A design DNA creates synergies at Fazer

Pentagon Design Fazer makeiset design strategia

Fazer Confectionery

How can a top-level design strategy promote know-how and common ways of working in a multi-brand company?

Brand & design strategies, Transformation design, Design management, Design DNA, Design & brand manuals

For an iconic brand house like Fazer, design is a key competence in creating a superior customer experience. In Fazer Confectionery, product packages are the most vital media since decisions about purchase take place in the retail environment where the role of the package is significant. With its long history in the confectionery business, the company owns a portfolio of the most appreciated brands in Finland with unique stories.

However, due to the diverse heritage, no comprehensive design guidelines for connecting the brands and guiding the design work existed. As a result, we were approached by Fazer to determine together with the inhouse team a company-wide design strategy for Fazer Confectionery. A strategy that would cover all brands, support brand development, and design as well as build the equity of the Mother brand.

Approach

From the onset, we involved the internal stakeholders, meaning the design team and the brand managers, in order to create a strategy that resonates with Fazer internal key stakeholders.

To paint a full picture of the accurate form and function of the guidelines, we organized internal think-tanks and prototyping sessions. We also set out to find out what types of tools and processes we could produce to help people adopt the strategy and principles in their work.

Identifying the shared challenges of the brand managers and the design team in managing design work with internal and external stakeholders was crucial. We also needed to create a model and tools for meaningful cooperation between the design team and the brand managers. Moreover, produce concrete guidelines and principles to find synergies, to build the design heritage and to find practises that support meaningful renewal.

Result

The new design strategy consisted of two parts. First, we prepared collaboratively with the Fazer team the foundation with six design principles. Second, we formed a design toolkit with processes, tools, templates and ways of working to operationalize the strategy and principles.

The design toolkit helps the design team and the brand managers in their everyday work and communication by putting the Fazer design principles into practice. It includes tools, templates and guidelines to different phases of the design process. For instance, how to brief design projects to external agencies and ways to develop the design process.

The toolkit enables better discussion and sharing of ideas with a shared language. It also contains tools for prioritizing future efforts and measuring performance of the design activities.

Pentagon Design Fazer makeiset design strategia

The Fazer brand strategy and brand assets set the foundation for the development of the design principles. These principles help to concretize the company-level strategy by supporting the development of impactful packaging and internal design competence.

Creating new ownable assets

Pentagon Design Fazer makeiset design strategia

Pentagon Design Fazer makeiset design strategia