Little Paddock / Food & Beverage Affordable luxury; a new take on premium ice cream
Diversify to multiply; How ice cream label Kohu Road’s Little Paddock brand opened up the market.
Project type
Brand Start up
Client
Kohu Road
Expertise
Brand strategy, Identity, TOV, Packaging
Premium ice cream brand, Kohu Road had already cornered the New Zealand market in gourmet ice cream. You know the stuff… amazing flavours, all natural ingredients, ice cream you gladly pay top dollar for in posh restaurants and could easily eat a 1kg tub load. With Kohu Road ticking along nicely, founder Greg Hall and General Manager Michelle Preston noticed an opportunity within the category; smaller, more cost effective serves of gourmet ice cream that could help grow a new audience for the business.
Having previously worked with Hunter’s Creative Partner, Matt Gibbins on UK super brand, innocent drinks, Michelle Preston reached out. Not wanting to cannibalise Kohu Road’s success, we collectively arrived at the same strategic conclusion; an affordable sub-brand founded with the same principles as Kohu Road. Little Paddock was born.
With fresh takes on classic flavours and some new ones in the mix, Little Paddock’s mission was to produce the best ‘everyday’ ice cream possible – made using only natural ingredients whilst snubbing emulsifiers and preservatives used by other brands.
“To say this little brand changed the category is a bit of an understatement. Not only did we win plenty of awards, we also caused plenty of copycat competitors to come rushing in”.
— Michelle Preston, General Manager, Kohu Road.
For any FMCG brand, naturally the first and perhaps most important branding output is packaging. Knowing quite a few ice cream brands go loud on colour and cliche, we made a point of difference by designing an identity that was more natural and pared back. The tubs also featured expansive, quirky stories whose sole aim was to charm the sweet bejesus out of people.
The results were sweet with pottles flying out of the supermarket and deli freezers in both Australia and New Zealand as Little Paddock started to boss the market.
Brand Scale-Up Lessons / Key Takeaways:
- Just like luxury fashion or the premium car market - there’s absolutely nothing wrong with creating a sub-brand or new brand entirely to target a different audience. But never at the expense of your values, principles or beliefs.
- Don’t stop experimenting or coming up with new ideas. If something sticks, then run with it. If it doesn’t, learn, learn, learn and go again.
- Growth isn’t just about volume, expansion or added service offerings. As founders and business owners we need to mentally grow too. Reading books, watching DO Lectures and attending workshops are all great ways to stretch your thinking.
At Hunter, we can help you with:
Brand strategy, creative strategy, creative direction, art direction, copywriting, brand naming, logo design, brand identity, graphic design, packaging design, project management, production management
and execution.
