Brand agency and retail design consultancy CBX has rebranded Avalon Organics®, one of the first brands to offer a full line of certified-organic products, giving the brand a fresh perspective for a new era.
Avalon Organics® brand got its start back when organic personal care products were primarily purchased by well-educated, high-income females in their 30s or 40s with children, noted Gregg Lipman, Managing Partner at CBX. “Avalon Organics® earned a reputation for offering the highest-possible quality personal care products,” he said. “As the consumer has evolved, Millennial and Gen X women crave an emotional connection ‘beyond organic.’ It was time to clarify Avalon Organics® brand story for today.”
Toward that end, CBX experts in branding, design strategy and verbal strategy relied on extensive consumer conversations as they reframed the brand with the Personal Care team at Hain Celestial. In addition to creating new packaging, design and nomenclature systems for Avalon’s five product lines, the team built a brand book; clarified Avalon Organics® brand personality and behaviors; defined the brand’s visual and verbal principles with expansive voice guidelines for use in social media and other communications, and conducted internal training to support writing around the new master brand.
Multiple research sessions conducted by CBX revealed the extent to which Avalon Organics® consumers had shifted to what the CBX team came to classify as “Modern Holistics”— including contemporary Gen X or Millennial consumers who crave an emotional connection, in addition to caring about the safety and quality of the beauty products they use. “It is always critically important to consider where a brand is in relation to culture,” he said.
“CBX’s research process engaged women in conversations about the role of beauty in their lives and focused on beauty-themed stories to discern the specific language that most resonated with them,” Lipman explained. “The idea of ‘consciousness’ is important to the Avalon Organics® brand, but we wanted to uncover the nuances of this,” he said. “What is consciousness in this context? Is it organic and apothecary-esque, or is it something that can look just plain natural? Is it about how people treat themselves, or is it more about the environment? We explored it all.”
What emerged was consumers’ appreciation for beauty that is beyond skin deep, Lipman related. “It was really important to them that it was deep, stable and all-encompassing,” he said.
The new packaging CBX designed for Avalon Organics® shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers and other products—including those belonging to its Intense Defense and Wrinkle Therapy lines—are now hitting store shelves nationwide. “We did a wholesale change from the Avalon Organics® brand’s previous look, although we did preserve important equities such as the green bottle color,” said Rick Barrack, Chief Creative Officer and Founding Partner. “When we tested the new look, we absolutely exceeded expectations. Consumers indicated they would purchase the products more frequently as a result of these changes.”
“On the new packs, the botanicals are hero to emphasize brand expertise in formulating the right, organic ingredients,” he noted. “We revolutionized the design—from the bottle, to the logo, to the graphics, to the typography. The focus was on purifying the design to communicate to consumers that the product is better for you because it’s Avalon Organics®.”
Functionally, the design helps consumers better understand the product’s botanical origins, what it does and its specific benefits, Barrack added.
“We wanted to make a big deal out of transparency and owning the brand colors for more impact at shelf,” Barrack said. “It’s a crowded category, so brand-blocking was important. The transparent label and clear logo makes a big statement that Avalon Organics® brand is not standing in the way of nature, but is providing the expertise to make beauty products that work.”
