ASTREA CAVIAR REBRAND

OVERVIEW

Astrea Caviar first approached me with a simple task: Make us look as good as our product is. Sounds like an easy task right? Turns out it was very challenging after doing just a bit of market research. Caviar is a luxury delicacy, from harvest to production, it can cost an abundant of knowledge and money and hurdles to get such product to the shelf. As we are intending to have this product be obtainable in every part of the world, we will first start with the biggest consumer of the market, the U.S.

KNOW YOUR COMPETITIONS

I am not gonna bore you with the analytics, but overall, competitions are fancy, competitions are expensive, and competitions have been around for decades.

THE LOGO

Being aware of our market position is essential to the development of the logo. Astrea, being the Greek goddess of details and delicates was a name that the clients felt connected to. I never question the name that the clients come up with. It could very well be their mothers’ names and I will still be able to make it look good and tie to the brand. More importantly, with the consideration of the product sitting on shelves, being small tin cans, what would make them stand out? No matter how catchy your name is, it’s not gonna be visible from afar.

So I studied symbols with basic shapes. Fortunately, the A can be seen as an upwards arrow as well as a triangle. Upwards arrow is definitely a positive trait, as the client really love the Feng Shui of things, they immediately got on board with the direction. As water is essential to fish and this caviar, we agreed to have the triangle stand above an elegant reflection of the water, which in Feng Shui terms, means money (flow).

The symbol A and the name spelled out forms a perfect triangle that can be immediately recognized and drawn towards at a glance. Beats out putting any king/crown icon or fancy fish used that people probably don’t need to know.

THE LABEL

Two words. WATER RESISTANT. Of course that is quite important for a product that needs to sit on ice for the entire time. But having a delicate product requires a lot of coordinations, and unfortunately, those coordinations are never consistent. For one, the FDA information has to go somewhere on such a little can. On top of that, you will need a custom stamp/sticker to ensure the seal was not tampered with right after the inspections. In another word, whatever is designed on these labels, unless the product is not imported, will risk being damaged or covered up by the health department agents. Nevertheless, we take all that into consideration, and continue to produce the most visually informative, visually appealing label that stands out among the rest.

THE BRAND

It just wasn’t enough to have the right packaging and the label or the name to this market. You gotta understand, we are talking about caviar here. Budget has not been an issue to many of these companies. Which means they will go fancy, they will go high end, they will go Hollywood, and they will go royal. What we want to do is give caviar a little twist. Caviar was a rare item, due to the years it take sturgeons to mature, for the FDA to approve such perishable, and all these has made good caviar hard to obtain and often times you will have to pay a steep price for them. With the high overheads, the company needs to set their product at a price point that makes business sense, right? But being at a higher price range doesn’t mean it’s only for the filthy rich or paired with fine wine and fine dining anymore. We want to incorporate the brand and the product into our daily lives. We conjured up multiple homemade recipes such as an ordinary breakfast omelet, and we sprinkle caviar on top of that. We spread cream cheese on bagels and spread caviar over them. We want consumers to relate to the product, and shake off the mindset that this is a delicacy that you cannot imagine having in your very own kitchen.

THE PACKAGING

The clients were very aware of brand power, thus were willing to put where the money needs to be. And the rewards were huge! Well-known sushi chefs in major cities are willing to give this brand a shot, high-end hotels and resorts are using these as complimentary gifts sets for VIP guests, and world-famous watch makers are including these in their goodie bags for VIP guests at events. With a social media team heavily promoting this product on Instagram and Facebook, we were able to introduce this product with immediate attention and trust from the get-go, all because of a logomark that stands out and also blends into the years of heritage that its competition has already established.