Hidden Honey

The market is saturated in Manuka Honey - both in the local and overseas markets. New Zealand is renowned for the produce and several brands, big and small, offer consumers their version of honey. The majority of these options are mass-produced and also blended with other kinds of honey. It is rare for a brand to come to market with a small offering of hand-foraged honey. This was the challenge for this start-up brand - creating a name, story and packaging that conveyed this for a premium consumer in overseas markets.

The brand name is the introduction to the proposition. The honey is hidden in an untouched area of New Zealand's North Island, where the bees are free to forage away from human activity. The team must helicopter in to collect the hives and hand collect them, which is a significant undertaking. The intensity of honeys are split into two price tiers - a simple colour palette designates these. The same design elements are used across both - the main difference is the use of the logo. The higher price points logo is cut in half - only discovered when boxes are stacked.

Hidden is a start-up brand in a very mature market. As such, the team targeted premium retail outlets and boutiques in overseas markets for the launch, which was received very well. The product is also being used as a platform to highlight what is wrong with the highly commoditised honey market. The values of Hidden are more traditional - avoiding mass production, honey blending, the careful husbandry of the bees, ensuring they only take small amounts of honey and leaving the environment as they found it. Sustainability is a major driver for this brand moving forward.

Within the two main price points, there are several honey strengths (MGO Ratings), and sizes. Normally these would be sold in separate boxes. We worked with the client to enable the various honey strengths and jar sizes to be sold in the same outer box. This was sized to contain the biggest jar, while the smaller jars can be put in the same box with a generic unprinted cardboard holder. This reduces the amount of outer packaging needing to be printed and shipped.