premium product."

All Penn Maid products, with the exception of yogurt, feature a black background with a center keystone shape that denotes product and type.

"We approached the yogurts with a slightly different mind set," says GoodwinBeavers. "We wanted to use vibrant colors to set us apart from our competition. However, we wanted to retain our family look through our adult yogurt lines, so we decided to carry a black band around the top edge of the principle display area. Our adult yogurts also use the keystone shape that helps maintain the family billboard image.

"We took another design approach with our single-serve kids yogurt line," she adds. "Kids often ask for it by referring to it as the 'cow yogurt.' Knowing this, we retained the prominence of Queenie and added creative fruit graphics. The total effect was a light, fun and colorful package that we felt would most appeal to kids."

This stronger family look across the line of Penn Maid products heightens perception of the brand as a provider of many dairy products. This billboard effect in the retail environment, along with familiar brand equities and more appetite appealing colors and graphics, strengthens Penn Maid Dairy's overall brand imagery in a very competitive marketplace.