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Client
Epiim

Industry
Agriculture

Website
www.epiim.ee

What we did?
Branding
Communication

Epiim is the largest cheese producer in Estonia. It’s a cooperative, owned by local milk farmers, that has been around for well over 100 years. Over the course of its long history Epiim has introduced several iconic products that have captured the hearts of Estonian consumers.

However, Epiim had recently been heavily focusing on export and had consequently become virtually unknown on the local market, as the brand research clearly showed. A following design audit revealed that Epiim’s existing “Dandelion” identity was inconsistently presented on packages as well as over a wide range of different carriers. The farmers had lost touch with the product their milk was used for.

It was the biggest player, but nobody knew what it stood for – or that it even existed.

A brand platform was built, focusing on the company’s ownership by the salt of the earth – Estonian farmers. Epiim was not just a producer, but one of the main forces behind the development of rural life and industry in the whole country.

The design audit also revealed that Epiim’s main identity carrier – the cheese package – failed to form a consistent range and in some cases missed a clear reference to the producer entirely. We helped the client to organise their product portfolio in a manner where each unit works together for the benefit of the whole.

A signature product line was created to become the basis for all future packages. The revised identity is focused on Epiim’s Estonian roots. It was built around a new much clearer floral mark – now nicknamed the Cheese Flower. The aim was to get noticed and be valued both by the producers as well as consumers.

The brand relaunch clearly brought Epiim into the hearts and minds of cheese lovers – and visibly back onto the shelves. The challenge for the client remains – being consistent in the brand implementation.

The traditional berry selling season lasts from around May to September each year. In that time, simple fruit stands pop up all over the retail landscape: from supermarket parking lots to subway stations. Because they are where people are, and sell unpackaged berries, the perception is that the quality is better and the fruit fresher than in the grocery store.

The truth is, however, that the quality is variable. Sometimes you get good berries and sometimes they go bad by the time you get home. As the stands are unbranded, it is a challenge to remember where you got the good berries from and which stands to avoid.

Based on this insight we developed No Bananas.

The goal of No Bananas is to ensure that people remember where they got the good berries from. The business is built on the simple idea of selling the highest quality seasonal berries available. This makes No Bananas more expensive than most non-branded stands. As consumer scepticism was considerable, one of the key needs was to help people get a taste at a price point that is so low as to eliminate price consideration. The one euro strawberry cones were the answer. At one euro, the cost of the berries in the cone is more than two times that of buying berries by the kilo or liter. At the same time, one euro is an amount of money not worth arguing about.

No Bananas was launched in 2011. Since then, No Bananas has become the undisputed market leader in seasonal berry sales. Each year volumes have doubled. Shopping center owners are actively soliciting No Bananas to sell on their property. The concept has become a sought after value-added retail solution for consumers. The attractiveness of the name combined with the simplicity of an honest product, the best berries, has created consumer demand for more.

The modular design of the point-of-sale furniture (by Vaikla Design) allows for easy scaling in every retail situation, as well as efficient storage out of season. The presentation of the fruit, from cones, pre-packaged take-away-sizes to sales by the volume, complete with a memorable brand and easy-to-understand service concept has helped the brand succeed where others at best break even.

The result

(more…)