10 weeks
School Project – individual
Branding, packaging, web design
Landing page, mockups, marketing, advertising, copywriting, research, logo development
Black seed (Nigella Sativa) and Turmeric are currently in vogue and are reputed to have anti-inflammatory qualities. Anti-coffee products are all the rage.
Create an expensive, edible, nutraceutical product that promises to help people with their health based on these two ingredients. Parameters include: black and yellow as primary colors and no more than two other colors, elegant design, and use sans serif type. The branding and content strategy must reference the artistic or medicinal traditions of Asia, India, or the Middle East.
Write a meta story that uses mythology to support the developed brand.
To get a baseline of the language and story I needed to use for this brand, I researched ancient Ayurvedic medicine and mythologies.
I also wanted to research companies that wrote their meta stories successfully, in a similar way I wanted to write Sun Nectar's. Califia Farms does this successfully; they wrote a legend as a backstory for their oat and almond milk products.
Rasa, Clevr, and joey all had websites that I was inspired by.
As defined in the project description, but also identified while researching competitor ads, the target demographic was identified as "affluent urbanites who shop at Pressed Juicery". Anna exemplifies this and more.
As a coffee alternative, and through previous barista experience, I decided to create a mood board that represented a golden latte. This still utilized the required yellow and black colors. Imagining myself as the audience, I thought it'd be easier to break away from coffee if they had a product that could fit into their routine. An image that came up often was a mandala flower, and the black felt warm and exclusive. I felt the imperfect line qualities felt gritty and organic.
I took elements from what I would imagine a drop of Sun Nectar would look like and then used that to create a pattern for the mandala. I still wanted it to retain some simplicity so it could be printed and recognized on the shelf easily, but still feel unique and represent an homage to its mythologies.
At first I wanted the word mark to include a drop of nectar hanging off of the word, but this felt overcomplicated. When researching other companies, I saw their brands didn't include anything too busy. So I followed suit and kept the wordmark simple, but the typography was kept to be round, warm, and friendly.
Harmonizing. Holistic. Honest. As I identified with the mood board, I wanted to use the warm black to create an exclusive, perceived value. Using the logo and the wordmark, the more things are kept simple and minimal, leaves the packaging to pop out on shelves and recognizable against the competition. It also makes a statement in people's homes or if they were to share with friends.
Each section has a specific reason and contributes to the overall brand narrative.
The rich warm black and calm, early yellow is consistent with the soothing feeling one gets from drinking SunNectar. As a brand, it promises organic and natural ingredients. As a product, it promises a guilt-free, delicious and nutrient packed drink that will enlighten your mind, body and soul. This needs to be communicated in the hero section with a clear call to action.
As one scrolls, you see the brand promise in action; a drink that honors your health and your time, that Sun Nectar only uses organic ingredients you will feel the benefits from, and that it's easy to mix in three steps. The blend is easy to make at home and customizable for everyone with any food preferences or allergies. Especially during these times, the need to make things at home are in demand, and users should be able to enjoy the same quality of product they would at a cafe at home.
New visitors to Sun Nectar may not believe everything they read and hear in the first sections. Using reviews from trusted and familiar sources helps improve their trust.
Sun Nectar believes in complete transparency, and the site reflects that. It doesn't overcomplicate the content or over-market the product. Sun Nectar uses simple ingredients and lets the turmeric blend speak for itself. For those who want to take the next steps towards a healthier lifestyle, taking action to achieve better physical and spiritual wellness will find that SunNectar can help with that. Including the trusted food certifications further establishes trust.
This section further establishes trust by inviting a dialouge with the community who already drink Sun Nectar and how it fits into their lifestyle. This allows the user to visualize themself as part of the community without a top-down review.
Like the Califia Farms, we needed space for people to understand the history and the brand narrative behind Sun Nectar. This leads into another call to action for readers to sign up for details, possibly receiving a coupon for signing up.
Understanding and establishing trust with the user is extremely important and can be done in many ways.
This was a successful project as it not only met all the requirements, but through successful brand storytelling, was able to appeal to a target audience. Instead of a typical advertisement, it places the product with those who take care of their bodies and want to better themselves.
The next steps I would take is to conduct some user tests and see if the narrative makes sense and if the user would be interested in buying the product if were a real page. After making any final edits, I think it would be ready to launch or to use the same formula/template with another brand.
athenasfikas@gmail.com
