Pragma Reviews Birds Eye Chicken Chargrills
18th June 2009
History
The frozen food market has recently seen an upsurge in sales (partly due to the recession) with frozen meat and poultry products growing at nearly 8% per annum. Overall the retail frozen food market is now worth nearly £5 billion.
Birds Eye have just changed the packaging for their Chicken Chargrills product and the new look is intended to differentiate the Chargrills range from Birds Eye's other chicken products (Chicken Pie, Chicken Goujons, Chicken Dippers etc).
Birds Eye want to create a ‘grilled' personality for Chargrills, to give it standout from the other chicken ranges. It was felt the name Chicken Chargrills wasn't being used effectively to bring the products to life, in the previous design.
The range includes Original, Peri Peri and Cracked Black Pepper. Lime & Chilli and Reggae Reggae (c/o Dragons Den star Levi Roots) have just been added to the range.
Graphics 7/10
The new packaging is more of a Tex-Mex style design, with a deep orange sunset depicted in the design - although this is in keeping with the house style of the total chicken and meat range. Of the two chargrill designs we looked at (Original and Peri Peri) Peri Peri was the stronger with a deep red cover.
Overall the new designs feature much bolder and deeper use of colour and giving the range stronger stand out in store freezers. The product shot is very naturalistic - what the product actually looks like, rather than a gussied-up version. The `Chicken Chargrills' wording on the front is much more effective with its grilled look and larger font size.
The `improved Recipe' and `Made with 100% Chicken Breast' brandings also add to its Tex-Mex styling. The nutritional information has been removed from the front and placed on the back, which benefits the clarity and simplicity of the overall design.
Function 7/10
There has been no change to the function, a simple cardboard box which opens fairly easily from the side.
On-shelf 6/10
The new packaging helps the product differentiate itself and stand out more than previously (especially Peri Peri but less so, Original), especially since supermarket own brands and competitors tend to feature almost identical product shots, plated up with salad etc.
However, because the product is displayed in store freezers it is still fairly anonymous. Store freezers in supermarkets generally have a lot of similarly sized products in similar colours together and unless a product is a particularly striking colour (like Mars Bars Ice Creams, for example) they do not stand out from the crowd.
Overall 7/10
The new packaging is an improvement, but like many Birds Eye products, it remains a little conservative in its design. A little more flair would give this product more prominence and appeal.