Our work for Nash's Mineral Waters

Nash's Pure Fruits

01 October 2005

Nash's is an Irish-owned company, first established in Newcastle West, Limerick, in 1875. During the course of this project, Nash's formed a joint venture with Glanbia plc. Nash's is committed to using the finest ingredients for its wide range of products and to providing the consumer with a refreshing natural alternative to traditional preservative-filled, artificially flavoured and sweetened drinks. From their trademark Blue Bottle water to Pure Fruits, there is something for everyone.

Market background
Nash's had a product range called Irish Spring in the marketplace for a number of years. This was a unique offering with very strong selling points - made with pure fruit juices and sparkling spring water, giving the consumer a 100% natural product. It was felt, however, that the packaging did not effectively communicate the uniqueness and quality of the product. With so much competition in the category, the decision was made to redesign the range completely. Also, the Irish Spring name was felt to have become a generic term, and did not help communicate the product's unique strengths.
Project brief
The first stage of the brief was to look at naming options to replace Irish Spring with an alternative that would communicate the essence of the product. Following the re-naming, the packaging of the range was to be updated, while remaining clearly a part of the Nash's family of products. A structured packaging-design system was to be applied across the variety of flavours to reflect the desired values of purity, naturalness and real quality. The design execution was required to reinvigorate the range and add more consumer enticement. The same design structure would then be applied to Red Lemonade and Orange products to create a strong product family.
Objectives and commercial targets
The main objective was to convey the pure and natural quality of this product in a more impactful and relevant manner to the consumer. This had to be achieved through a new range name to be branded under the Nash's umbrella. The end result would have to increase sales throughout the whole country, not only in the South West.
Design route
A naming exploration project was undertaken to replace Irish Spring. Different routes were examined, based on the notions of purity, fruitiness, 100% natural and spring water. Of the resulting options, the name Pure Fruits was preferred, as it reflected the core product proposition. It suggests colour, liveliness, fruitiness and sounds wholesome and natural. Nash's well-established, blue brand mark was combined with the Pure Fruits logotype in a single banner device, to read Nash's Pure Fruits. The blue banner forms a central anchor, on which all other design elements are centred. The flavour variety is applied as a sweeping band to the banner base and is colour-coded. The fruit is photographed and applied as large as possible to reinforce the wholesome and natural content of the Pure Fruits range. The background is filled with circling bands of colour, covered with small bubbles, which creates a sense of movement and echoes the fruit and the sparkling water, for example, yellow and green tones for lemon and kiwi. This design structure was carried through to Nash's popular Red Lemonade and Orange products to develop synergy across the Nash's range.

Effectiveness of the project results
The rebranding project has been a major success with significant measurable sales results in the generally declining carbonated drinks market sector, which is down by 5.4% in the March 2005 figures from the Drinks Council of Ireland. In contrast, Nash's Pure Fruits has bucked the trend, having grown 75% year-on-year from 2004 to 2005.