Overview:
Sociables holds an outdated space amongst its competitors in cracker brands.
Sociables differentiates itself with its six distinct shapes and peppery seasoning. Yet they still find themselves on the bottom shelf at grocery stores.
Our Task:
Elevate Sociables to become more than just a cracker brand.
Approach:
With only two weeks to work, we knew that establishing our strategic direction early was crucial.
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After digging into the concepts of what makes a cracker brand successful and the audience that lives within the category, we decided to narrow our focus to a societal issue: Social Gatherings.
Methodology:
To find out what currently is going on within our culture and why people purchase crackers, we conducted:
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Individual Interviews
Surveyed over 50 candidates that attend social settings
Analysis of the cracker market
Learnings:
1. Due to the pandemic, everyone has become more socially awkward.
People have felt more lonely and psychologists are seeing a rise in stress over social interactions. People are more apprehensive about socializing but recognize the dire need for it.
2. One big stressor for people is entertaining guests again in one’s home.
From both our survey and individual interviews, we found an increase in stress when hosting social gatherings among respondents under the age of 35.
3.) People need a confidence boost when it comes to socializing.
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Parties are now awkward. The pressure of keeping up a conversation is intimidating. Some respondents even said that they need to hype themselves up before attending a party.
Opportunity:
Help people feel less awkward in social events.
82% of consumers are loyal to one cracker brand.
What if a cracker brand had a utility, a purpose that isn't just consumption? Crackers have a good reputation as being a healthy snack that's great for both kids and parents.
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Brands can connect with younger adults by way of innovation that aligns with their contemporary palettes as well as new occasions.
It Became Clear:
Elevate Sociables as the conversational cracker for younger adults by leveraging their distinct shapes and their ability to help make socializing easier.
Introducing:
Frustrations:
Knowing that Sociables holds an outdated space within the category we decided to first give it an entire brand refresh.
Before Sociables had no distinction or brand recognition amongst its consumers. Since we were targeting a younger audience we wanted to make the packaging unique while still resonating its name.
We wanted sociables to feel sociable.
So we decided to give each of the six unique shapes a personality that consumers can resonate with.
Outcome:
Getting people to break the ice and ease the anxieties of social events was our goal.
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The idea cannot be removed from the name of the brand. Sociables is the sociable cracker amongst all other cracker brands within the category.
Introducing:
Frustrations:
Knowing that Sociables holds an outdated space within the category, we decided to first give it an entire brand refresh.
Packaging:
Before, Sociables had no distinction or brand recognition among its consumers. Since we were targeting a younger audience, we wanted to make the packaging unique while still leveraging its brand power.
We wanted Sociables to feel sociable.
So we decided to give each of the six unique shapes a personality that consumers can resonate with.
Gamification:
The brand is named Sociables, how could we not make a new party game?
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By using the six personality types, users will be prompted to take a quiz through a QR code on the box.
Based on your answers, the Sociables app will then decide which cracker type you most resonate with.
Based on your cracker type, you will get prompts that will help break the ice at any social event.
The Squad:
Katie Boller - Experience Designer
Kai Butler - Strategist
Sean McSherry - Art Direction
Ben Bashaw - Copywriter