Packaging and branding design company Boxer & Co. had been tasked with redesigning Western Australian dairy brand Brownes’ white milk packaging.

The old packaging was extremely rational and one dimensional. WA consumers have a real affection towards the brand that has been supplying them with local, quality milk since 1886, but the packaging didn’t reflect this relationship and made no emotional connection with the consumer. It also looked dated and lacked shelf shout.

With the increasing market share gained from private label, Brownes knew they needed to set their brand apart and drive their quality and WA credentials. Milk is something that many Australians have a very emotional connection with.

 

It represents purity and freshness and is nourishing, comforting and refreshing. It is filled with nostalgia and fond memories and it is central in consumers’ lives on a day-to-day basis.

Natalie Sarich-Dayton, Brownes marketing director: “We knew we needed to invest in refreshing the pack
design of our entire milk portfolio. Our new packaging needed to achieve real impact on shelf and also tell the Brownes story, of an innovative, contemporary company with a deep passion and heritage in WA Dairy.

“We invested a lot in strategic research and wanted a specialist packaging design agency that had the capability to translate the insights and understanding into something really creative and engaging. Boxer & Co. really hit the mark; their creative portfolio coupled with their proprietary strategic approach proved to us that they could deliver.”

In the design solution for Brownes White Milk, provenance and purity both took a leading role.
The design solution focuses on colourful Western Australian sunsets, which flood the Tetra packs with variant colour, making navigating the range incredibly simple. Dairy cows are silhouetted in front of the setting sun, demonstrating the straight-from-the-farm nature of the product, but taking a step away from the typical green grass, blue sky, black and white cow that’s so formulaic on milk packaging.

Mark Haygarth, creative director, Boxer & Co. “It was important that we kept Brownes focused on
their number one position, creating a pack that really connects with consumers by reminding them of the Brownes they have grown up with, but doing so with a fresh, modern approach.”

The hand-crafted typography on the front of pack is a nod towards Brownes’ heritage, but executed in a
way that also has modernity and a strong on-shelf legibility. The design wraps around the pack, forming a Western Australian landscape which is unique to each pack, and also tessellates on-shelf across variants. In the speciality range, people are added to the horizon, playing out scenes that are relevant to each variant, such as a child flying a kite on the Junior Milk.

Natalie Sarich-Dayton goes on to say: “We knew we were working with experts from day one – Boxer & Co. clearly digested our brief, challenged us where appropriate, presented a thoughtful and in-depth
strategic piece and delivered seamlessly at the back end of this large project. We are thrilled with the results for our Brownes White Milk range and can’t wait to see it on shelf.”

The detail on each pack has been considered to excruciating detail, with a series of small, individual touches, such as creative barcodes and engaging copy.

Boxer & Co. is an independently owned strategic design consultancy, specialising in packaging and branding.

Based in Sydney and headed up by a team of packaging expert Brits-turned-Aussies, they identified the need for a local agency that raised the bar of Australian packaging design to meet that of its international counterparts.