The UK office of branding and design agency Hornall Anderson has designed new packaging for Asda’s range of own label tea, which just launched and includes black, speciality, green, fruit and herbal teas.

The revamped packaging brings the design into line with current trends in the tea sector and will help the products stand out in a competitive market place.

Kim Van Elkan, managing director of Hornall Anderson UK, says: “Black tea is a very competitive arena with fierce brand loyalty and an ageing consumer. Own brand packaging needs to offer a credible alternative, taking category cues but creating a clear simple hierarchy and a homely feel.”

The speciality teas need to appeal to a more foodie audience, who enjoy the ritual of drinking tea. In fruit, herbal and green, tea is a crowded category with a lot of competition. Fruit and herbal teas have become design statements and require beautiful packaging which is worthy of being ‘on show’ to succeed.

New packaging for black tea features a simple graphic woodcut illustration with bright pops of colour, helping the products to stand out on the shelf. The bag count is clearly placed in a quirky cup illustration in a consistent place on pack, to make this easy for the customer to see. The leaf icon displayed represents freshness, which is important to the customer.

The designs for speciality tea, such as Assam and Ceylon, use beautiful, rich and sumptuous colors with specially created illustrations, highlighting the heritage cues and provenance of the tea.

The green, fruit and herbal tea packaging resonates with more health conscious customers. Packaging pops with flavor cues and feels modern. Hand-painted illustrations and crafted hand drawn serif type, together with coloured panels, help with differentiation.

Van Elkan adds: “Our packaging design for Asda will help reposition its tea brands in the category and allow its own label offering to stand out in a very competitive and busy market place. The work we carried out shows our clear understanding of what customers want from these different products.”

Justine Jackson-Hickling, Asda senior design manager – Food Brands, says: “Hornall Anderson’s detailed knowledge on packaging trends in the tea sector meant its team delivered up to date and eye catching designs, which will help our own label tea range achieve stand out in our stores.”