When Tetley Tea asked ASHA to position its U.S. Good Earth herbal brand in the UK, initial research revealed that the name ‘Good Earth’ set all kinds of expectations in the minds of customers. The challenge was to find a way of defining and being ‘good’ that was credible and didn’t feel like ‘greenwashing’.
By exploring the meaning of ‘Good’ and creating a unique definition of the target audience, ASHA focused on ways Good Earth could take the lead in being good. As a result ASHA defined the brand positioning and the brand philosophy. ‘You can’t be good all the time, but at Good Earth we believe that if you start by doing a little bit of good, the rest will follow’. They then went onto create the brand sign off: ‘Thank Good Earth for that’.
By defining ‘Good’ in each of the different contexts and looking at how to put being ‘Good’ into practice, ASHA built a communications framework for the creation and expression of the brand identity across packaging, point of sale, on-line, promotional items, TV, press and outdoor advertising.
Only a year after launch Good Earth enjoyed a 5% share of the organic tea market, and the brand currently has a prompted recall rate of 7%.
What we did:
Positioning
Target Market Identification
Brand Architecture
Brand Identity
Launch Strategy
Market Proposition
Advertising
- TV
- Press
- Outdoor
- Mobile
- On-line
Promotions
- Sale
- In-store
Website
By defining ‘Good’ in each of the different contexts and looking at how to put being ‘Good’ into practice, ASHA built a communications framework that underpins the creative strategy and expression of the brand identity across packaging, point of sale, on-line, promotional items, TV, press and outdoor advertising.
ASHA developed the basic branding elements of the brand including the tone of voice, logotype and use of colour and illustration.
The Good Earth mark was hand-crafted to increase its strength and impact both on-shelf and in communication media. The bottom loop of the g has been cleverly designed to look like a ‘halo’ over the ‘e’ of the earth, communicating the goodness of the brand. The use and application of the existing illustrations were amended to create a greater sense of freedom and relevance. Colours were amended and added to create a palette that was more modern, subtle and flexible.
The recommendation for the tone of voice was to create copy that helped to establish Good Earth as a leader and a partner in doing ‘good’. As such, the copy is rooted in a belief or opinion, offers suggestions and is written in a human and interesting way.
The Good Earth guide was created by ASHA to enable Good Earth to demonstrate how it is ‘Good to the planet, Good to others and good for you’, across each of its products. The guide enables the brand to take to realistic approach to goodness, varying the type of certification and focus for each product, but at the same time maintaining the brand focus on all three categories of ‘goodness’. The guide is used across the packaging range and the philosophy is taken through each of the packaging elements – with actions and challenges included on the sachets and tabs.
Taking the philosophy ‘You can’t be good all the time, but at Good Earth we believe that if you start by doing a little bit of good, the rest will follow’, ASHA developed a campaign that enabled the Good Earth brand to consolidate its brand positioning throughout the launch campaign.
By challenging people to be ‘good’ the campaign successfully communicated the positioning statement: ‘Good Earth is Good to the planet, Good to others, and creates products that taste great and are Good for you’. By setting specific challenges for each of the three categories the cross media campaign also serves another purpose – it enables people to bring the brand positioning to life.
The sign off ‘Thank Good Earth for that’ provides the final memorable impression.
ASHA’s concept for TV advertising encapsulates the brand philosophy, positioning and brand identity in a different and memorable way. The advert, using the rich, dulcet tones of Amanda Drew for voice over, carried along by the relaxing organic sound of ‘Illuminated Red’ from the up and coming acoustic folk band ‘The Accidental’. The pace of the animation is gentle, honest, engaging and stands out from the current noise of stressful advertising on TV.
Developed in line with the theme of the through the line campaign, the website provides inspiration, ideas and information about how to be ‘good’. With much cynicism amongst the target audience about brand ‘green washing’ it was crucial that the website was designed to be credible, friendly and genuine – not like a corporate entity cynically ‘preaching’ the green message as a marketing gimmick.
Combined with traditional product information, the website delivers a suite of simple ideas for adults, families, kids and teachers, as well as honestly guiding the user through the confusing mass of accreditations and endorsements (Fairtrade, the Soil Association etcetera).
The site uses a very simple navigation combined with a friendly, earthly illustration style using tea ‘washes’ and line drawings to communicate the simplicity of the ideas. The colour palette echoes the product packaging.
Promotional items were created to reflect the positioning ‘Good to the planet, Good to others, and Good for you’. Disposable, biodegradable cups were distributed to tea and coffee ‘out of home’ outlets for serving tea to customers. Postcard sized sachets each containing a tea bag were handed out at supermarkets, allowing customers to send a free sample of tea to friends and family.
ASHA created the ‘Big Tea Bag’ jute shopping bag. As a promotional item it has a long life both in and out of the home, required low media spend and had high impact on the target market. On one side the bag carries re-crafted versions of the Good Earth packaging illustrations, with copy delivering the Good Earth tone of voice. Viewed from the other side, it looks like a very large tea bag.
Distributed to key stores and covered in a number of women’s publications, the bag has proved a very successful promotional item both in terms of PR coverage and sales.
