About Annie's Homegrown, Inc.
Annie’s Homegrown, Inc. was founded in 1989 by Annie Withey and Andrew Martin with the goal of making a healthy and delicious food every family can feel good about. Annie’s has been known for its quest to seek out the best real ingredients Mother Earth has to offer, harvesting pure, natural flavors; its sustainable farming and packaging practices; and its commitment to social responsibility through the engagement in community services such as School Gardens program in partnership with organizations like FoodCorps. Annie’s work hard to act as a positive role model for consumers and other businesses.
Challenge
In September 2014, General Mills bought Annie’s Homegrown, Inc. for $820 million in cash — a price that was over four times the company’s reveneus, likening it to valuations more often seen in Silicon Valley. Despite the loyal customers’ concern with the ingredient quality deterioration as a result of Annie’s amalgamation to the giant corporation, Annie’s commitment to producing natural, down-to-earth food using organic and healthy ingredients has not changed a single bit. Annie’s, in fact, sparked positive change within General Mills, since the demand for organic, healthier food becomes higher and the demand is now not niche but mainstream.
Goals
With the recent acquisition to General Mills, Annie’s new goals are changing customer landscape, and creating a $1 billion business that is in 30 million+ American households through more product lines and outlets. From the beginning, Annie’s has been a popular brand for mothers. Despite the fact that the products are mainly consumed by younger parents with children, there are a lot of people aged late 10’s and early 20’s (such as college students) who still enjoy Annie’s products. The Annie’s “Rabbit of Approval” — Annie’s well-known pet Dutch rabbit, Bernie — was implemented as the brand’s identity almost 27 years ago. To achieve the goals of expanding the customer landscape, Annie’s needs rebranding so that it would catch up with the company’s current position in time and the brand’s future endeavors.
Problem with their current identity
The Annie’s famous “Rabbit of Approval”; the illustration and type choices look pretty dated and the details of the rabbit (such as the eyes) could easily get lost when it’s resized.
Solution
It was necessary to keep the “rabbit of approval” since their philosophy was in question ever since the acquisition to General Mills. However, it was also necessary to come up with a simplified vector mark that is applicable to different platforms. I also made the rabbit to face the right and made it to look as if it’s moving forward.
In Color
I chose green as the primary color of the brand since the color suits their pursuit of organic, natural, eco-friendly and trustworthy products.
Emblem
The logomark can be encircled like an emblem when necessary.
While Annie's advocate sustainable and ec-friendly packaging, I noticed their packaging incorporates too many different ink colors and plastic bags. To stay true to their pursuit of sustainable and eco-friendly practices, I propose a new packaging system that would require less plastic and less variety of ink.
To emphasize Annie’s goal to reach out to the customers outside the usual customer demographics, the advertising campaign features males in 30-40’s with his children. The campaign should evoke that sense of happiness when customers spend their time with their loved ones.
In order to help market and campaign the store and the rebrand, many different forms of promotional goods have been applied to different merchandise. These include t-shirts, tote bags, mugs, pins, tech accessories, and much more.
The website was designed for efficiency and practicality. A customer will easily get information about the company and its products. Through the website, customers are able to get information on the company’s history, integrity, and its determination to sustainable practices. They can also easily see the kind of products they sell at the moment.
Social media for Annie’s Homegrown keeps the customers up to date with with the deals, new recipes related news which promotes the brand.
