Background

SSL International Ltd had a range of children’s medicines that operated under different licensed brands. In a hugely competitive market they only really had equity and limited awareness in one brand Medised. At the inception of this project Medised was available to babies from 3 months plus, which gave them a comparable entry point to the generic category leader Calpol.

Thus it seemed sensible to unite their range of children’s cough & cold remedies under the Medi brand umbrella.

Towards the end of this project a ruling from the MHRA on this type of cold treatment meant that medicine could only be administered to children over 6 years. Which, as you can imagine, somewhat scuppered their plans.

Thus a more compact range was developed featuring Medised, Medinol under and over 6 and Medifen.

Objective:

To create a brand identity for the Medi family and evolve the packaging design to unite this new family.

Shopper insight

We watched mums shopping the category and then created packaging that responded to the environment. In this case we imagined shopping with a screaming, snotty two-year-old child – the usual three seconds decision making at point of purchase is somewhat reduced.

Strategy

Under the positioning ‘let our family take care of yours’ we leveraged the equity in the Medised designs but exploded and exaggerated the features to make it easier for mums to shop the category.

Creative interpretation

Working within the MHRA guidelines we created the new Medi “hero brand” name, utilising a ‘palette of vibrant colours’ to distinguish between the various products. Pictures of children were added to reflect the medicine’s ability to either sooth or energise.

Impact

The result is the creation of the ‘Medi’ brand that runs throughout the product range with packaging that allows both visual and verbal communication to work together harmoniously, giving busy mums quick brand recognition and product information.

Brand architecture

This project then led on to a brand architecture and brand strategy project, which unfortunately just at the point when it got interesting, SSL International Ltd were sold to Reckitt Benckiser.