Manufacturer: Purely Elizabeth
Agency: Ptarmak
As a certified holistic nutrition counselor, Elizabeth Stein understood the value of high-quality, nutritious foods in leading an active, vibrant life. As a discerning eater, she also wanted to actually enjoy what she ate. Unfortunately, there was a lack of appealing options on grocery store shelves to meet those twin needs—and Stein saw an opportunity. “I set out to create products that didn't have a trade-off between nutritious ingredients and culinary taste,” she said.
Stein launched Purely Elizabeth in 2009, and the company quickly built a loyal fan base in natural-food channels, before broadening its distribution into stores like Target and Kroger. By 2022, the brand was wildly popular, but the packaging hadn’t been revisited in five years. It became increasingly apparent that a refresh was needed. “Our goal was to give our packaging and branding a refresh while maintaining the core elements our consumers know and love,” said Caroline Caligari, creative director at Purely Elizabeth. So Purely Elizabeth reached out to Ptarmak, an Austin-based branding and design firm, to help create its next generation of packaging.
The creative brief outlined some clear goals for the redesign. First order of business: improve standout at the shelf. “In those major retail stores, there were a number of established and legacy brands,” Caligari said. “As we continued to expand distribution, it was important that our packaging broke through on the shelf with a unique and memorable design. Plus, we needed to help consumers navigate our portfolio.”
The brand also wanted to elevate its taste appeal and create a clear hierarchy of communication, while also telling the story of its founder. There was plenty to say, but it was equally important to ensure the amount of information wasn’t overwhelming for consumers. “There was a lot on our packaging before, and we were trying to say too much. With the new design, we knew we needed to speak to the product’s value, while bringing Elizabeth, the CEO and the face of the brand, to life,” Caligari noted.
Working with a rising brand and inspirational leader like Stein energized the team, according to Erica Albers, account manager at Ptarmak. “We had so much excitement and heart for this project, particularly after our strategic kickoff meeting with the brand,” she recalled. “So for our first presentation in Austin, we actually showed up with physical mockups of the concepts we had developed, just so Elizabeth and her team could get a feeling for what these packages could look like in real life.”
After some back and forth, a particularly strong concept emerged: an elegant yet emphatic evolution of Purely Elizabeth’s look and feel. To the teams, the design embodied the balance of the brand itself—high-quality nutrition that is also delicious. “We wanted to bring joy, personality and taste into the packaging,” said Albers. “This design really delivered on that.”
Among the changes that were made: The brand added a “stamp of approval” with the founder's signature to remind consumers of her holistic nutrition credentials and hands-on role, which replaced a similar but less-visible asset at the bottom right of the package. “The signature helped connect the brand name with the actual person behind the brand,” noted Hannah Bruce, creative director at Ptarmak. “And the stamp helped reinforce that all of the products meet Elizabeth’s high standards.”
The brand also incorporated a much larger, modified version of the brand’s logo, with typography reminiscent of the previous logo (a lowercase, stacked serif), but reimagined to increase its scale, as well as its contrast, with a shift from brown lettering to black. “The approach was meant to evoke editorial covers, which is a nod to Purely Elizabeth’s position as a source of broader lifestyle inspiration,” Bruce said. “Plus, the old logo had a bit of a dusty feel to it, so bringing the black in allowed us to elevate the logo in an interesting way.”
The next element to be reconsidered was the window showcasing the product within. The Purely Elizabeth team faced a difficult choice: keep the window or opt for imagery that highlighted its taste and texture. “It was hotly debated, because we knew that consumers like to see what the product actually looks like,” Caligari said.
Ultimately, the teams at Purely Elizabeth and Ptarmak agreed that imagery was more effective at conveying the flavor of the product. Plus, it gave the brand another way to differentiate itself from the competition. “Our window wasn’t helping us communicate the delicious, unique taste and texture of our granola in a way that allowed consumers to imagine how they would enjoy it at home,” Caligari recalled. “Swapping the window for photography allowed us to introduce a dynamic and disruptive element that differentiated the packaging from most of the competitive landscape,” Bruce said.
Other changes demonstrate the team’s detail-driven yet nuanced approach to improving upon the previous design. They introduced the “recipe card” asset, which allowed them to systemize communication and create variant-specific color cues, while maintaining a clean white brand block on shelf. It was also a way to celebrate Elizabeth’s culinary contributions to the brand. “Elizabeth created the original recipe in her kitchen,” Bruce said. “We wanted to convey that story in a way that was cohesive, consistent, and human.”
So how did consumers respond to the new look? They ate it up. During the year following the launch of the redesign, the brand's granola sales grew by 27%, thanks in part to the new packaging. Consumer research by Designalytics affirms this outcome: When granola buyers were asked which design they’d prefer to purchase—old or new—81% chose the new design.
Bruce credits a strong partnership with the brand as crucial to the brand’s success. “A core Ptarmak belief is that relationships thrive when the expertise of both partners is not only seen as valid, but vital to the success of the project,” she said. “This project has become such a wonderful example of that. At each point in the process that something new was revealed which required us to pivot, we rolled up our sleeves together to figure out how we could use it as an opportunity to make the work even better.”
The brand’s namesake heartily agreed. “Ptarmak was a pleasure to work with,” Stein shared. “Their enthusiasm, creativity and expertise in branding helped us bring to life an evolved design that was more functional, effective, and differentiated. We appreciated their collaborative approach, which helped us stay true to the brand and create an authentic design.”