innocent

I'm reading articles from D & AD. One of the case studies is on soft drinks company innocent. Their fruit smoothies are stocked by shops like Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose. The business was created by 3 university friends. They started by hiring a market stall at a jazz festival selling smoothies. They put a sign over the stall asking the customers if they should give up their jobs and form a company, providing two bins for the empty bottles, one that said 'yes' and one that said 'no'. At the end of the day the 'yes' bin was overflowing.



The most fascinating thing is how they build the innocent brand. Bottle labels are used as a principle communications tool inviting customers to interact (=smile). The design is always simple and the words are always entertaining. Like on the banana and cinnamon yoghurt thickie label, it says, "Banana and cinnamon. Sounds like it should be in a pie with a dollop of custard on top. Well, we haven't started making pies yet, so we thought we'd put it in a bottle instead. Like a good pie, it tastes delicious and smells like Gradma's kitchen. It also has real fruit and spices, just like the world's greatest pies. But unlike a pie, it is made with probiotic yoghurt, which is very low in fat and will stop people asking you if you ate all the pies."