Case Study
Bay Area Baker dreams of opening the dreamiest of craft bakeries, hires Seattle design studio, relaunches nationally as the nation’s top-rated craft granola
Asked to design an identity for the pop-up bakery that was already making a name for itself across San Francisco, the East Bay, and Marin, Neversink took on the challenge of developing, designing, and launching a most lovable food brand.
We began small, developing the initial go-to-market strategy, operations and scaling plans, and a phased identity and materials design. Start small but irresistibly lovable, finish large[r] and more lovable still.
Where We Started
While 99 of every 100 other small baking operations were sticking to the tried, true, but functionally invisible packaging solutions of applying a sticker to brown paper bags or cellophane, we worked on wrap-around stock labels with a logo, look, and vibe that made you want to hug them, give them to people you cared for, and see on the shelves of every grocery store you relied upon.
Our own market research led to a refocusing of the brand (the “bakery”) on a line of granolas to beat all other granolas. (That’s basically a quote from Dave Matthews himself.)
B[re]aking Into the Market
There are two ways for a food brand to break into the market: Have enough capital to fund both large packaging runs, and a promotions department working tirelessly to get you on shelves.
Or … be so quality and lovable that you turn every customer into a member of your street team, and make the retailers come to you to ask about having you on their shelves. Our identity focused on earnest delight, with as few additives (none) as the granola itself. Within three months of the first full identity design, Marge was written up in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, and countless other national publications. The number of retailers asking to carry the brand quintupled over night.
The Product Lines
As the brand grew, so too did the product lines. Granola was moved into a pouch eventually (with some “legacy” runs of the original wraparound still prepared for VIP retailers), adding to longer shelf-life, more efficient shipping, and re-sealability. Granola bars and new colorways joined the club (literally: Marge now had a subscription club), as Marge branched out and out and out.
How Lovable Was It?
Neversink hung with Marge through the initial launch, oversaw all brand and product development, designed and developed the then-groundbreaking (for a small food brand) e‑commerce platform that gave the brand its own direct access to customers not yet able to find it in stores, and the national debut of a host of new product lines.
We also stuck around long enough for our principal to fall in love with and get married to Marge’s founder, together raise the brand as their first child, and eventually sell the whole thing in order to make room in their lives for a more people-like family.
*Check back with us sometime for studies of those original websites for Marge.