Granamma
Quality South-Indian Snacking for All
The Focus
Wipro Consumer Care saw an opportunity in the South Indian snacking market due to A lack of organized, pioneering brands in the space. Consumers craved familiar, savoury accompaniments to traditional meals but lacked the time or skill to make them.
Often, the lack of choices created a reliance on unbranded local options with questionable hygiene and quality standards.
To address these issues, Wipro decided to launch Granamma – an aspirational snacking brand focused on quality and authenticity. They approached Elephant Design to develop a unique visual identity and packaging system that would give the products a premium, established look and feel.
The Design
The design solution tackled the identified problems through vibrant colors inspired by traditional silk sarees with contrasting borders, creating a sense of familiarity and visual intrigue.
A falling shot of the snacks in the centre invoke texture cues like crunchiness and abundance, adding dynamism and liveliness to draw eyes on the shelf.
A simple and clean design featuring a green enclosure inspired by the banana leaf, a traditional South Indian serving plate. The logo, in a calligraphic font and tilted like a signature, evokes a grandmother's personal touch, reinforcing the brand's focus on quality and tradition.
The Granamma packaging design and system address key concerns in the disorganized snacking market: freshness and hygiene – providing traditional snacking in a systematic, organized modern form.
The Story
At Elephant Design, our team embraced the challenge of creating a unique visual identity and packaging graphics system for Granamma, an FMCG brand committed to elevating traditional South Indian snacks to a larger, more organized scale. This was the brainchild of Wipro Consumer Care and lighting, a brand closely associated with the story of India’s growth and progress – backed by a strong legacy that comes with the promise of quality, and consistency.
Our primary mission encompassed the development of a distinctive visual identity and a comprehensive packaging graphics system for 12 products, including South Indian staples like Banana Chips and Murukku. Despite being a mass-market product, the packaging had to exude aspirational qualities, maintaining an overall premium look-and-feel. The brand's name, "Granamma," ingeniously coined by the client, aimed to establish universal appeal by combining "Gran" with the South Indian fidelity of "Amma."
Insights
Our journey began with insightful observations of the south Indian snacking category, identifying its vast potential and the conspicuous absence of organized players in the market.
In a modern South Indian household, elaborate meals might be replaced by simpler fare, but the tradition of enjoying a savory, crunchy snack alongside the main course endures. Busy lifestyles often leave no time for preparing these regional specialties from scratch. Granamma was born to address this gap, offering a range of authentic and delicious snacks made with the same care and quality as those enjoyed in generations past.
While a few brands existed, none could be considered pioneers. Granamma's target audience spanned a broad demographic, appealing to individuals aged 20-40, with a focus on younger, contemporary consumers and women purchasing for their families. The unorganized nature of the market allowed us the flexibility to create a brand that could cater to diverse consumer mindsets.
The Grandmotherly Seal of Approval
Striking the delicate balance between authenticity and premiumization, we arrived at the name "Granamma." Steering away from the clichéd approach of associating the brand with recipes passed down by grandmothers, we aimed for a more modern and sophisticated positioning. After several rounds of brainstorming and flexibility to accommodate changes, the green enclosure inspired by the Banana Leaf became the backdrop for our tilted, calligraphic logo. This unique logo positioning, akin to a signature, conveyed a personal touch, signed off by the grandmother. The font adopted a casual, brushstroke-inspired aesthetic, aligning seamlessly with the logo's softness and roundness.
Traditional Snacking in Modern Formats
Our packaging strategy was designed for effective shelf-blocking, utilizing red and the logo's green as common identifiers across all packs. Since the brand wasn't planning to go digital from the get-go, our shelf-space approach involved using the top portion of the packaging to display the variant colour, product shot, and logo vibrantly. The colour scheme, vibrant yet subdued compared to common categories like Kurkure and Lays, aimed to stand out without being overpowering. The red focus, a category colour for snacking, drew inspiration from traditional roots, alluding to the ceremonial reds found in bindis and sindoor.
To communicate the essence of traditional snacks in a modern package, we incorporated dynamic shots of falling snacks on the top portion of the packaging. This not only showcased the crunchiness and textures but also conveyed a sense of liveliness and abundance. The falling snacks pattern was retained across all packaging, providing a cohesive and homogenous visual language.
The team designed for two SKUs which catered to diverse consumer needs. The single-serving option targeted modern consumption habits, allowing individuals to enjoy traditional snacks without committing to larger packs. On the other hand, the standee pouches competed with global snacks like chips, offering a broader range for families or larger gatherings.
A South-Snacking Pioneer
Addressing prevalent pain points in the south Indian unorganized snacking market, Granamma focused on freshness and hygiene. Front-of-pack promises assured consumers of quality, while the back-of-pack story highlighted the meticulous selection of ingredients and the rigorous production process.
To ensure a successful launch, Granamma opted for initial testing in smaller markets, including Mysore, Kerala, and Chennai. The brand's future included a televised commercial launch to reach a broader audience. The design choices reflected Granamma's commitment to merging traditional snacking with modern packaging, creating a cohesive, aspirational, and authentic South Indian snacking experience that stands out in the market.
