Two young entrepreneurs wanted to expand the activity of their 20-year-old family business (one of the biggest and most efficient cow farms in Romania), by building a dairy factory. An integrated dairy business has the advantage of great quality control. Paired with the owner’s passion for tasty products, the new dairy brand’s differentiator was quickly obvious: top quality products, minimally processed (with the farm in the factory’s yard, there’s less need for processing).
While for some brands the difficulty lies in finding and defining their differentiators, in this case, the challenge was to prioritize them, in order to avoid the “too good to be true” feeling:
- Traceability of the milk
- Natural products: no powder milk, no additives, the milk as given by the cow (variable fat), minimal processing
- Integrated business
- High animal welfare standards
- Perfect safety: no human or air contact with the milk; ultra-modern factory
- Glass packaging. A bottle return scheme is in development.
We called for a consumer research, with help from Unlock Market Research, to learn about consumer interests and prioritize these differentiators based on their relevance. The results indicated people cared most about traceability of milk and its minimal processing. In a market where producers can use powder milk at leisure without even mentioning it on the packaging, natural milk with traceable sourcing was deemed a clear winner.
Whereas the good, natural taste of dairy is something Romanians keep looking for in traditional markets, where peasants bring their handmade products, modern life standards bring along food safety expectations that these small producers cannot guarantee. Also, they do not have the force to enter modern supermarkets. We figured our client’s brand could bring together the best of both worlds: offering consumers fresh and natural products, minimally processed, as from traditional farms, while ensuring food safety and supermarket presence.
To emphasize traceability, we agreed with the client that transparency will be part of their business philosophy. Further on, to build on this red thread, we made transparency a feat of the product packaging. Milk and yogurt would sit in glass bottles and jars, with a packaging return scheme now in development. The cheese products would get a see-through, resealable packaging.
For now, the brand sells five products in supermarkets: milk (the flagship product), yogurt, clotted cream, fresh cheese, and aged cheese. But its ambition is to constantly create new recipes.
The name “Laptaria cu caimac” was created by the client to convey the idea of top quality dairy. “Caimac” depicts the protective fatty layer that forms on top of natural, minimally processed milk, but it is also used connotatively to mean “the best things.”
To sweeten the bold, black shape of the blown-up L initial, we added the friendly cow illustration that the farm business had already used in its logo. Thus, we also showed the link between the two sides of the business - farm and dairy factory.
We completed the basics for the brand launch by also creating the web design and a communication strategy, and by supervising the PR and CSR strategy and implementation by Conan PR.
The communication platform for the launch positions the brand as specialty dairy, and it does so by making pairing suggestions with other food specialties. The first brand activation is coming soon at a cinema near you – where we know you can hardly find a healthy snack. For the brand activation, we teamed up with Arsenoaiei & Matasel advertising agency.
Working with Storience was quite interesting as this was the first time I was building a brand. This was not a brand that needed a reshape or some tuning, it actually needed to be invented and together with Storience we did a great job. The most surprising for me was the packaging concept where they did a brilliant job and proposed some bold designs. Apart from the design and the packaging concept, we understood from Storience that establishing all the other elements that make the brand was equally important: the tone of voice, visual style, do’s and don’ts, etc. We have received many compliments for the branding from consumers and partners, so… good job, Storience!
