Greg Hrinya12.12.14
Honest Tea is undergoing a makeover. Founded in 1999, the Maryland-based tea company has updated its 16.9 oz. line with new flavors and a new look.
Honest Tea will use a newly designed label to enhance its position on the shelf. The new graphics will stay true to the company’s brand philosophy of organic and Fair Trade Certified teas.
To print the labels, the brand selected West Henrietta, NY-based Hammer Packaging, who utilized an offset/flexo combination printing process. Beardwood & Co., a design agency, also assisted the tea company with the redesign.
This is Honest Tea’s second major label refresh recently. The new labels will adorn a proprietary embossed plastic bottle. The bottle's labels are made of recyclable Treofan, a film that allows for printing vibrant ink colors and sharp details. The beverage company has also redesigned the labels on its glass bottle beverages to better fit into a larger portfolio.
“Our organic tea line in plastic bottles is sold in mainstream grocery, on-premise, convenience and drug stores, so we wanted to make sure the labels reflected the clean, honest simplicity of our ingredients and our brand,” says Michael Kravit, Honest Tea’s creative director. “Consumers who already drink our beverages know they’re getting organic, real-brewed tea. For those who may not have tried our teas, we wanted to convey the brand’s attributes in an eye-catching way that creates a more memorable shelf presence.”
“It’s always a grueling process when we create a new look for our brand, but we’re thrilled with the results,” says co-founder Seth Goldman. “We’ve offered herbal teas in our glass-bottled tea line for a number of years and have watched them grow in popularity. By infusing the Honest Ade line with organic hibiscus and lemon peel, we were able to make the beverages taste even better and more effectively communicate a tea identity for our entire line of 16.9 fl. oz. beverages.”
Over the last five years, Honest Tea has experienced double-digit growth. It sold its one-billionth beverage in May and had 116 employees at the end of 2013. According to the Washington Post, Honest Tea’s sales have increased 63 percent in 2014 compared to the same time in 2013. It is slated to surpass $130 million in sales for this year after accumulating $112 million in 2013.
The public’s demand for non-carbonated, low sugar and low calorie drinks has fueled this industry’s growth. Forbes has reported a 1% decline in the soft drink market.
Honest Tea is emphasizing “organic” and “Just a tad sweet” on its updated labels. The new herbal teas include pomegranate blue, orange mango and cranberry lemon. Each bottle highlights the brand’s “T” frame and focuses on the simplicity of the ingredients.
“The label redesign went hand-in-hand with the bottle redesign – we have a new proprietary bottle which is taller and slimmer than our previous stock bottle, and making that bottle upgrade prompted us to redesign the label,” adds Kravit. “For more shelf presence, we went with a design that used two PDPs (primary display panel) so the consumer had a better chance of seeing our front panel even if the bottle wasn’t always facing forward.”
Other changes include color banding and bright ingredient imagery, showcasing the flavor profile and communicating each variety in a clearer, more distinct way. The plastic bottle has the phrase “Refreshingly Honest since 1998” on the bottom.
Not only does Honest Tea promote qualities that are increasingly popular today, ready to drink (RTD) beverages continue to experience profits. As soft drinks experience a decline, Forbes adds that RTD teas are expected to earn $5.3 billion in sales in 2014 and grow at a rate of 11% between 2013 and 2018. Overall beverages are expected to increase 9% over that same time frame, so RTD teas are one of the industry’s popular commodities.
According to Mintel, 59% of consumers prefer products that have “all-natural” on the label. Additionally, 58% of buyers state that the presence of sugar in a drink plays a role in their decision.
Honest Tea’s rebranding efforts are designed to help the company compete with large manufacturers like Arizona, Snapple and Lipton.
“We’ve always thought of our brand as having a playful quality and wanted to make sure that attribute came across,” explains Kravit. “To accomplish this, we expanded our messaging with a larger ‘Peel Here’ area--we know people enjoy the sense of discovery, so once the label is pulled back there is an honest, thought-provoking quote and a story on the inside of each label.”
The new designs will start appearing on shelves in January.
In an effort to capitalize on the popularity of phrases like “all-natural” and “organic,” Honest Tea will use a newly designed label to enhance its position on the shelf. The new graphics will stay true to the company’s brand philosophy of organic and Fair Trade Certified teas.
To print the labels, the brand selected West Henrietta, NY-based Hammer Packaging, who utilized an offset/flexo combination printing process. Beardwood & Co., a design agency, also assisted the tea company with the redesign.
This is Honest Tea’s second major label refresh recently. The new labels will adorn a proprietary embossed plastic bottle. The bottle's labels are made of recyclable Treofan, a film that allows for printing vibrant ink colors and sharp details. The beverage company has also redesigned the labels on its glass bottle beverages to better fit into a larger portfolio.
“Our organic tea line in plastic bottles is sold in mainstream grocery, on-premise, convenience and drug stores, so we wanted to make sure the labels reflected the clean, honest simplicity of our ingredients and our brand,” says Michael Kravit, Honest Tea’s creative director. “Consumers who already drink our beverages know they’re getting organic, real-brewed tea. For those who may not have tried our teas, we wanted to convey the brand’s attributes in an eye-catching way that creates a more memorable shelf presence.”
“It’s always a grueling process when we create a new look for our brand, but we’re thrilled with the results,” says co-founder Seth Goldman. “We’ve offered herbal teas in our glass-bottled tea line for a number of years and have watched them grow in popularity. By infusing the Honest Ade line with organic hibiscus and lemon peel, we were able to make the beverages taste even better and more effectively communicate a tea identity for our entire line of 16.9 fl. oz. beverages.”
Over the last five years, Honest Tea has experienced double-digit growth. It sold its one-billionth beverage in May and had 116 employees at the end of 2013. According to the Washington Post, Honest Tea’s sales have increased 63 percent in 2014 compared to the same time in 2013. It is slated to surpass $130 million in sales for this year after accumulating $112 million in 2013.
The public’s demand for non-carbonated, low sugar and low calorie drinks has fueled this industry’s growth. Forbes has reported a 1% decline in the soft drink market.
Honest Tea is emphasizing “organic” and “Just a tad sweet” on its updated labels. The new herbal teas include pomegranate blue, orange mango and cranberry lemon. Each bottle highlights the brand’s “T” frame and focuses on the simplicity of the ingredients.
“The label redesign went hand-in-hand with the bottle redesign – we have a new proprietary bottle which is taller and slimmer than our previous stock bottle, and making that bottle upgrade prompted us to redesign the label,” adds Kravit. “For more shelf presence, we went with a design that used two PDPs (primary display panel) so the consumer had a better chance of seeing our front panel even if the bottle wasn’t always facing forward.”
Other changes include color banding and bright ingredient imagery, showcasing the flavor profile and communicating each variety in a clearer, more distinct way. The plastic bottle has the phrase “Refreshingly Honest since 1998” on the bottom.
Not only does Honest Tea promote qualities that are increasingly popular today, ready to drink (RTD) beverages continue to experience profits. As soft drinks experience a decline, Forbes adds that RTD teas are expected to earn $5.3 billion in sales in 2014 and grow at a rate of 11% between 2013 and 2018. Overall beverages are expected to increase 9% over that same time frame, so RTD teas are one of the industry’s popular commodities.
According to Mintel, 59% of consumers prefer products that have “all-natural” on the label. Additionally, 58% of buyers state that the presence of sugar in a drink plays a role in their decision.
Honest Tea’s rebranding efforts are designed to help the company compete with large manufacturers like Arizona, Snapple and Lipton.
“We’ve always thought of our brand as having a playful quality and wanted to make sure that attribute came across,” explains Kravit. “To accomplish this, we expanded our messaging with a larger ‘Peel Here’ area--we know people enjoy the sense of discovery, so once the label is pulled back there is an honest, thought-provoking quote and a story on the inside of each label.”
The new designs will start appearing on shelves in January.