Beginning this month (June 2021) you will start to see a different looking 88 Acres in your grocery stores and on 88acres.com. We’re revamping our packaging, starting with our Seed Bars and Protein Bars. There’s a lot changing, but a few key elements will stay the same: We haven’t changed any of the recipes, our allergen protocols are still as strict as ever, and our ingredient sourcing standards are the same as they always have been, with an even stronger celebration of real food.
WHY?
People are changing the way they shop. There’s less browsing, touching, and exploring the packaging, but more significantly for us, in-store sampling has completely stopped. Sampling was our primary way of introducing people to our products. With the trends projected to continue, we felt we had to take the opportunity to make our packaging work harder for us on the grocery shelf by making it easier for the customer to understand and want to try our snacks. With the new designs, we are achieving four primary goals:
- TASTE APPEAL. 88 Acres uses real, whole, high-quality ingredients and mixes them together in nostalgic flavors. Their new design now shows the consumer what they’re going to get by adding photography of the raw ingredients and the finished product.
- SETTING EXPECTATIONS. 88 Acres’ bars are made differently than other bars and seeds are a relatively innovative and under-used ingredient. The new packaging design includes images of the ingredients and the final product to evoke the flavor and texture. Some of the names have also been changed to more accurately describe the flavors in an approachable way.
- ALIGN DIGITAL LOOK ‘N’ FEEL. With digital media, 88 Acres saw an opportunity to take the successful photos, recipes, and language used to talk about their products and apply them to the new packaging design. The new design reflects the strong aesthetic 88 Acres has built online that they’ve found resonates with people most.
- EDUCATE + DRIVE TRIAL. With no in-store sampling, the new design aims to distill the 60-second sales pitch into an appealing product that speaks for itself and is worthy of trial. Market and industry research led 88 Acres to realize there was a need to further educate the consumer on what a Seed Bar is, what seed-based products taste like, what their mouthfeel is, and why you should choose it over any other bar or butter on the shelf.
THE ROLLOUT
Sustainability is incredibly important to us, which is why we’re gradually rolling out our packaging among our flavors and categories. We still have inventory of our old packaging, so instead of throwing it all away to launch our new packaging together in one big launch, we’re rolling out our bars first, starting with the first seed bar ever made: Triple Berry Blend, now known as Triple Berry Crumble!
WHAT’S NEW?
THE LOGO
When people think of 88 Acres, we want them to associate us with seeds as the foundational ingredients of everything we make. The new seed shape is also more recognizable and playful. We’ve incorporated our ownable trademarked tagline ‘POWERED by SEEDS’ to the logo as well.
SEED BARS → SEED + OAT BARS
We’ve always called them Seed Bars, but they’re also equally mixed with high-quality, gluten-free certified oats that give the bars their unique chewy baked texture. By naming them Seed + Oat Bars, we wanted to set a more accurate texture expectation for people since our bars don’t look or taste like a lot of other bars on the shelf.
A note on oats: Our oats used to be listed as “Gluten-Free Certified Oats” in the ingredient list, but due to FDA regulations we had to change it to “Oats”. However, we use the exact same Purity Protocol oats we always have, with the strictest gluten-free certification standards possible. Our bars and our facility remain completely Certified Gluten-Free.
SEED + OAT BARS
Just Great Food POWERED by SEEDS for all you go-getters, picky eaters, and late-night snackers. Only made with ingredients my mom would approve of and my kids can pronounce.
PROTEIN BARS
Just Great Food POWERED by PUMPKIN SEEDS for all you trail-blazers, picky eaters, and early risers. Only made with truly real ingredients. That means no isolates, no powders, no fake sugars. No compromises, ever.
Double Chocolate Mocha → Double Dark Chocolate
The recipe did not change, but the coffee extract was never intended to provide a strong coffee flavor. This bar is made for the ultimate chocolate lover, so we thought this new name evoked that more clearly.
Cinnamon & Oats → Cinnamon Maple
The recipe did not change. The Cinnamon Maple bar tastes like more than just cinnamon and since all our bars contain oats, we wanted to give a better flavor description of the subtly sweet, warm maple syrup you taste in our simplest recipe.
Spiced Ginger Apple → Apple Ginger Crisp
The recipe did not change. The word “spiced” is tricky for people to get past. We wanted to remove any question people might have of whether this bar is spicy or tastes like fall spices. Ginger Apple Crisp is many team members’ favorite flavor, including Nicole’s, so we wanted the name to reflect the nostalgic taste and texture of a homemade apple crisp to encourage others to find their new favorite as well.
Triple Berry Blend → Triple Berry Crumble
The recipe did not change. As the first bar Nicole ever made, we wanted to harken back to the nostalgia of why she loves food. Triple Berry Crumble really does taste like a homemade crumble, with the gooey, crispy oat topping and tart, slightly sweet berries filling, just in bar form.
Blueberry Lemon is here to stay! We’ve welcomed it into the permanent flavor club, with a fresh look like all the rest.
SNEAK PEEK
Seed Bars and Protein Bars will be the first to get a facelift, take a look!
