REINFORCING THE BRAND - PACKAGING
TOM DAVIDSON
CIROC CONSUMER PROFILE
Liquor Resellers & Wholesalers
Restaurants Social Networking
Luxury Lifestyle Aspiration USA
Times Square
Ma jor Cities
P-Diddy Bars Music
Hip-Hop Nightlcubs Party
Adults ages 21+
#CirocTheNewYear
Male 21-34 yrs
- Diageo - the owners of Ciroc - are the number one spirits company in the United States. - They are the number one international spirits company in Asia and Latino America - They are the largest premium drinks company in Europe
Brand Ambassador
Strategy to Market
The brand was endorsed further during the turn of the year in 2013 when many celebrities tweeted their fans asking “How are you going to #CirocTheNewYear?� They also targeted large events around the time of New Year such as the ball dropping in Times Square. Overall the brand has a luxury aspirational element to it, a range of flavours and an array of celebrity endorsements. On my recent visit to New York there were Ciroc advertisements in bar windows, on taxi cabs and billboards. The brand has successfully integrated itself to a very high up and recognisable position within society.
Celebrity Endorsement
Produced from Mauzac Blanc Grapes
Emphasis on quintuple distillation
Social Media Integration
Originates in Gaillac region of France
Awareness of consumer motives
CORE BRAND VALUES
Here I have visualised some of the core brand values of Ciroc. One of the main things it sells itself on is celebrity endorsement. Hip-Hop producer P-Diddy is the spokesperson for the brand and gets 50% of all profits made by the brand. He also features in some of the advertisements for the vodka. The brand also features heavily in lyrics by various Hip-Hop artists, Rick Ross is one example. The brand distinguishes itself from other vodka brands by emphasising the fivetime distillation and the fact that is is produced from grapes (in particullar Mauzac Blanc grapes from the Gaillac region of France) not potatoes. There is a large social media integration and awareness of consumer motives – naturally the brand has nightlife connotations.
VISUAL RESEARCH
I gathered together some initial thoughts and ideas about the brand identity. I took some photos of bottles of alcohol and aftershave. Although we are not actually designing the bottle it was interesting to look at them to get an idea of identity. What I found interesting was how some bottles of aftershave actually resembled existing alcohol brands, for example the Burberry bottle (bottom left) has the same frosted glass and similar shape to the Grey Goose bottle (top right) and the lid of the Next fragrance (bottom right) resembles that of a Dissaronno bottle.
I looked at some paper samples. Here are a few examples that caught my eye.
PAPER SAMPLES
Looking at the importance of typography in design, we looked at a few examples of work from modernist designers such as Wim Crouwel, Saul Bass, Karel Martens and Milton Glaser.
THE HIERARCHY OF TYPOGRAPHY
We looked at how they executed typography within their designs and how it was key to the composition. We were set a task of asking someone to look at designs by some of these people and draw out where there eye meets first, second etc to try and distinguish the reason for this. I asked a friend to look at these film posters by Saul Bass and circle how he viewed them. With the Schindler’s List poster he circled the piece of paper first. This is most likely to do with the colour – the dark background contrasts largely with this section of imagery. The sharp geometric shapes may have also drawn the eye to this part of the design. He then looked at the type section at the bottom – perhaps the second most recognisable thing, or the presence of information and curiosity of wanting to know more about the image. Finally he looked at the top of the image where there was quite a lot of dark, negative space.
With the second poster his eye was drawn particularly to the ‘TRU” part of the typography – possibly to do with the typography being in the most logical order here, therefore most recognisable. The rest of the type is muddled up or disintegrated. He then went to look at the top of the design, where a different script is written – compared to the background text, this is the next most recognisable set of text. Finally he looked at the little icon in the bottom right hand corner. Lastly, we looked at the film poster for “The Requiem of Dream”. Upon looking at this piece, his eye was drawn first to the type, the boldest part of the image, then the eye, followed by the skull at the bottom which is quite subtle against the pale background.
Here I looked more into some brand values that will come across in the aftershave. I looked at some of the existing packaging used for the Ciroc vodka and some of the ways in which the brand are promoted. I then researched into Diageo, the owners of Ciroc, and some of their concepts. In terms of a USP for my aftershave – I will try and incorporate many of the brand values of Ciroc in the packaging and use celebrity endorsement of somebody from MMG (Maybach Music Group – Rick Ross’ record label) but one thing that would make the product stand out from others would be another kind of incentive – a free Ciroc shot glass with every aftershave bottle purchased. This could be somehow advertised on the packaging.
I have created a mood board identifying the overall image associated with the brand Ciroc. In effect it shows the connotations of the lifestyle associated with the vodka, but more importantly values that I will need to transcribe to the packaging design. As you can see, the colour scheme is very cool and uses a lot of different shades of blue - something that will definitely feature in my designs. Most of the images here relate to a luxury lifestyle. I also included colour and texture swatches to gain an idea of how I will approach the design.
Here are a few nets that could be used for inspiration for the mockup of my design:
Here are some sketches I did to get down my ideas about the logo and some packaging concepts.
TYPOGRAPHY EXPERIMENTATION
I decided to go with the name ‘Roc’ for the aftershave. The reasons for this are because (rather obviously) the letters feature in the word ‘Ciroc’ but also the word itself sounds quite masculine. The other reason was that I could incorporate the blue circle which features on the Snap Frost bottle. I tried and tested different ways of putting the circle into the text to see what looked best. I used a sans serif font, but I tried a few different ones out to get an idea of what would look effective. I wanted the logo to be striking but keep in tone with the current designs. Here is the result. I am quite pleased with this; I think it looks clean and refined. In the logo I included the parent brand, so the title of the aftershave is “Roc by Ciroc: Eau de toilette pour homme (the latter meaning aftershave for men).
I printed out my net on A4 just to test that the dimensions were okay and it assembled logically. It worked fine - I will have to note to get rid of construction lines when I print the final design. The final design will be on A3 card. I also did some sketches I did to get an idea of layout and design, and the kinds of things I want to include on my packaging template. ea of layout and design, and the kinds of things I want to include on my packaging template.
Once my logo was finished and I sketched out some ideas, I started to mock up the design. I started off by placing the logo and adding a background. I used a subtle blue gradient to keep in line with my colour scheme.
DEVELOPMENT
I wanted to tie down the French authenticity of the brand so I used a photograph I took when I visited Paris (pictured left).
I desaturated the photo and blended it into the background. I wanted the design to be as clean as possible so I made the image almost silhouette like but with the sky still visible. I like the look of this because it gives texture to the design and nicely frames the bottom of the packaging.
As stated before, one of the ma jor aspects of the Ciroc image is celebrity endorsement. I chose to use Meek Mill, a member of the Maybach Music Group (Rick Ross’ music label - Rick Ross is a big supporter of Ciroc). For the sake of the product, I chose to state that the aftershave brand features in a music video of his called ‘Dream Chasers’ for which there is a logo; this will be used on the front of the packaging.
MEEK MILL ENDORSEMENT
Here are the first mockups for my packaging design - they contain the logo I made and the Meek Mill ‘Dream Chasers’ logo, suitable packaging information (ingredients, estimated quantity). I also chose to give my aftershave a USP - a free shot glass included with the prduct. This further endorses the idea of Ciroc vodka within the product.
I then refined the design by using a different photo (above) of the Eifel Tower to make it appear more iconic. I also added a website address and logo on the back and reduced the size of the ingredients list.
DIGITAL MOCKUP
I documented the process of cutting out my net (using a scalpel, ruler and cutting mat) and its assembly. I am very pleased with the results!
ASSEMBLY PROCESS
PRODUCT PHOTOSHOOT