News

The frozen food market has recently seen an upsurge in sales, partly due to the recession, with frozen meat and poultry products growing at nearly 8% per year. Overall, the retail frozen food market is now worth nearly £5bn.

Birds Eye has recently changed the packaging for its Chicken Chargrills line, and the new look is intended to differentiate
the range from Birds Eye’s other chicken products, such as Chicken Pie, Chicken Goujons and Chicken Dippers.

Birds Eye wanted to create a ‘grilled’ personality for Chargrills, to help the product stand out on the shelf from other chicken ranges. It was felt that with the previous design the Chicken Chargrills name wasn’t being used effectively to bring the products to life.

The range includes Original, Peri Peri and Cracked Black Pepper. Lime & Chilli and Reggae Reggae (care of Dragons’ Den star Levi Roots) have just been added to the range.

Graphics 7/10
The new packaging uses  a ‘Tex-Mex’ style design, with a deep orange sunset depicted on the packs – although this is in keeping with the house style of the company’s chicken and meat range. Of the two chargrill designs we looked at, Original and Peri Peri, Peri Peri was the stronger with a deep red cover.

Overall, the new designs feature a much bolder and deeper use of colour, helping to give the range a much stronger presence in store freezers.  The product shot is very naturalistic – a representation of how the product actually looks, rather than a ‘gussied-up’ version. The Chicken Chargrills wording on the front of the pack is much more effective with its ‘grilled’ look and larger font size.

The ‘improved recipe’ and ‘made with 100% chicken breast’ brandings also add to the product’s Tex-Mex styling. Nutritional information has been moved from the front to the back, which helps maintain the clarity and simplicity of the overall design.

Function 7/10
There has been no change to the function of the Chicken Chargrills packs: a simple cardboard box which opens fairly easily from the side.

On-shelf 6/10
The new packaging helps the product differentiate itself and stand out more than previously, especially Peri Peri but less so, Original. This is even more important as supermarket own brands and competitors tend to feature almost identical product shots, plated up with salad and so on. 

However, because the product is displayed in store freezers it is still fairly anonymous. Store freezers in supermarkets generally have a lot of similarly sized products in similar colours together and, unless a product is a particularly striking colour – like Mars Bars Ice Creams, for example– it does not usually stand out from the crowd.

Overall 7/10
The new packaging is an improvement, but, like many Birds Eye products, it remains a little conservative in its design. A little more flair could give this product a bit more prominence and appeal.