Client
Clipper Teas

Design Consultancy
Williams Murray Hamm
Richard Williams
020 7255 3232
richardw@creatingdifference.com
www.creatingdifference.com

The Brief
Clipper was considered a niche tea in a huge national market, a ‘quirky’ choice overshadowed by the market leaders. Mike and Lorraine Brehme founded the company in 1983 on organic and fair trade principles – they aimed to create ahigh quality product that was also ethically superior. As the market for organic products grew throughout the 1990s, Clipper gradually expanded beyond their traditional outlets, such as Holland and Barrett. However, tea drinking was generally declining at the same time, fighting the relentless rise of the popularity of coffee. In 1980, some 84 percent of the population regularly enjoyed a cup of tea. Twenty years on, that figure had dropped to 64 percent. Faced with such problems, Clipper decided it needed a visual overhaul. Could a fresh design reposition Clipper at the top end of the market, where companies like Twinings were muscling in on the organic sector, and Cafédirect was moving from coffee to tea?

The Design
The first step was to move away from the clichés of tea packet design – moody, smoky colours and nautical or plantation imagery, dredged up from the old days of the Empire and ‘premium’ typography. Clipper was also adrift without a coherent visual style.

Williams Murray Hamm’s new design captures the company’s integrity and ethical working practices, boiling the brand essence down to ’the thinking person’s cuppa’, directing the discreet, sober packaging style. Inspired by journals such as National Geographic, each packet also displays a nugget of fascinating information about the region where the tea itself was grown. These references may be about indigenous animals, local histories or traditions. Imagery and type are all kept bold and simple.

The Results
Introduced to the market between March and December 2001, the most significant result of the redesign was and continues to be the huge increase in sales. Figures are up an estimated 373 percent to the end of 2004 with no other brand building activity other than the new identity. Export markets have also expanded, from one to 23 countries. Mike Brehme, owner of Clipper, considers the new identity to be ‘the single most important activity we have undertaken in our 20 year history’. Crucially, this increased economic activity has improved the quality of life and prospects on the fair trade estates that supply the company, bringing fresh investment to communities.

Judges’ Comments
Sarah Stein, Director of Brand Strategy at Orange SA described the agency’s work as ‘an exceptional design-led solution; one which created stunning results which are not only commercial’. Josh Berger, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Warner Brothers Entertainment UK considered the design to be ’quite simply gorgeous – a smashing success. Not only did Williams Murray Hamm’s design work prove to be, beyond reasonable doubt, a substantial cause and effect between new design and business success through the astounding results, but it also impacted on the estates that supply Clipper Teas – thus improving the quality of life for the employees and stakeholders,’ he continued.