I totally agree with Brand New on the food packaging falling just slightly short of the quality of the overall package. It has the look and feel of a value range (which itself is a testament to how much the others have upped their game on those ranges).
I thought this was one area the 2008 brand had nailed. Although that said there's not many products on the shelves conforming to those guidelines now.
Thinking about it Sainsburys did a similar thing with their 1999 rebrand - the packaging for fresh foods became very simple. What happened in the years following is probably what'll happen to the Co-op - as ranges get refreshed they'll gradually make the designs more eye catching.
It's the one weak point - the execution is otherwise absolutely spot on. I can't wait to see this rather 70s funeral parlour, which I always felt looked better with the propriety branding Sheffield Co-op used, with a massive cloverleaf on its high-pitched roof.
Another High Street Rebrand
I didn't like the look of this when I first saw it but I'm now quite a fan, despite the fact that I'll barely see it on a shopfront due to being in the East of England Co-op's heartland (they had a rebrand a few years ago now which is very nice also). Hopefully the Simply Value range will get a refresh now, I think it's one of the worst looking supermarket own-brands at the moment. I also wonder how they'll work the new logo into the Truly irresistible range.
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scottishtv
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- Joined: Thu 01 Apr, 2004 15.36
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I note someone on there calls the green identity "almost toxic", and a "Blairite greenwash", concluding that the new look shows "Jeremy Corbyn is riding the zeitgeist". I hate the internet sometimes.thegeek wrote:Brand New, on the whole, like it - there's a lot of nice shots on there too.
Stranger things have happened at Co-ops. The branch nearest my parents house still looked like this until c.2009 - the interior was absolutely creaking. They then took that sign down, and replaced it with a sign I've never seen before - a very basic black on white "A co-operative food store" (in the corporate font, but lacking the normal 'The' and adding the word 'store') - the store was left as is. In 2011 they gave the store a massive face lift, bringing it in line with pretty much any shop within a 50 mile radius.Critique wrote:I didn't like the look of this when I first saw it but I'm now quite a fan, despite the fact that I'll barely see it on a shopfront due to being in the East of England Co-op's heartland (they had a rebrand a few years ago now which is very nice also).
Then a year later the store closed.
They will believe that as well. Proper bonkers.scottishtv wrote:I note someone on there calls the green identity "almost toxic", and a "Blairite greenwash", concluding that the new look shows "Jeremy Corbyn is riding the zeitgeist". I hate the internet sometimes.thegeek wrote:Brand New, on the whole, like it - there's a lot of nice shots on there too.
What I did like about the 'The co-operative food' rebrand was the unification of storefront signage. The one WillPS links to is Supermarket, but I also remember Superstore, Late Shop, and Welcome, and I imagine there were others too. It seemed to be a very inconsistent system.
We used to have several "late shops" in that same style(there's a photo here of the one in Clipstone), though they all became "Co-op Welcome" at pretty much the same time around 2001-ish. One thing I notice is the "Market" (and "shop" in the Late Shop signs) is in the same style as the old (or new logo as it is now) Co-op logo. Was that look first unveiled before 1993 when the 1968 logo was still in use?WillPS wrote:Stranger things have happened at Co-ops. The branch nearest my parents house still looked like this until c.2009
I imagine that's a lot to do with the fact the Co-op has never been one company, but loads of different societies, many of which did their own thing which is why there was so much variation. Of course there's many fewer societies now than there were even 20 (or even 10) years ago. Though as we know, ones such as ScotMid, Lincolnshire and East Of England still continue to do their own thing.Philip wrote:What I did like about the 'The co-operative food' rebrand was the unification of storefront signage. The one WillPS links to is Supermarket, but I also remember Superstore, Late Shop, and Welcome, and I imagine there were others too. It seemed to be a very inconsistent system.
Indeed I am remember a Co-op near me about fifteen years ago with 'Late store' branding, using the cloverleaf logo (the one with the line below it, not the resurrected version). Eventually they changed it to the East of England Co-operative Society branding, but inside is still littered with the cloverleaf logo (as is the case in many EoE stores), along with some faux-handwritten stuff above the shelving which talks about being local or something like that. The same Co-op is yet to receive the new EoE Co-op signage, despite the fact they did all other stores at around the same time! In EoE Co-op land, we now have Co-op Supermarkets and Co-op Daily, which is for the smaller stores in residential areas.
All 4 you've mentioned were "offical" CWS fasias.james2001 wrote:I imagine that's a lot to do with the fact the Co-op has never been one company, but loads of different societies, many of which did their own thing which is why there was so much variation. Of course there's many fewer societies now than there were even 20 (or even 10) years ago. Though as we know, ones such as ScotMid, Lincolnshire and East Of England still continue to do their own thing.Philip wrote:What I did like about the 'The co-operative food' rebrand was the unification of storefront signage. The one WillPS links to is Supermarket, but I also remember Superstore, Late Shop, and Welcome, and I imagine there were others too. It seemed to be a very inconsistent system.
Superstore, Supermarket and Late Shop were all "official" fascias in the 90s - some societies took them whole, including CRS to begin with, some societies did their own thing (but usually used the Co-op cloverleaf). East of England have always had their own fascias I think - "co-op Rainbow", "co-op City" (which looked stupid on a sign in Watton).
CRS then went their own way and dropped everything in favour of the Co-operative Pioneer. Around the same time, CWS changed simplified so that signage now read "co-op Welcome" in convenience locations and "co-op [Place Name]" in high street locations. A much smaller subset of societies took either of these fascias - CRS own effort was defunct when they merged in to CWS.
This triggered the real chaos as the remaining societies basically all tried their own thing. United Co-op started using their own branding completely on food stores but retained the Cloverleaf for everything else. One of the southern societies started using "The Co-Op" as their convenience brand. Lots of others (including Midlands, EoE, Anglia, Sheffield, Leeds) were doing their own thing using the 90s logo.
In terms of success of a single fascia, the 2008 brand actually bought a few societies in line - unfortunately those that didn't take it didn't take the logo either, which leads to disparity between the shop fascia and the own label stock within it.