New product development (NPD) was the topic in focus at the Leaders Forum on 19 May, delivered by keynote speakers Belinda Anderson, head of marketing, Own Brand at Coles and Mikey Hart, creative director at brand design agency Hulsbosch.
In their presentation, Anderson and Hart examined the key steps to establishing a new brand and its strategic positioning; and expanded on ways to create compelling creativity.
The pair kicked off the sessions by sharing their insights into the approach used to create the Australian made, award-winning KOi brand for Coles, which recently expanded to include the KOi for Men sub range.
Attendees were taken on a 'tour' of the international skin care brand of products from concept to shelf by Anderson, who discussed the importance of factors such as customer need, sustainability, locally-produced products, shared value brands and collaboration, when building a brand.
Hart then went on to provide a roadmap of bringing the KOi product to market, which involved:
- A customer-centric approach (i.e. learn everything about the customer in terms of their needs) which informs the design.
- Mapping, to define how to position the brand in the marketplace. (This involved the creation of hypothetical brand frameworks and portfolio of products to define a brand strategy.)
- Collaboration with Anderson and her marketing team to ensure they all aligned, create brand platforms which would come next, and draw up a representative of target customer to provide an early indication of what the brand would look.
- Creating concept bundles for Coles to consider, which when received, went through quantitative testing by Anderson and her team.
Hart then went on to share the concepts for design, and the principles which were to:
- Set the brand’s true north
- Come up with a three-word brief
- Create a brand that will stand apart
- Tell a story
- Convey that you know your audience
- Attach meaning; and
- Be fearless (which sometimes means breaking the rules)
Citing the brand images of bands like ACDC and The Rolling Stones as a good analogy of creating a brand image, Hart say,”Here, everything comes together to create one brand image - the name, the music, the cover."
He then discussed how the name came to be, quite fitting, KOi brand assets feature a distinct black-on-white master brand logo and the packaging for product communications uses simple, variant colour-driven hero graphics that convey the sense of a fragrant, luxurious personal care experience.
Since its launch in 2019, the KOi brand only had 12 products, and now, said Anderson, the range has more than doubled, extending to body wash, hand wash, sanitisers, hair care and men’s grooming, with plans to change its fragrance and introduce new sustainable products.
The Coles Own Brand team is also looking at how the brand can have shared value by partnering with brands like Movember.
In closing, the pair agreed that customer obsession is at the heart of everything they do.
"Delivering the brand experience at all touchpoints and delivering how the brand feels in the heart of the consumer really matters," added Hart with Anderson then pointing out that the importance of growing a brand for the future.
"Tend your brand garden - it’s really important to continuously invest and make sure that you have tracking in place and know what’s working and what’s not," she said.
