Coles launches budget-friendly ‘Simply’ range to win back consumer trust
Coles has launched a new ‘Simply’ value range, to address the rising cost-of-living, with branding led by indie agency the thrills.
Called Coles Simply, the new range sits as a sub-brand of the supermarket’s home brands, hoping to offer better deals on groceries and more relevance to the average consumer.
Managing partner of the thrills, Kate Richardson, said: “The cost-of-living crisis has impacted households across Australia, so we wanted to bring some positivity back to the weekly grocery shopping experience. To capture the feel-good factor and dial up trust, we chose a wonderfully warm yellow.
“Colour acts as a simple yet effective tool for brands to create instant recognition and visual consistency. Not only are the products easy to identify, but it’s an uplifting range that consumers will be proud to put in their basket.
“Together, the design elements build a sub brand that defies bland and basic entry-level trends,” she concluded.
According to Coles Group’s general manager – own brand, quality and sustainable sourcing, Charlotte Rhodes, it was important to have an entry brand that offers consumers value and relevance.
“The innovative thinking and creative strategy led to the distinct and visually approachable identity of this store-wide range, which was key to making it a success,” she said.
“Our long-term partnership with the agency has proven instrumental in the successful delivery of projects of this calibre.”
Coles also recently rebranded its ‘Coles Finest’ range – which sits on the opposite side of the spectrum to the new Simply range.
Led by Hulsbosch, the premium range’s newly created packaging focuses on appetite appeal and communicates product quality, demonstrates freshness and aid navigation on shelf.
Other design elements are new fonts, colour suites and hierarchy sets, food photography and easy read ‘back of pack’ icon labels.
The Coles Express branding has also recently changed, moving to a new name of Reddy Express.
Despite trying to appeal to the average Aussie who struggles with the cost-of-living, the love from consumers is not mutual.
According to the most recent Roy Morgan trust ranking index, Coles is now the ninth most distrusted brand in Australia – or, to put a positive spin on it, the 226th most-trusted brand. It plummeted from the previous survey, which was taken in December, where Coles was fifth most-trusted.
Roy Morgan’s CEO, Michele Levine, said at the time: “We have been tracking trust and distrust of brands in Australia for more than seven years, but we have never seen a reputational crash as dramatic as Coles and Woolworths – not even Qantas.”
The past few months have seen the CEOs from Coles and Woolworths get grilled in a Senate enquiry into allegations of price gouging and duopolistic practices. The pair were questioned over price hikes and record profits during the cost-of-living crisis, as the supermarket duopoly reported a staggering combined $80 billion in revenue for the 2023 financial year. Woolworths’ share price has fallen 22.5% since mid-June last year, due to consumer unrest.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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Warm yellow?
Black and gold with a graphics update
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So what Coles did is pay what I imagine to be hefty salaries to a a group of people to come up with a new brand that has cheaper products instead of just reducing prices of existing products? 🤔
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