Why Nestlé is revamping Garden Gourmet’s brand identity

Nestlé is in the process of rolling out an upgraded brand identity for its Garden Gourmet range across Europe. The packaging design is now simpler, colour-coded, and highlights imagery designed to ‘inspire’ consumers in the kitchen.

Garden Gourmet remains green, but plays with colour coding​Garden Gourmet’s visual identity has always been green. For Nestlé, green is – and will remain to be – the ‘anchor colour’ of the Garden Gourmet brand.

Recent research conducted by ProVeg International, a non-profit aiming to halve global consumption of animals by 2040, actually suggests that meat eaters are more willing to try plant-based meat alternatives if those products are sold in red packaging​ – despite most products being packaged in green.

But the Garden Gourmet brand is ‘strongly rooted’ in the colour green, explains Marjolijn Niggebrugge, business head of Nestlé’s Plant Based Meal Solutions in Europe. It’s not only linked to the product category, but also to the name.

“This is how consumers know us, and look for us,” she adds.

“Green instinctively feels the right colour for our brand.”

Where Nestlé has diverted from green is with a new colour coding system it’s applied on-pack. The colours – ranging from red to orange, blue and green – roughly indicate which traditional protein each product is replacing.

What Garden Gourmet’s colour coding system means​A band of red appears on products such as Garden Gourmet’s Classic Burger (made from soy and wheat protein) which is designed to replace red meats such as beef. Orange appears on chicken replacement offerings, such as Garden Gourmet’s Lightly Roasted Pieces, and blue indicates a seafood alternative, such as Garden Gourmet’s Marine Style Fillet.

Green is used for the brand’s plant-forward products, such as the Classic Falafel.

The new packaging incorporates colour coding to easily identify which protein source each product is replacing. Image credit: NestléThe colour coding is designed to simplify the packaging, and application, for shoppers. When a consumer is first looking to swap out meat for alternative protein products, they’ll likely be wanting to make their favourite dishes, with a substitute, Niggebrugge explains.

“We’ve colour coded these products so that…on-shelf navigation is easily guided.”

Other ‘simplification’ design elements aim to help consumers​Nestlé is incorporating other design techniques to help simplify plant-based consumption for shoppers.

Research published this week​ by researchers at Sweden’s Umeå University revealed that convenience and familiarity are amongst the key drivers influencing consumer food choices.

That consumers find plant-based food inconvenient to incorporate into their diet was deemed one of the top barriers to plant-based consumption.

Garden Gourmet’s new visual identity aims to not only help consumers easily find the brand in-store and navigate the portfolio, but also to ‘inspire’.

“We know that consumers continue to be interested in this category and are seeking plant-based choices, but still sometimes feel challenged [knowing] how to apply it to their favourite dishes,” says the business head.

New imagery on-pack aims to offer ‘dish inspiration’, so that shoppers can more easily see how to use plant-based alternatives at home.

Why has Nestlé revamped its Garden Gourmet packaging?​On the old packaging, the logo is less prominent and imagery offers less inspiration for product application. Image credit: NestléAside from adding new imagery and colour coding, Garden Gourmet has reworked its logo with a more prominent and modern feel. It’s all part of the evolution of the brand, explains Niggebrugge.

The plant-based alternative category is still relatively young, meaning that product development and market penetration are also nascent in comparison. But at the same time, Garden Gourmet feels it’s a category that continues to lure a ‘great deal of attention’.

Nestlé is continuously questioning how Garden Gourmet can best stand out as a brand, and one way is via its visual identity. “It’s crucial for us to evolve our visual identity continuously. [This new revamp] is really about an evolution, to make sure our brand is distinctive but easily recognisable and nurtures the current times and trends.”

The growth trajectory of plant-based meat alternatives has slowed in recent years​, but Nestlé claims it continues to observe consumer interest across Europe. “We firmly believe in our role of guiding the transition towards more plant-based diets,” says Niggebrugge.

The food major is pulling several levers to do so, including product innovation and renovation, championing its ‘veggie-forward’ offerings such as the Classic Falafel (which unlike its burger or fillet products, don’t aim to mimic meat), and incorporating new varieties and flavours into its range.

Health and sustainability are overarching trends Nestlé is incorporating into its meat-free range via Nutri-Score labelling and the responsible sourcing of ingredients, respectively.

“These are areas that continue to evolve across all food [categories], and it’s something we monitor closely. These are trends that we’ll continue to innovate upon in the Garden Gourmet portfolio.”