Reformed Characters
Drinks Branding
Drinks branding, retail strategy, brand world, packaging design & marketing for a new range of bold botanical alcohol free drinks.
Type Of Client
Food & Beverage
Type Of Work
Brand Naming Brand Strategy Branding Packaging Design Website Design Marketing
The Brief
Reformed Characters was conceived as our own agency-owned challenger brand – a premium range of alcohol-free bold botanical drinks.
Our category research and retail data showed that although the alcohol-free category was growing year on year – consumers still felt that alcohol-free drinks felt like a substitute, a lesser than version of the ‘real’ thing.
These insights underpinned all of our work in bringing a new brand and proposition to the ‘Low & No’ market.
Our category research showed us that the people who were really “taking a break from booze”, were usually the life and soul of the party.
We set out to a create a bold and ballsy brand in alcohol-free – all character, no compromise.
The Work
We played into cult sayings and meme culture, creating the brand name ‘Reformed Characters’ – trademarking in the UK & USA.
Our ambition was to create a ‘cult’ brand in alcohol-free, a can which consumers could drink in a bar or a club and not feel out of place with.
We designed a series of ‘reformed character’ illustrations, hinting at the very nature of hangovers, blackouts, sunday scaries – and the reasons realistically why we all end up ‘taking a break from booze’.
Our can designs feature bold metallic full spread pattern designs. We launched with 3 unique SKU's each with it's own personality and identity, The 'Herbaceous Character', 'Dark & Decadent Character', and 'Bittersweet Character' – maintaining category ownability as global alcohol group brands continued to enter the space.
Our work spanned:
- Brand Naming & Origin – trademarking in UK & US markets.
- Brand Strategy & Brand Positioning – finding Reformed Character’s unique place and way to win within the Low & No category.
- Verbal Branding – creating own-able brand language including “Bold Botanical Alcohol-Free Drinks for Healthy Hedonists”, “Unapologetically Alcohol-Free”, and “All Character, No Compromise”.
- Packaging Design – a range of 3 unique packaging designs.
- Product Development – including drinks strategy, formulation and working with manufacturer runs.
- Retail Strategy – retail pitch decks, scaling and securing buyer interest.
- Shopify Store – full e-commerce subscription site.
- Launch Marketing & Social Media – creating an entire brand world and knowledge base.
The Outcome
Upon launch – Reformed Characters received buyer meetings and interest for stocking from major retailers, indies and more including Selfridge’s, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, airlines and more. Including export to the USA, Canada & Europe.
How We Helped
Brand Naming
Trademarking (UK & USA)
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity Development
Packaging Design
Drinks Strategy
Product Development
Website Design
Retail Pitch Decks
Content Marketing
Marketing
