PRODUCT REBRANDING: GUGURU AND EPA
DISRUPT DNA REBRANDS THE POPULAR SNACK — POPCORN AND PEANUTS
Growing up in Lagos meant that at some point in your childhood, you would have purchased this snack popularly known as Guguru and Epa, a Yoruba translation of the word popcorn and peanuts. I remember having to queue up as a child waiting to buy this snack packaged in cone-like old newspapers from Mama Deborah, the seller in my primary school. It’s weird how time flies.
Recently, in one of our brain drizzle sessions at Disrupt DNA, think of a brain drizzle session as a party rave but with coffee and intellectual discussion rather than alcohol and loud screaming; Omoh our 3D Illustrator in his usual fashion decided to derail us by taking us on a trip down memory lane and I in my not-so-usual fashion joined in, we talked about bullies, teachers, favourite foods in primary school, how everything sold for fifty kobo or less and for a brief moment, everyone basked in that nostalgia. Then I remembered how Deborah reigned “supreme” at my school and no one dared upset her or risk the chance of not being allowed to buy popcorn and groundnut from her mother. Somehow that conversation led us to rebrand this popular childhood snack — Guguru and Epa.
When we began the task of proactively rebranding this product, we thought about Mama Deborah and the bottlenecks she would have if she decided to continue selling this product today. Below, you will find some of these bottlenecks and our tactics for solving them:
Health and Safety
Guguru and Epa is carried in a clear glass shelf and sold in newspapers by hand. In these Covid-19 times, that may not be sanitary. In order to observe proper health safety practices, the product would need to be packaged in a sanitary manner . Our tactic to solve this was to completely remove the shelf style of selling and have Mama Deborah sell the product in an already packaged form.
Relevancy
This product was packaged in old newspapers but a rebrand is necessary to ensure that the product is modern, aesthetically pleasing and can compete with other products in the market today. To solve this problem, we conducted an analysis of some of the most popular snacks and came up with a colour palette that we believe would resonate with our target audience.
Product Positioning
The goal here is to influence positive emotions about the product when people encounter it, but while there is a need to become more aesthetically pleasing to attract children and younger customers, there is also a marketing advantage to maintaining that nostalgic feeling customers in an older age range will have. To solve this issue, we decided to leave the product name as is — Guguru and Epa and to also maintain the cone-like paper packaging, this will help influence quick recall and brand affinity in the minds of the customers.
Business Growth
Prior to the rebranding, guguru and epa was sold on an as-needed basis, this caused unnecessary delays and loss of income as customers had to wait in a queue. With this rebranding, there is exponential advantage for business growth as customers can just buy on the go without the need to wait. We also created other variants of the product to give customers an array of options to choose from.
In conclusion, a successful rebrand should have a positive impact on your business, however, there’s a lot to consider when rebranding a product, company or service, it isn’t just about changing colours or logo — it takes in every aspect of that product from design to marketing.
This process will involve different stages, from exploration to planning and design thinking; depending on the size of your business and where you are on your journey. We always advise that no stage is skipped over in a rush to see what the rebrand will look like, this usually leads to more work and higher expenses.
If your company is in need of branding services, we can help, so shoot us an email today at info@disruptdna.com and we will advise you on the next steps, which may be a bespoke workshop to establish the specific needs or just a chat about your creative needs.
