A guest post by Phillip Oakley, a brand strategist, energetic speaker, dog lover, foodie, and proud Dad. Phillip previously shared his respect for Liquid Death Mountain Water HERE.
One of my favorite pet brands just went to crap.
Dog poop bags, to be specific.
At least, that’s what I thought at first. Curiosity drove me to observe this rebrand like a marketer and not just as the brand guy who understands the value of design and distinctive assets.
We’ve been using ‘Earth-Rated Dog Poop Bags’ for years. Their product does an excellent job of masking the smell of our doggo’s poo until trash day. Recently, a rebranded package showed up at our door.
“What’s this crap?” I quickly proclaimed.
I rolled my eyes at another “blanding” job that stripped away character from the brand in trade for sans-serif and solid colors to feel trendy. And I mean they literally stripped away the “brand character” by killing off their cartoon mascot.
Another sad mascot demise. Sigh.
This new package also checked another of my WTH boxes. The logo is HUGE.
A Twitter friend, Andrew Willshire, posted a side-by-side pic with a similar opinion. Most of the comments agreed with our opinion. Some liked the new design.
The difference was context. The people who DIDN’T like the redesign were customers of the brand.
“Why would they do this?” was the common theme.
Like many things I share here, curiosity demanded I find out why. And it began to make some sense.
Andrew’s pup should be considered for the new brand mascot.
Earth Rated Dog Poop Bags Are #1
Earth Rated is the #1 dog poop bag brand on Amazon. Their top SKU (ASIN) sells around 115,000 units per month at around $1.5M in monthly revenue, at a nice profit. That’s only one SKU out of several for the brand on Amazon. They’re also the top brand on pet sites Chewy and Petco.
They’re clearly a category leader. And when you’re the leader, you get attention.
Cheap knockoffs are stealing shares on Amazon by ripping off their packaging so closely that I took a double take at several options.
The closest dog poo copycat sells 26,000 units monthly for nearly $500k in revenue by ripping off Earth Rated’s package design, buying ads to be considered beside the category leader, and selling an inferior product at a lower cost per unit. Sometimes, sham hustle makes serious coin.
Okay, so I’m starting to understand. But just changing the brand won’t solve this. I give it three months before the copycats have a brand-new bag.
So, is there more to it?
Yup.
Beyond Dog Poop Bags
Earth Rated has moved beyond just making dog poop bags. They hired an industrial design studio to create a new line of dog toys, develop sustainable packaging, and lead the rebrand.
This design studio works with brands like Bang & Olufsen. And they’ve designed ergonomic desk chairs. So “clean design” is standard. Sadly, the rebrand is missing some memorable soul, which thankfully comes through in their social media accounts and video ads.
To compliment the work, the design studio and Earth Rated understand that the product itself is a distinctive brand asset. They focused on making unique toys and packaging that should stand out at retail. And make for tasty comp photos.
The rebrand was meant to signal a shift in the company’s focus beyond poop. That’s a good reason for a rebrand. And I’m buying into the decisions.
But … they’re missing a few things.
Customers like Andrew and I have our doggo bags on auto-ship.
That means we’re not actively shopping the category or visiting the Earth Rated sites. We were left scratching our heads at the rebrand.
There’s zero info on the package about the rebrand. There were no signals to shop on their website for dog toys. We didn’t know the company stretched this updated brand into pet supplies.
Earth Rated missed a chance to speak to us through the package.
Which means missed revenue.
A few takeaways:
- Commercial success can help you stretch brand elasticity into other categories. Recognize your customers and pull them with you.
- Rebrands can signal change, but you must help the customer understand.
- Tasty design is great, but the customer is most important. Designers, especially industrial designers who like “clean design,” sometimes overlook that the package’s job is communicating to the customer.
- You must understand the way customers interact with your product.
- Just because you have a distinctive rebrand doesn’t mean knockoffs won’t change, too.
- Distinctive brand assets go beyond colors and a logo – try to develop and use 3-5. Use them a lot. And for a long time.
- TOV (Tone of Voice) goes beyond how you talk about product benefits. Show some soul!
- Mascots and brand characters, with souls, are awesome. Long live brand characters.
I hope Earth Rated brings the mascot back to add the playful personality found on their social media accounts.
After all, it’s hidden right ‘there in the typography.
A guest post by Phillip Oakley, a brand strategist, energetic speaker, dog lover, foodie, and proud Dad. Phillip previously shared his respect for Liquid Death Mountain Water HERE.
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