Rejuvenation required

The VAASAN Group is a major bakery business in Finland and the Baltic region, and the second largest crisp bread producer in the world. Their premium export brand Finn Crisp was established in 1952, but due to a changing market and fierce competition VAASAN needed to increase brand awareness and penetration. In early 2009 Dragon Rouge were asked to rejuvenate the Finn Crisp brand by creating a new brand essence and identity. We were also asked to design a new premium Finn Crisp Plus range with 5 Wholegrains being the first new product. The challenge: to keep the individual products recognisable to consumers, improve differentiation of the variants, maintain a unified and high profile Finn Crisp family shelf presence, up appetite appeal and above all make Finn Crisp stand out from the competition.

Bursting with goodness

Dragon Rouge saw that none of the competition talked about ingredients. And we also found something unique about Finn Crisp: their crispbreads are packed with more nutrients than everyone else’s. We built the new brand communications around the idea of healthy wholesome taste credentials: ‘Bursting with Goodness’. The new designs convey the purity, simplicity and lightness of the product. The pack has moved from something static and somewhat worthy to something dynamic, with uplifting curves and the grain clearly seeming to burst from the product, communicating a much more powerful sense of vitality and naturalness. Now a natural sun appears to backlight the logo, glinting brightly on the lower surface, with rays bursting past on all sides. With clear and simple navigation through photography and colour, the design drives both health and taste appeal. Accent colours have been introduced to provide differentiation between products. The new premium Finn Crisp Plus 5 Wholegrains has a refined brand mark, which reinforces the authority and quality that is at the brand’s heart.

Exceeding market growth

Mari Dunderfelt, Marketing Manager, Crisp Bread Business Area, VAASAN Group said: “The new designs by Dragon Rouge achieved positive results when tested in our key markets. Consumers perceived them as more modern, healthy and delicious than the previous designs, whilst still maintaining the Finn Crisp brand recognition and values. We are very optimistic.” Her optimism was well founded, as Finn Crisp exceeded market growth in markets as diverse as Russia, Sweden, Norway and the USA.