The Premio Gusto brand is the result of a meeting between a Romanian entrepreneur, experienced in the field of public catering services, and a salumier who knows the secrets of making one of the most appreciated Italian meat specialties - salami di Varzi. Owning an Italian restaurant, it can be said that Adi Cobordan's connection with the gastronomic field and Italy was already a very close one. But the idea of creating a brand under which a traditional salami would be produced and marketed from the town of Varzi, located in the Lombardy region, very famous for its delicacies, seemed at least out of the ordinary, until it became a reality.
In addition to investing in creating a production space that complies with, in the smallest detail, the conditions and quality standards of type di Varzi salami, it was expected that finding the right direction for positioning and developing the brand identity would be a great challenge. That's why the initiators of the innovative Premio Gusto project wanted to make sure that everything would be done “right” from the very beginning and turned to us to create and bring the brand to life.
As we are talking about a new product, which is part of a niche of the sausage market in Romania, we set out, first of all, to find out what its reference category is, who are the competitors in this category and to whom it is addressed. At the same time, we wanted to understand the implications of the product, namely the type of salami, the name of origin, the recipe, on the brand and business strategy, in order to help the Premio Gusto team with recommendations on all components of the marketing mix, from portfolio and packaging, to distribution and promotion, in view of market launch.
Discovering the category and the business
We started the project with a first part of documentation on the category from different perspectives: that of salami type di Varzi and aspects related to its manufacture and marketing, knowing that the basis is a product with Protected Designation of Origin (D.O.P.), that of Italian sausages, or specific to other countries, present on the Romanian market, that of the sales channels in which it is find them, that of the visual positioning, packaging design and communication of the brands representative of this segment, but also of the possible profiles of end consumers and B2B clients in the HORECA domain.
The next step was to analyze the information together with the Premio Gusto team and continue to explore the business from an internal perspective, to discover the fundamental elements on which the brand will be built: the development vision, values, personality, functional and emotional benefits it can promise the target audience.
We put face to face the aspiration of the brand to recreate the experience of the authentic taste of Italy with the profile of the potential consumer that we identified in the discovery stage, the one who finds himself in the unmistakable Italian lifestyle, being sociable, open, optimistic, passionate about the cuisine and culinary habits of this country, remembering to always pay with She remembers the moments she had when she visited her. Thus, we were able to establish the central emotion that links the brand to its target audience - the zest for life -, to which we associated different interpretations at the verbal and visual level, these representing the possible positioning scenarios. The direction that best reflects the essence of the brand and underlies its positioning was materialized through the slogan The taste of small joys.
With the experience of the Italian lifestyle as a reference, the next step was to discover and analyze it visually, in order to find those key elements on which to build a natural, authentic visual language. Thus, we came to the conclusion that it is a rich, highly decorative style, which can be described as a combination of almost perfectly geometric shapes combined with organic, cursive or imperfect elements, with human influences, made by hand.
The letters are based on a simple, condensed and monolinear geometric structure. The components that break this grid refer to imperfect Italian signalistics, hand-drawn, with small flourishes giving the logo authenticity and memorability.
In the packaging design we have introduced those elements that give us a sense of familiarity and trust in an authentic product: craft paper, natural textures, a human touch through which it feels like someone has lovingly created and packaged each product.
The shape of the label takes from the elegance of the art deco style, which to a large extent overlaps the Italian style. The graphic composition is dynamic, rich in elements and fonts with personality, and colors are used to make easy differentiation between product variants.
The visual universe has been developed within the brand's creative platform, which contains examples of marketing materials used in communication in online and offline environments, from digital banners to merchandising concepts for displaying products at points of sale.
Knowing that the digital environment has fostered the emergence and development of niche brands in various fields, including the food category, but also their specific online outlets (e.g. specialty stores, grocery stores, etc.), the Premio Gusto team opted from the beginning to have its own e-shop, aiming to expand its distribution network to other channels. For the realization of the e-shop, it opted for a secure, OpenSource CMS platform, Umbraco CMS, which allowed a fast and efficient development, and integration with the Ecwid eCommerce module for a complete ordering experience.
Since the e-shop was the main D2C sales channel at the launch stage, all promotion efforts were directed towards the digital environment, with the goals of making the brand known and generating conversion, under a very tight budget. That is why we have developed and implemented the communication campaign around the most effective digital points of contact with consumers: social media and search.
At the same time, we created and developed the Premio Gusto Facebook page, by preparing the editorial calendar, page management, monitoring the performance of posts and campaigns carried out and optimizing them, generating increased community and engagement.
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