Designers had to convince farmers from Northumberland that they had chosen the right name for their rapeseed oil.
A number of different options were drawn up including: Heavenfield, Aidens Oil, Homefield, Grace, Lumino and Omega 3, but none of them seemed to quite fit the bill. One name that did sound like a good fit to David Coates from NE6 Design and his team was Oleifera - the Latin word for oil-bearing seeds.
When some bottle concepts were presented to the farmers with the Oleifera label and the catchy strapline ‘Naturally Northumberland’ the farmers loved the design but didn’t like the Oleifera tag.
‘We thought that national provenance would be very important and that a foreign name might not reflect that,’ says Borderfields Director John Baker-Cresswell. However, he concedes that he’s not the best person to make a judgement on these kinds of issues. Borderfields, he says, needed to trust the experts.
‘We felt from the start that the name would be very important. We’re just a bunch of sheep farmers that live with our heads up sheep’s bottoms. I don’t go to supermarkets - I try not to go to the shops at all if I can help it - so it would be stupid for me to make a decision on this,’ explains Baker-Cresswell.
To settle the issue qualitative research was carried out by London-based specialist Vicki Raynor, on a range of names, bottle shapes and label designs. The Oleifera name proved to be a hit with the product’s target audience, which tipped the balance. Furthermore, the research revealed that consumers were looking for a product that exuded an air of elegance and these comments were taken on board as the project moved swiftly into the next stage - finding the perfect marriage between the name and the bottle design.
Financial restrictions meant that the bottle had to be chosen from off the shelf - a bespoke design would have been too costly - but this didn’t necessarily mean that the company had to compromise on quality. A bottle with an elegant long neck and graceful shoulders was chosen, which Coates says wouldn’t look out of place on display on a kitchen worktop rather than pushed away in the back of a cupboard. This was topped off with a further touch of luxury in the form of a wooden cork.
Another slightly more unusual touch that created real stand out from the crowd was printing the Oleifera name vertically rather than horizontally across the bottle. ‘It’s a tall thin bottle and because of its length we decided to run the name sideways, which generates curiosity and interest,’ says Coates. ‘All packaging is trainee litter so the trick is coming up with something to make people stop and think while the product is on its way to the bin.’
It took around eight months to complete the design stage and the results since its launch in September 2006 have sold Borderfields on both the name and the design concept. Oleifera exceeded its forecast case sales of 20-25 by 145%, with actual sales of 55-60 cases per week (each case contains 12 bottles). So rapid has the business expansion been that Borderfields outgrew its production facility and had to move to new premises in April 2007.
It has since achieved listings in a number of shops and delis and more importantly has currently got some trial listings with a couple of multiples in the region. Baker-Cresswell says that looking back he enjoyed the design experience and his main piece of advice to companies looking to launch a product to sell to consumers in the future is ‘don’t cut corners’.
‘The product has to look right and useless you are very lucky and use someone who is competent then you will come unstuck,’ adds Baker-Cresswell. ‘It’s important to go with people who know what they are doing and we were very lucky that we went with NE6.’
