Branding for any CPG Company

For several years now, BrandBourg has had a strategic and creative AOR with Bimbo Canada, the Canadian division of Grupo Bimbo, a global leader in the baking industry and an important player in snacks. In the following exchange with BrandBourg, Tania shares her vision of branding for any CPG company.

BB: How do you see the role of branding and its importance?

TG: Success in the CPG industry is built on being able to establish and galvanize consumer trust in your brand. At the product level, branding becomes a vital component in the success of your product. This is particularly important in food marketing, where consumers need to trust what they are putting into their body. You can have a great product with poor branding and it will never be as successful as a strong brand with the same great product.

Branding is not just what consumers see on the bag (in the case of bread), it encompasses the strategy for how consumers interact with or see the brand at all touch points. Branding allows you to tell the story and to help consumers understand what you are providing, to ultimately drive loyalty.

That being said, packaging can be a powerful tool in making a brand strategy come to life and it requires careful consideration of what the logo conveys, the communication hierarchy, the messaging contained in romance copy, as well as the selection of colour coding. All of this must connect with the consumer so the product can ultimately be found and taken off the shelf.

BB: How would you advise a company on the best way to manage their mix of regional, national and international brands?

TG: We’ve done a lot of work at Bimbo Canada to streamline our brands in order to achieve more strategic focus. Within that work, careful consideration was given to focusing not just on national brands, which ultimately can be most efficient when it comes to marketing spend, but also to recognize the need to keep powerful regional brands in the portfolio. Taking the time to define the role and positioning for each brand is key in determining which brands to keep and which to transition or exit.

Being part of Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bakery, also allows us to look globally and consider International brands to bring to Canada to expand our business and meet ever-changing consumer needs.

The key is ensuring that each brand has a clear strategic role defined within the portfolio of brands, taking into account the consumer, the value ladder, product offerings, etc. to ensure you are incrementally adding value.

BB: In your opinion, what is the role of research in the development of a packaging/brand platform?

TG: Research is a key step along the path to success, not only in packaging but also in defining your brand’s positioning and competitive posture. It allows you the opportunity to check in with the consumer to ensure you have something meaningful, relevant and differentiated. This is important for both a new brand and a brand refresh.

Packaging is really the tangible element of the brand that consumers interact with and they need to be able to navigate the shelf (both in-store and online) to ultimately pick up the right product.

Any change to packaging, especially in a low-involvement category like bread, must resonate with the consumer while still being able to be found at shelf. Research is a crucial element for packaging changes in ensuring recognition, navigation and ultimately findability at shelf.

BB: In your view, what is the role and importance of package design in a brand’s communication strategy?

TG: Packaging at Bimbo is considered our most valuable asset. It’s something the consumer brings into their home and interacts with, with every usage occasion.  Packaging design has to do it all: deliver the brand positioning, the brand story and any other relevant information the consumer needs to ultimately make the purchase decision, while at the same time appealing to the consumer’s eye to both attract new users and keep existing ones.

BB: You have recently redesigned most of your brands. Which one are you the proudest of? What are your KPIs?

TG: That’s like asking who my favourite child is. I’m proud of all the design changes recently made across our strategic brands, and there is still one more to go. As each brand positioning was updated and then approved by consumers, the natural next step was to reflect the updates in the packaging.

Bon Matin, a beloved regional Québec brand, went through the most significant design change. The most critical KPI were the packaging research results, which assured us our current consumers would accept the change and that it would have the potential to attract new users. Once that hurdle was crossed, the next KPI is sales performance; and since new packaging has been in-market, along with the communication of the repositioning, Bon Matin achieved a double-digit growth. The Bon Matin redesign was named the Best Global Packaging initiative within Grupo Bimbo Global in 2019, which I’m very proud of.

Another example is Villaggio, our national brand. Its new packaging is just releasing into the market now. The redesign was also tested and accepted by consumers prior to bringing it to market. A key win with this design, which features a new logo, was to significantly enhance branding at shelf.