Perfect Match Packaging

In 2016, Treasury Wine Estates challenged Fluid to create a new brand that would entice low-involved shoppers to the wine category. What resulted was an extensive innovation project that tackled on the biggest barriers of entry; A lack of wine knowledge, too much choice, and the physical shopping experience. In particular Fluid had to encourage 25–45-year-olds, with a low involvement in the wine category to simply choose an everyday wine that is easy to find and is perfect for a range of in-home dining occasions.

Fluid identified the opportunity to ‘inspire' consumers to pair wine with their everyday meal to 'drive frequency of purchase’. Creating a wine brand that makes matching wine and food simple meant communicating with an overwhelmed, low-involvement target. Fluid concentrated on bringing simple meals and food proteins, wine semiotics and messaging to life with a distinctive, fun visual language.

Fluid explored the use of chalkboard menu lettering and simple illustrations to quickly communicate food pairing to consumers in-store. Bold colours were used to make clear connections to the varietal – red for shiraz, yellow for chardonnay and purple for cabernet.

What resonated best in consumer testing incorporated bold words describing the varietal and protein leading the food pairing choice as number one with the next level describing what to expect in the wine’s flavour. For example ‘Richly bold with a flicker of spice’, and how it complements the food, “belongs with a melt in your mouth steak’.

Since its launch in Australia in 2016, the brand grew globally to markets in Asia and Europe. The Meal Matcher Shiraz became the top-selling Red New Product Development (NPD) launched in Coles Liquorland, and the Meal Matcher Chardonnay ranked third in White New Product Development. In-store sampling conversion from trial to purchase was 35% – well above the benchmark of 22% and research showed that 70% of the target market endorsed the look and feel of the packaging, while 80% of people would recommend Rosemount Meal Matchers to friends.