Mike's Hard Lemonade packaging redesign

Anthem Worldwide has just wrapped up a rebranding effort for Canadian spirit’s brand Mike’s Hard Lemonade. According to the company, the effort boosted sales considerably – they’re talking a 10 to 20 percent advantage over their competitors, which they attribute largely to the new packaging.

Here’s what Anthem has to say about it in their press release:

Mike’s Hard Lemonade new packaging design 
by Anthem Worldwide results in sales lift

Anthem Worldwide, a Schawk Strategic Design Company, whose integrated global network provides innovative solutions to articulate, unify and manage brand impact to create compelling and consistent brand experiences, announced the recent release of its new package design for well-known spirits brand Mike’s Hard Lemonade™.

Mike’s Hard Lemonade™ is a Canadian-based corporation, with its head office in Vancouver, Canada. Mike’s Hard Lemonade™ was launched in Canada in 1996 and is a mixture of lemonade made with real lemon juice and premium vodka.

"For the past 12 years, the marketing world has created an industry around hip, rule-breaking brand introductions," said Anne Dean, managing director of Anthem’s Toronto office. "By building on the energy of this authentic and original breakthrough brand, we re-designed the packaging to strengthen the core visual equities of Mike’s Hard Lemonade™. This enabled the brand to realize sales lift, demonstrating the power of compelling packaging. It also reinforces the power of packaging as the ultimate consumer touchpoint. If your brand’s package can engage shoppers and breaks through at shelf, it has the power to turn shoppers into buyers."

Anthem helped craft a sense of authenticity, character and individuality for Mike’s Hard Lemonade™ by evolving and focusing on key brand equity elements, such as "A CANADIAN ORIGINAL" and the fact that Mike’s Hard Lemonade is made with "ALL NATURAL FLAVOURS," which differentiate this beverage from the rest of the category. Focusing on key brand equity elements served to strengthen the connection between the familiar equities that consumers associate with the brand to new ideas that contemporize the brand. Essentially, the re-design broadened the personification of the brand by modulating the visual equities.

In our competitive industry, speed to market is crucial," said Chris Pfeifer, Director of Marketing, Specialty Beverages, of Mark Anthony Group Inc., parent company to Mike’s Hard Lemonade™. "Anthem’s fresh, evolutionary and contemporary design expressed the true values and character of the Mike’s Hard Lemonade™ brand and enabled us to take this project from brief to shelf in just 16 weeks."

Continued Pfeifer: "Anthem’s understanding of the core essence of the brand and key consumer insights allowed them to quickly establish credibility with the brand. Since the new design was launched, sales for these Mike’s Hard Lemonade™ products at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, or LCBO, have been ‘outpacing our competitors’ by a margin of 10 to 20 percent, most of which we attribute to the new packaging."

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