FDBusiness.com

Pearlfisher London has redesigned Irish porridge brand, White’s Oats, creating a foundation for the brand to grow beyond Ireland, into the UK. Work spans creative strategy, brand identity, tone of voice and packaging design.

A once sleepy category, oats is now a rapidly growing market buzzing with activity, innovation and tactical extensions from traditional, own label and cereal brands, all clamouring for attention, with Quaker being the default category leader. Despite 173 years of expertise in the oat market in Ireland, White’s Oats had lost its edge and relevancy and needed a new portfolio architecture and design that would enable the brand to continue leading the market in Ireland and become commercially successful in Great Britain.

Jenny Dean, Pearlfisher Senior Strategist, comments: “Oat consumption represents a daily ritual and is considered a healthy and nutritious way to start the day. Most oat brands offer the same promises of nourishment, comfort and warmth but lack emotional resonance with their consumers. To take White’s Oats to the next level we needed to inject more authority and credibility to the brand, moving it from functional and passive to emotive and relevant with a focus on the quality of the natural ingredient.”

She continues: “The new brand proposition ‘White’s takes time to make the most of yours’ recognises the active attitude of oat eaters and is brought to life through three distinctive portfolio pillars that bring meaning to product groupings relative to both the master brand and the consumer behaviour. The new brand positioning and portfolio architecture builds on White’s heritage and quality credentials, bringing clarity and meaning to White’s existing range whilst leaving space to expand with on-going innovation.”

Jeanette Clayton, Pearlfisher Design Director, comments: “The existing oat category expression is fragmented with very little differentiation in terms of personality or look and feel. Most of the brands look the same and use the expected porridge design cues – a warm red and orange colour palette and images that communicate place but not quality. The new design places the oat at the heart of the design and allows it to become the focal point of communication by naturally embracing the surrounding landscape. The series of elegant, considered and crafted illustrations, represent the enduring, timeless appeal of White’s progressive tradition. This new artistic expression has created a system where the landscape acts as a consistent canvas across the range, whilst various artistic styles communicate the three portfolio pillars, allowing for better range navigation and increased shelf visibility. The new White’s identity, which now sits at the top of pack, strongly binds the portfolio and brings order and clarity to a previously disparate rabble of products, positioning White’s as the advocate of oats.”