CIEN CHILIES
CASE STUDY
Building the future proof brand & introducing a line
of honest fixins in all food channel
The founder, Chef Maria, and her partner, Felipe, were passionate to bring heritage recipes with innovative ingredients to the world, recipes that bring people together over food, while supporting communities and the planet. They believe that honest ingredients makes honest food. And as a brand that values these honest ingredients, community and sustainable sourcing, it was important that we aligned these values with the overall strategy of the brand and the aesthetic of the packaging.
CHALLENGE
Bring the unique story behind
Cien Chiles to life, while overcoming
the perception that healthy food can never
taste better than unhealthy food.
OUTCOME
Mindsy helped Cien Chiles to build their brand with clear strategy. This led our clients to launch products in the midst of a pandemic, increased their online sales and brought new opportunities to sell in the retail market.
SERVICES
Brand Strategy
Messaging
Visual Identity
Packaging
Website
Brand Collateral
Social Media assets
Printing Vendor management
Finding
the Brand Soul
Through a series of exercises in the strategy session, we were able to define crucial aspects of the business, and we distilled lofty thoughts into actionable information. The Brand soul is a compilation of a brand’s purpose, personality, mission, vision, a deep study of its target audience, and culture. Defining the Brand Soul helps us create an objective roadmap; a decisional filter for all the brand’s future decisions. By checking against this statement, we can quickly see whether any decisions will serve or hurt the brand.
Consumer insights
One of the key initial steps was identifying the audience that the brand wants to talk to. Cien Chiles don’t just sell something to someone. The brand has a message, and it needs to resonate with its intended audience, and not just their superficial demographics. Understanding their values and perspectives, through research and strategy, we were able to immerse ourselves into the psyche of the Cien Chiles key audience, the Healthy Hedonists. Passionate foodies who want an indulgent, uncompromisingly rich food experience that makes them feel good when they sate their cravings, people who love the entire meal experience, from the time spent crafting a meal over a hot fire, to the bonds you make over fragrant plates.
Strategically thought,
mindfully executed
Through a series of exercises in the strategy session, we were able to extract and refine the key pillars of the brand. This defined the brand’s personality: how it should look, sound, and act. By gaining clarity, uncovering the authentic story, defining a clear objective with strategy, we created an outward expression of their internal values, culture, and captured both their passion and their personality.
Our first step is to discovering the “Why” (purpose), Fuels “How” (actions), What (results) and what connects an audience with brand in an authentic way. This step helps bring clarity of vision.
From the valuable brand strategy and research, we start the creative process to uncover visual opportunities that align with the overarching brand essence.
How the brand sees the world, guided by a clear perspective. We see the importance of consumer taste appeal, and how color and imagery can play a significant role in people’s purchasing habits.
Crafting an identity
with authenticity
Our stylescape exercise allows us to explore and push the limits in creating unique brand visuals. This stage helps us to marry visuals with brand attributes to create concepts, and strategize how we want to push and position the product line from a design standpoint.
Leveraging opportunities
with inspiring packaging
In strategizing the packaging design for Cien Chile’s product lines, a key initial step is to tell a compelling brand story through our packaging. An assessment of the competition in the different retail markets, along with an understanding of the consumer and what connects them with us, have allowed us to form a hierarchy of messaging points in our designs. Our process, inspired by the product and its unique traits, the colors & illustration informed by the ingredients, culture and brand’s story, all elements came together to bring the brand to life across the products consistently.
The goal was to make it easy for users to discover and learn about the products, while cultivating sales throughout the user journey. After the launch of the site in July 2020, there was an immediate improvement in the metrics. Pivoting our strategy to start from farmers’ markets to online e-commerce, during the challenging Covid times, we created a dramatic jump in page views and sales. The first 1000 bottles were sold within the first quarter, the brand had an 184% spike on page views, reaching around 1000 followers in Social Media.
READ MORE ON THE WEBSITE HERE
Website design and
Social Media Experience
Have a Project
You’d Like to Discuss?