Iconic New Zealand winery, Villa Maria, is unveiling a new premium look for its entire wine portfolio this month, beginning with the Private Bin range, which has gained popularity worldwide.
Heralding a new era for the much-loved Villa Maria, the re-designed packaging is fresh, modern, and reflective of the brand’s exceptional quality and 60-year heritage. The changes are extensive but evolutionary and include a revised logo that is subtly different but easier to spot in-store.
“After extensive consumer research we are delighted to roll out new elegant and contemporary packaging for the Villa Maria Private Bin, Cellar Selection and Reserve ranges,” commented the head of marketing and communications at Villa Maria Sarah Szegota who spearheaded these changes.
“The new look enables loyal customers to recognise our trusted brand and exceptional wines, whilst attracting a new customer and inspiring them to add Villa Maria to their buying repertoire.”
The new design is the result of in-depth global consumer research conducted by Lumaten, which combines immersive virtual reality with cognitive psychology to identify which packaging designs most appealed to shoppers. As the only winery in Australasia to utilise Lumaten’s SHOPPER360 research technology and methodology, Villa Maria has secured a deep understanding of what consumers want to see on supermarket shelves when it comes to choosing wine.
“We are very proud to have partnered with Villa Maria in providing support in the refresh of the labels for their award-winning wines. Lumaten’s proprietary platform, SHOPPER360, is a Virtual Reality based, fully immersive shopping environment that delivers full retail context for research,” noted CEO and Co-founder of Lumaten, Paul Fitzgerald.
“Both the technology and research methodology are groundbreaking and provide accurate and validated predictions.”
The result; the Villa Maria logo retains the distinctive and instantly recognisable ‘V’, while the stroke of the font is bolder for improved legibility and more contemporary. The hierarchy of information shown on the label has been considered and evolved with the wine varietal and New Zealand growing region fonts revised and positioned higher on the label to be easier to read and more closely connected to the logo.
The label itself is slightly smaller for a modern appearance, exposing more of the traditional bottle shape now with darker glass. Colour tones have been tweaked with a much whiter and fresher backdrop to the Private Bin label decorated with the Villa Maria ‘red’ top and bottom.
The Cellar Selection range retains its iconic gold label but brighter and with increased lustre, while the Reserve range is fittingly sleek and polished in black with metallic gold foil used for a striking contrast and to catch the eye.
Beyond the main label, the iconic screw cap of the Private Bin range has been updated. Paying homage to New Zealand mountain ranges and the scenery surrounding the Villa Maria vineyards, the design is now more prominent and crafted in a sophisticated monochrome style resulting in a striking finish.
“By putting consumers at the heart of our decision making we have landed with a more contemporary look across our Private Bin, Cellar Selection and Reserve ranges that is engaging and aspirational, while still acknowledging Villa Maria’s heritage and long-standing commitment to producing award-winning wines,” added Szegota.
The new Private Bin labels will land in stores nationwide from early July and will appear in Villa Maria’s 60 international markets later this month, closely followed by the Cellar Selection and Reserve ranges.
