The brand story

Among the brands in DKSH Grocery Connect’s portfolio is an unassuming product with a great story to tell…

Natural is a range of simple salt and pepper grinders  – pure product, nothing nasty added. Everyone uses salt and pepper. There must be a set of grinders in every household, restaurant and café! But how can we rise to the challenge of making sure they choose ours?

Sure, it’s a great quality product, but busy shoppers don’t tend to give the old S&P much thought, and truth be told, there was a time when we wondered if Natural had had its day…

The brief

As one of the first salt and pepper grinders available in the supermarket, Natural was a category leader. But over time, as more and more brands copied our simple plastic packaging, the category began to be dictated by price. And it felt like a race to the bottom.

So how did we make ours stand out from the crowd?

We came back to its brand truth: a simple, good quality, everyday item.

We looked at how people use salt and pepper and recognised that there was nothing needed to improve the product quality and our simple range of salt and pepper, but to elevate the format and branding to the same level.

Given salt and pepper are commodity items (read: no need to change the core ingredients); we saw the opportunity to do things differently in how it was presented to the customer. We decided to shake up the category, moving away from a simple plastic grinder to a quality ceramic head, for a finer grind. We wanted to provide a superior product to the shopper, without adjusting the price point. As a result, we could offer better value overall.

We then stripped back the packaging with minimal text and no logos – a highly unusual approach in FMCG packaging, where loud, large logos seem to be the norm! Instead, we introduced a bold S and a brazen P.

This approach provides great visual appeal with bold blocking when stacked together on the shelf in the supermarket. Simple … Effective … Eye catching!

It’s the kind of label that’s easy to find in the pantry, but just as at home on the kitchen bench or family dinner table.

Our work together

And it worked! People liked the new look and they loved the quality. With next to no promotional marketing, this brand just sells itself, quickly becoming one of the best-selling products in our portfolio. And we’re delighted to continuously discover our simple S&P in cafes, caterers’ kitchens, bed and breakfasts and Aussie homes.

We’ve since launched a blush pink Himalayan salt to add to our range.

As sole brand owners of Natural, we manage everything in the chain, frequently adjusting for its increased demand – a problem we’re happy to solve! A continually evolving brand product, Natural is a great example of a simple, quality product done well.