Client
Molton Brown

Design Consultancy
Jones Knowles Ritchie
Andrew Knowles
020 7428 8000
andrewknowles@jkr.co.uk
www.jkr.co.uk

The challenge
Molton Brown’s Christmas gift sets have become a distinctive feature on the cosmetic floors of major department stores and retailers. Although the gift boxes have always been consistent with Molton Brown’s corporate brand, in 2006 it was decided a stronger consumer pull was needed in the face of growing competition – particularly with one competitor copying a successful Molton Brown formula.

The Christmas gift market is complex and fragmented. It is also highly lucrative, accounting for up to 60% of retailers’ annual turnover. With so many Christmas gifts purchased on impulse, particularly in department stores, Molton Brown wanted to create something striking and simple that could be decoded in the blink of an eye. Jones Knowles Ritchie were appointed to revitalise the gift set range and re-engage with Christmas consumers.

The solution
Jones Knowles Ritchie came up with a set of confidently branded, brightly coloured and highly desirable boxes. The idea was to create a unique product container so attractive that it would sell itself without the need for any gimmicks or explanations. The boxes were circular cardboard structures with zips running across the middle: a truly innovative design that challenged traditional structural conventions within the sector. As well as being visually engaging, the boxes were also designed to be reusable, making them a gift in their own right.

Knowing how hard it can be to get retailers to feature products in high traffic areas at Christmas, Jones Knowles Ritchie pushed the tolerance and tensile performance of the cardboard structure. The result was a degree of structural rigidity that would enable retailers to build pyramid displays out of the boxes. This, combined with the aesthetic allure of the design, would prove vital in product take-up.

The results
By Christmas Eve 2006, Molton Brown had sold 50% more boxes than by the same time in 2005: an increase of 70,000 sets. As the lower-priced ranges began to sell out, customers increasingly selected more premium ranges, taking the average selling price to above £40 a set, having been below £35 the previous year. The combination of higher prices and greater volumes meant the new design delivered over £3million extra sales against a design fee of just £45,000, which represents an impressive nine-fold return on investment.

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