Goodfella’s turned to agency Sun Strategy to explore how their brand proposition could look, feel and behave in a new category – frozen ready meals – and deliver the biggest new product launch in the brand’s history. A brand built on family values, authentic traditions, and great tasting food – all overseen by the Godmother, the guardian of Goodfella’s.
The brand has long-owned the Italian-American Pizza space, and their new range of ready meals is making an offer shoppers won’t be able to refuse.
Famous for pizza since 1993, Goodfella’s was born with the aim of bringing a slice of New York deep pan to the UK and Ireland, and 2022 marks the brand’s first launch outside of pizza. Exclusive to Iceland, Goodfella’s have identified an opportunity to create a new tier of top quality and affordable ready meals in the frozen category.
“Chilled” is the established ready meals channel for an elevated positioning, but typically with price points to match. The Chilled ready meals category often benefits from the misguided consumer perception that fresh products are more nutritious and made with fewer preservatives than their frozen equivalents: the freezing process, which inherently doesn’t require any preservatives to be added for a longer life, in fact locks in nutrients in vegetables at the time of freezing, only releasing them when cooked. While the convenience-need drives growth of all ready meals (category sales were up 6.7% to £4.2bn over the 52 weeks to 31 October 2021 chilled takes the lion’s share of the growth over frozen.
The strategic decision to launch the Goodfella’s new Ready Meals range exclusively in Iceland is testament to Iceland stores’ expertise and success in the ready meals sector. Over lockdown, consumers had the opportunity to reassess their perceptions of the quality of frozen food. Indeed, after two years of disruption, the retail market is returning to pre-pandemic ‘normal’, but the frozen sector has returned stronger, having attracted over 400,000 more shoppers in the last two years. Frozen sales remain 13.5% higher than pre-pandemic levels, even though many of the coronavirus restrictions that caused the initial spike in frozen food sales in 2020 have eased.
With frozen no longer viewed as an emergency-staple, Goodfella’s are keen to push consumers’ positive perception of the category further, with additional choices for indulgent, ‘cosy nights in’, at a fraction of the price of a takeaway, tapping into the fact that 63% of UK adults agree that they purchase ready meals as an alternative to having a takeaway.
Along its journey, the Goodfella’s identity has been refreshed multiple times, most recently in 2021 when the brand strengthened its brand architecture with a typeface to reflect their Italian-American inspiration and strong colour blocking to make it easier for shoppers to identify the products as they shop the frozen aisle.
Image: Goodfella’s website
Clare Leeland, Client Partner Creative, Sun Strategy, says “The design communicates indulgence and the emotional warmth of Italian-American home cooking. The colour palette is a nod to the urban landscape of Little Italy New York and the proposition ‘welcome to the neighbourhood’ whilst the photography showcases the products’ high-quality ingredients. Building on the brand’s ethos, “Made with Respect”, it was key for the range to capture how Goodfella’s make great tasting meals, traditionally and authentically – with the respect they deserve.”
Simon Inman, Design Director, Sun Strategy, adds “Working collaboratively with our client, to help build a better understanding of the brand, a workshop session resulted in a clear direction from the start – to create a confident, straight-talking range that lets the products speak for themselves. A range the Godmother would give her nod of approval to.
Image: Side of pack
“The verbal style is a combination of street credibility yet warm and welcoming, with a touch of charismatic confidence – a voice that was the perfect tone for the brand.”
Alex Brown, Brand Manager at Goodfella’s says “We loved Sun Strategy’s collaborative approach which started with a workshop to really get under of skin of the brief. They came up with excellent ideas which we shortlisted together, there and then, delivering a strong creative vision, and very efficient project. It was clear how passionate they are at what they do and the pride in which they deliver, and I can’t praise their attention to detail highly enough. Their vision and creative is outstanding. Nothing was too much trouble, I would happily recommend them to others.”
You can experience the warmth of Italian-American-inspired Goodfella’s Ready Meals, exclusively in Iceland from October 2022.
About the author
Clare Leeland – Brand Strategy & Consumer Insight
Clare is a client partner and project manager. She specialises in brand strategy, consumer insight and packaging design. Clare has worked in packaging design across automotive manufacturing and fmcg brands, combining pragmatism with creativity, she’s passionate about delivering effective design by get
Source: Sun Strategy
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