Case Study: How American brand Jack Daniel's revamped its packaging to resonate with Indian celebrations during Diwali

• Jack Daniel's, an American Whiskey brand, redesigned its brand packaging to resonate with Indian consumers on Diwali.
• Open Strategy and Design, the agency behind revamp exercise, walk us through the brief, execution and insight behind the packaging.

This Diwali, many brands launched limited-edition packaging to wish their consumers as packaging is the last point of contact. Jack Daniel's, an American whiskey brand, also gave its packaging a festive look to stand out.
Diwali is often characterised by familial celebrations, rituals and rangoli. But there is another side to it, one of good fortune and prosperity, which was a more natural context for a whiskey brand built on codes of Americana.

Open Strategy and Design walk us through the brief, execution and insight behind the packaging:

Brand Challenge:

When you are working on a global brand with such strongly defined codes – the challenge is always about contextualizing it, without losing out on its original soul. The big question was, how do you make a global brand with strong Americana codes celebrate the quintessential Indian festival? The task was to interpret Jack in a way, that would make it culturally relevant. Brand wanted to become the Diwali gift of choice amongst premium whiskeys, and for that Jack not only had look striking but feel naturally festive.

Insight:

Instead of trying to fit in Jack Daniel’s in the world of Diwali celebrations, Open Strategy and Design asked themselves what would celebrations look like, done Jack’s way? Jack Daniel – the man – gave us a clue. The only thing he loved more than fine whiskey, was a good get-together. And in a year that has made us realize the importance of relationships, Jack Daniel’s would bring alive the beauty of togetherness. But it had to be done Jack’s way.

Execution:

Design is powerful in its ability to create new worlds. It can create meaning at many levels. So, Open Strategy and Design married the bold, masculine brand language of Jack with the visual symbolism of Diwali.

The idea was to bring Jack in the center of celebration of this festival. The iconic shape of the bottle made it unmistakable Jack. The intricate details, revealing the many facets of celebration, brought alive Diwali. The conscious play of celebratory gold on stark black not only allowed us to retain the world of Jack, it also helped symbolize the idea of good over evil.

There was also the subliminal cuing of the classic Diwali visual - crackers bursting against the night sky. And all this was done while retaining the clean, bold look of Jack.

Impact:

People have loved the idea of Diwali, Jack’s way as displayed by the enormous success of last year’s festive pack. We are continuing to develop on that unique brand language for the festive season. Through this pack, we are covering more than 2000 premium outlets in 10 cities across India. We are reaching an estimated 20,000 friends of Jack, both new and old. A good first measure of the consumer response is the retailer, and the retailers had an overwhelming response to the new pack, often doing multiples of the expected uptakes.