A radical new positioning and attention-grabbing design shifted perceptions of TrueStart from ‘niche sports supplement’ to ‘everyday energy brand’, and the business doubled its listings in only one year.
Founded in 2015, cold coffee/energy drink brand TrueStart had established itself within the fitness industry but had ambitions to diversify distribution from sports-focused to mainstream retailers. The founders also saw opportunity for the brand in on-trade, bars and nightclubs. But this was unchartered territory for cold coffee.
TrueStart and BrandOpus reframed the brand strategically and visually, enabling it to be broad enough to span these distinct consumption occasions.
By tapping into energy and caffeine usage in a more every-day and emotive way, the new identity and pack design which launched in 2018, shifted the brand from niche to mainstream, gaining it listings in Whole Foods, Booths and Harvey Nichols. The bold new look and ‘Wild for Life’ positioning deliver standout at shelf and relevance in both on and off-trade, for day and night consumption. This enabled TrueStart to successfully break into the on-trade, with these environments accounting for 25% of its business in 2019.
Aiming to maintain listing numbers in the first year after redesign, listings actually rocketed from 300 to 600 and TrueStart’s annual turnover doubled.
