Packaging a-peel: Rebrand helps Little Potato Co. deliver message
A little more than a year ago, the Little Potato Co. decided a facelift was in order.
The Edmonton, Alberta-based pioneer in creamer potatoes, founded in 1998, unveiled a new visual identity. The fresh look featured spruced-up packaging along with a new logo, a revamped website and a new digital ad campaign.
Angela Santiago, company CEO and co-founder, said at the time that the packaging reboot aimed to better reach consumers.
“We did extensive research to deeply understand our consumers, and what they care about is feeding their families with healthy, easy meals and finding moments of connection and joy together,” Santiago said in a news release.
Fifteen months into the refresh, Heather Jeffares, vice president of marketing for Little Potato Co., caught Spudman up on how the changes have been implemented and received.
Strategy shift
Jeffares said a desire to shift the perception of the company’s products drove the marketing refresh. When the Little Potato Co. first launched, Jeffares said it premiered with a gourmet, special occasion-feel that changed as little potato products became more widely available.
“What we really wanted to tap into was providing these potatoes as a fast, helpful solution for busy families (who) still want healthy food,” she said. “When we had that insight and we shifted our whole lens from being a potato that you would make for a fancy dinner to what you make on a Wednesday night when you’re strapped for time, that really shifted how we wanted to show up in the marketplace.”
The company’s new-look packaging includes a clear window to enable product viewing and simplified messages emphasizing ease of preparation of the pre-washed, ready-to-cook potatoes, which can be microwaved in five minutes. A QR code directs consumers to easy-to-prepare recipes, and the package colors (red, yellow, purple) even match the potatoes inside.
“We wanted a very approachable, everyday look and feel to our packaging, and we really wanted to appeal to those busy families with kids,” Jeffares said. “There’s an element of making the whole family happy with our packaging.”
That objective starts at the top of the company, Jeffares said.
“Our focus on family started with Angela,” said Jeffares, a mom to twin 10-year-old boys. “She’s a busy mom of four kids herself. We understand what that busy family looks like.”
The brand health tracking the company conducts every six months indicate the changes are reaching its target audience, Jeffares said.
“We had a baseline prior to our rebrand and repackaging. We really understood how healthy our brand was, and it was a beloved brand,” she said. “Shifting all of the brand assets is kind of nerve-wracking when you’re doing well, but we’ve seen indications that this is really resonating with our busy families out there. They’re understanding how simple it is to use.
“It’s not just the packaging. It’s really our whole initiative of bringing healthy, quick food into busy homes across North America.”
Family-focused future
As the Little Potato Co. brand has grown, so have the company’s resources. This past May, the company opened a $29 million, 240,000-square-foot packaging facility in Nisku, Alberta.
The plant features a state-of-the-art water recycling system that reduces both water usage and operational expenses. Around 70% of the facility’s annual production capacity of 125 million pounds of potatoes will be used for export sales, primarily to the U.S., the company said.
“Our innovative facility is built with future generations in mind,” Santiago said when the plant opened. “We are ensuring that we lead in eco-friendly production to meet growing demand for families wanting to serve delicious and nutritious whole food quickly.”
Santiago founded The Little Potato Co. with her father, Jacob van der Schaaf, who harbored fond memories of harvesting little potatoes in his father’s fields in Holland. The father-and-daughter duo rented a one-acre plot of land in Edmonton in 1996 to grow their first crop of little potatoes.
The company soon grew to 30 employees, opened its first plant in 2000 and was named one of Alberta’s fastest-growing companies by Alberta Venture Magazine in 2002. In 2008, it debuted its Grower Field Day, an event that brings researchers, growers, retailers and marketers together to discuss industry developments and best practices.
The company’s growth — and its new ideas — are continuing, Jeffares said.
“We are actively looking at some line extensions for our value-added products, the microwave steam trays and the grill and roasting trays,” she said. “We have a pretty strong lens right now on product development. That includes varieties, of course, but also new products that we can bring to consumers.
“That’s the focus — creating products that fit the needs of this target audience that we’ve built our business around.”
