Introduced in the U.K. by global dairy brand Arla, an innovative new package that replicates an elegant butter dish feeds consumers’ growing desire for authentic, artisan foods while elevating a commodity product to a premium position. Arla’s new Lurpak brand Slow Churned Butter—made with a method inspired by early dairy tradition in small batches—was launched in November 2013 in a beautifully designed, brushed aluminum dish that holds a 200-g stick of butter.
“The new Slow Churned Butter is being used to build Lurpak’s credentials as a foodie brand,” says Shaun Jones, Realisation Director for Pearlfisher, the design agency responsible for the brand strategy, structural innovation, and packaging design for the new product. “Lurpak Slow Churned is a premium offering within the category that appeals to people who enjoy pure, unadorned butter moments—it is the butter for butter connoisseurs.”
Pearlfisher’s challenge for the new brand, Jones adds, was to create a balance between the Lurpak brand equities and heritage, and the artisan positioning of the new product. Among Arla’s key requirements for the package were that it had to disrupt the category and stand out from the rows of plastic and paper on-shelf as well as be commercially viable, food-safe, and financially feasible. It also needed to fit in with the company’s corporate vision for their product packaging to become fully recyclable by 2020.
During the package design process, Pearlfisher conducted a cross-category audit to understand how other brands were doing premium. “We were inspired by the drinks category, taking a material that consumers consider to be ‘throwaway’ and ‘everyday’ and turning it into something desirable that they want to keep and put on their table,” says Jones. “The new butter dish harks back to the nostalgic memories of the role that butter and the butter dish used to play at mealtimes.”
