This week’s design share is La Croix.
So what, La Croix?
In the last couple years, La Croix has become a sort of millenials’ drink due to a successful marketing campaign targeting millennials through social media. For years before that, I remembered the drink, with this splish-splashy textured look, being generally undesirable and considered not worth the price. And the packaging design never really changed despite this. Curious, I recently looked up the history of their branding and ultimately their packaging design. My finding: They had some awkward first years, but the design hasn’t changed since 2002!
And the original reason that the design looks the way it looks is because of Perrier.
Why Perrier
Perrier had been a leading sparkling water brand for almost a century. The company started in 1898 and was originally French, with the carbonated water historically coming from a spring in southern France. (Pronouce “peh-ree-ey,” not “per-ree-er.”) In 1992, the company Perrier was then bought by Nestlé, which is a Swiss company for any who didn’t know. Their branding hasn’t changed also, aside from occasional packaging variations, like their aluminum can.
Then La Croix was born
In 1981, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, La Croix was introduced as one of the first “Anti-Perrier” brands, meant to target sparking water consumers put off by Perrier’s “snobbish positioning.” The brand was designed to look the opposite of Perrier — approachable and all-people friendly for any occasion.
(caption: from the awkward first two decades)
In 2002, National Beverage Co. purchases La Croix and assigns the redesign project to branding and design firm Alchemy Brand Group, headed by Lyle Zimmerman.
After weeks of experimentation, Alchemy invited over the honchos at National Beverage for a “big reveal.” Zimmerman presented around 20 options. The National Beverage reps chose three to move on to the next phase: consumer research.
“In a sea of logos that were more sedate, precious in size, and often sans serif, the script denoted movement, energy, and fluidity—all traits applicable to water and especially the effervescence of LaCroix.” — Zimmerman
The outcome of the user testing: The design least favored by National Beverage’s management team was the one target consumers liked the best! An interesting marketing tactic is that the design works especially well, not as a sparkling water brand among other sparkling water brands, but as an alternative to soda, specifically aiming at consumers avoiding sugary drinks.
And that is how La Croix looks the way it looks.
… I still haven’t figured out why La Croix ever began writing their grapefruit flavor in French (pamplemousse) while the other flavors like lemon, orange and coconut stay in English. This is yet a mystery to me. Shall we ever know?
This week’s sign-off is an art piece by Moebius, one of the most well-known science-fiction/fantasy illustrators in history:
I love those lines, choice of gradients and flow of direction.
Hope you enjoyed!
Jane Choi