All brand owners want to see a return on their investment when commissioning packaging design and for over 40 years Sedley Place has been creating on-brand, commercially effective and aesthetically pleasing packaging designs. Over that time our goal has always been to create designs which generate both short and long term returns. One measure of our ability to do this is the longevity of our packaging design solutions and their core attributes; their distinctiveness, on-shelf impact, communication cues and perceived value.
Recently Diageo published its 2021 interim results for the half year ended 31st December 2020, which revealed “net organic sales up 1%, despite a significant impact from Travel Retail and on-trade restrictions”. In interviews, on Radio 4 and on specialist industry sites like Just-Drinks.com (https://www.just-drinks.com/interview/were-not-shying-off-just-drinks-speaks-to-diageo-ceo-ivan-menezes_id132737.aspx), Ivan Menezes, Diageo’s CEO, referenced Johnnie Walker Blue Label as one of the brands in the super-deluxe end of the category that is helping drive growth in markets like China. He stated, “We're back into very attractive double-digit growth in China. Consumption of spirits in China - both of baijiu and of international spirits - is out-of-home, with meals in restaurants, in banqueting and celebrations. And, that's coming back”.
The news that Johnnie Walker Blue Label is contributing to Diageo’s sales success has a particular resonance for us, given that Sedley Place was responsible for the redesign of its iconic packaging when it was re-launched in 2010. At that time the brand met with considerable success, both commercially and aesthetically. The sales results it achieved worldwide were sufficient to win it a DBA Design Effectiveness Award. In particular, we were able to prove in ‘black markets’ that it was the new packaging that was having the uplift effect. The brand also won an award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2012.
To hear that the brand is selling well today and spearheading growth, some 10 years after its re-launch is testament to the quality of the product and in some measure its packaging design. Of course, the brand is promoted worldwide in a myriad of ways, and the different media have had a significant impact on its success and reputation, but it’s noticeable that its packaging design is still the same design we created back in 2010. It’s still made of heavy-weight blue glass with a deep base. It still features a design that suspends the liquid in the bottle, enhancing its perceived value. It still has the same array of crafted features - the redrawn wordmarque, the beautiful monogram, the detailed label designs with their discovered elements, and a tasselled neck-tie with embossed striding man.
We know from experience that a packaging redesign can have an immediate short-term effect on sales, as new consumers are encouraged to consider and purchase a brand and existing consumers to reaffirm a brand’s relevance to them, but our ultimate goal as designers is to create packaging designs that stand the test of time and generate both short and long-term returns. Johnnie Walker Blue Label would appear to be one such example.