Cristal Brand renovation
| Fact |
Value |
| Contact |
London |
| Client |
SABMiller
Cristal |
| Project |
Brand renovation |
| Industry |
Consumer Goods |
| Timeline |
Jun 06 - Ongoing |
| Services |
Packaging Design
Brand Identity
Brand Guidelines
Brand Communications and Collateral
Brand Positioning
|
| Team size |
12 The Brand Union
6 Client |
| Results | Sales of Cristal improved to a 28.2% from F06 to F07 vs market growth of 19.8%. This means that Cristal grew above the market. |
|---|
A great insight based upon deep social changes that the brand is leading, a very relevant big idea used to position the brand and extraordinary packaging renewal effort that involved the entire business.
Union de Cervecerias Peruanas Backus & Johnston SA, joined SABMiller in October 2005, adding 3 major brands (Cristal, Pilsen Callao and Cusquena) to SABMiller’s portofolio. ‘Backus’ had become the single owner of all Peruvian national and regional beer brands at the time of acquisition. Cristal was the largest of the brands, having national distribution and majority share.
Peru is geographically a divided country, this was reflected in the market share of the 3 major beer brands, with each brand dominating a specific territory. The brands had overlapping positionings and little to differentiate the product characteristics. In 2005 a competitor, Brahma, entered the market and took quickly market share, largely through pricing. Cristal had lost it's market leadership.
To regain leadership a full brand renovation programme was initiated. The Brand Union team visited the market, undertaking an immersion trip to get to grips with the brand at the point of sale and consumption. This inspired creative development around the brand bright idea 'The beer of the Peruvian people'.
Our creative platform of 'Togetherness' was informed by the brands repositioning as the ‘beer of the Peruvian people’ – this idea informed all of the creative development; from a brand story book, on-trade brand ritual work, POS 'brand house' work right the way through to the design of the brand identity guidelines, the photographic style and the beer packaging.
Cristal is not a premium brand, it is inclusive, accessible and forward looking. These values led to the development of a unique creative treatment that celebrates the real Peruvians – all photography is reportage, of real people in real situations – the result of a 2 week photography road trip around Peru - A big shift from the established and generic category language of bikini's and ice . The design of a brand house (bar) uses simple raw materials to deliver on the big idea. The craftsmanship required here is very different to premium alcohol brands – but as demonstrated, leads to a powerful brand world that mainstream Peruvian consumers can come together in.
Cristal saw off competition from a new competitor brand that had stolen market share, restoring and growing its market share - it managed to do this while not taking share from any other national portfolio brands.
"I think you have helped us developing a great work in terms of design and ideas that were really aligned with the Brand Big Idea. I think you have captured the real essence of the brand and that has ended in an excellent piece of work."
Fernando Melgar, Cristal Brand Manager
