The Challenge
Orkney’s Highland Park distillery has been producing whisky for more than 200 years and its single malt is consistently acclaimed by connoisseurs, but sales told a different story. The brand’s performance has been historically unremarkable and brand growth peaked in 2002/3. Since then, competition in the single malt whisky market has increased and in 2004/5 market growth outstripped brand growth at 5% versus 2%.
The Brief
Highland Park’s product packaging lacked premium cues and appeared mainstream and undifferentiated. Pearlfisher was commissioned in 2005 to redesign the packaging of the entire range of seven whiskies. The brief asked for packaging that would live up to the title ‘the best spirit in the world’, bestowed on Highland Park’s 18 year old single malt by a renowned whisky expert. Objectives for the redesign included increasing perceptions of the brand as authentic and prestigious, empowering the brand to stand out from the crowd while maintaining its quietly confident brand personality, increasing sales in the key US and Japanese markets and ensuring global sales rise by 10%.
The Design
The new bottle structure is bespoke to give the brand instant recognition on-shelf and has a heavy oval shape and wide mouth, creating a substantial feel in the hand and a comforting glug when the whisky is poured. The brand’s new illustrated H marque is also embossed onto the bottle. The label designs retain the black colour associated with Highland Park but use colours inspired by the Orkney landscape to differentiate the range, while on the older malts label size is reduced to let the golden whisky speak for itself. Secondary packaging is distinctively oval to replicate the bottle within.
The Results
The new design was launched in the UK in August 2006 and finished its global roll-out in Taiwan in June 2007. From a design budget of around £200,000 (Euro 294,000) Highland Park has seen a 22% increase in volume sales in the 8 months since launch, giving a total growth of 34% in one year against global market growth of 5%. Volume sales in the US are up 37% year on year. Perceptions of the brand as ‘authentic’ and ‘prestigious’, meanwhile, are up 9% and 6% respectively.
