Harrods Food Hall comes to life with retail theatre
Honey designs DBA-winning art deco inspired packaging to bring back the excitement of shopping at Harrods, giving this famous department a sales increase of 1113%
We worked on: Branding | Packaging
Harrods is one of the most exciting tourist attractions in London. The Food Halls are a magnet for overseas tourists and a ‘Knightsbridge corner shop’ for affluent locals. Harrods wanted to find new ways to convert this heavy footfall into more sales, by appealing to both audiences. They came to us with the idea of offering a wider, more contemporary product range. We took their idea, and then we ran with it.
The management team initially asked us to rebrand 58 SKUs across the Tea, Coffee, Jam/Preserves and Confectionary categories. Their research suggested that there was a demand for premium items aimed at discerning foodie buyers, but their core packaging was doing little to attract this type of customer or reflect the prestige and excitement of shopping at London’s most famous department store.
So we took a trip to the Food Halls to have a look around. The slower economy had meant that fewer overseas visitors were heading to the store because of a strong pound and lower domestic consumer confidence. The remedy was to create a modern brand that would attract an international upper demographic, and to use the Harrods brand value to increase spend and stimulate multiple purchases.
How could Harrods exploit their relatively untapped brand value? Well, the new branding needed to set Harrods apart from other food hall competition, but it also needed to tread a fine line between appealing to affluent locals and overseas tourists. It had to be seen as the perfect souvenir for tourists, but still retain the brand’s core values of ‘British-ness’ and luxury that would attract the more discerning buyer.
We started by raiding the Harrods archives and looking at Harrods’ heritage of being purveyors of quality and British tradition. This was how we uncovered the art deco history behind the Food Hall’s grand architecture, a discovery that inspired us to create an ambitious packaging design range that would collectively work to create impact and theatre within the famous Food Halls.
Annual sales of the original 58 SKUs were up by 1,113% or £744,376 from Sept 06/07 to Sept 07/08.
Overall margin was increased by an average of 2% or £14,887.58 by negotiating keener prices due to growth of sales.
The amount of research behind the new design was staggering. We had looked at the management team’s research, carried out our own in-store research, shopped at the nearest competitor stores, and even hired mystery shoppers. Now we had a clear understanding of how to shape the packaging design to appeal to a new audience and deliver a product display that would inspire food lovers and tourists.
Created art deco inspired designs to tell the story and history behind Harrods Food Hall
Colourful packs were designed to look stunning when presented as part of a display
Structurally innovated standard cartons were used to reduce cost of short print runs
Experimented to achieve the intensity of a spot colour from a less expensive 4-colour process
Reduced printing costs by 11% or £8,026 due to greener packaging and changing the printing process.
Overall budget saving of £42,840 or 15.5% through effective management of suppliers (£275,940 budget reduced to £233,100 spend).
Harrods told us that our packaging designs for their food and drink brand had been the most significant change to impact their sales growth for 2007/2008. As well as boosting their sales by a massive 1,113%, it has also increased their confidence in NPD and enabled them to further expand their range by 68 SKUs, giving them an additional £404,941 in sales.
Over the next year the number of SKUs increased to 203 and our work won multiple awards, including a DBA and a Grocer ‘Own Label’ award. More importantly, the branding had a massive commercial impact, demonstrating how strategic and thoughtful design can increase staff confidence and public opinion. It’s also created that iconic look visitors now see when they step into the Harrods Food Hall.
“Honey’s beautiful design solutions, along with the strong sales growth, have given Harrods the confidence to continue to invest in design and NPD.”
Stuart Gates - Director, Signature Food Harrods