Revitalizing a private label brand in legacy retail.
In the competitive entry to mid-level cookware and kitchen electronics space, Cooks offers products that are simple to use, last a long time, and don’t break the bank. Our marketing partners came to us with the goal to grow awareness of the new product offerings, new designs, and new colorways. They also wanted to build Cooks as a halo brand to drive traffic and sales for the JCPenney home department.
My CD was Lucinda Simmons and my Copywriter was Amanda Cass.
MY ROLE — POSITIONING + ART + PHOTO DIRECTION
Concept One
Inspiration in the kitchen can be found anywhere; flavor, tradition, or even color.
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The color-on-color approach highlights the new product colorways in a bold way and the large, lowercase type (red underline denotes hot surface) treatment helps Cooks look modern and approachable
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Layouts use color, images, and text layering as well as circles to highlight products and create an eye-catching, modern design
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The use of hands in the photography accomplished two things: it humanized the product, and added a touch of personality & expressiveness to otherwise spare styling in the photography.
Insight
JCPenney has a perception of being outdated and missing the mark on what the customer wants. Concept 1, is modern, fun, and meant for a young-ish (college, couples or newlyweds) crowd looking for their first set of kitchenware, who want to save but don’t want to skimp on looks.
Concept Two
Tastes may vary from kitchen to kitchen, but Cooks is consistent.
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Used Cooks’ existing red bar as a graphic element for copy as well as a frame to highlight other key elements in a design.
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Styled to feel lived in, the photography is more lived-in and shows aspirational but approachable cooking in action.
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White copy boxes were added to speak to our offering in a lot more detail instead of showing it in photography
Insight
Perception of JCPenney products is that quality is not at the forefront, so this approach was created to highlight the quality of the pans and the visceral joy of cooking. From a positioning standpoint, this shifts us from the youngish audience with a passing interest in cooking to an audience who regardless of age — is curious and wants to learn more about it.
Which concept made the cut?
Reception for both concepts was extremely positive, and it was in this last review that we got word from the VP of marketing that family should be our main ‘reason to believe’ for all brand activations moving forward. We ended up adding an additional day to our shoot and hired a family to shoot with the product which then made Concept 2 the clear winner, with its focus on lifestyle photography.
I art directed the shoot, and built assets for digital, social, and in-store signage.
To see the toolkit and finished work