Research has shown that an emerging trend in CPG is the consumer’s desire to purchase products that offer comfort and convenience, along with healthy ingredients. Comfort translates into design and images that evoke authenticity, trust, and even nostalgia.The challenge of convenience is to convey that a product is easy to use. Healthy ingredients translates into products that are fresh and natural.

The country’s leading producer of smoked seafood and long-time MOI client Ocean Beauty Seafood approached the creative team with the challenge to create new packaging for a line of fresh-made salmon spreads to be sold in delicatessen departments in supermarkets.

Using the research as a starting point, the team crafted a branded appearance that invoked the nostalgia for the authenticity of an earlier period, in this case the Victorian-era, using a “heritage” look. The packaging incorporates copy and visual cues throughout to convey the ready-to-use aspect of the product. A big marketing plus is the product’s use of wild caught sockeye salmon, which is a sustainable fish, a fact which was included in many places on the package. Additionally, for shelf display, the innovative sleeve has the ability to stand up on its edge.

Agency principal Mark Oliver noted that the key considerations “were to assure the buyer that the products had the authentic taste and quality of an old-world smoked salmon product while at the same time providing all the values and conveniences that modern consumers look for. We think the packaging delivers on all counts.”