M&M Food Market, Shikatani Lacroix partner on brand redesign project

M&M Food Market, a Kitchener, Ontario-based retailer of specialty frozen foods, recently partnered with Toronto-based Shikatani Lacroix to redesign and rejuvenate the M&M brand. Lagging sales and declining top-of-mind awareness among consumers — especially millennials — prompted M&M to modernize its image to remain relevant in the marketplace and attract a new generation of customers. Shikatani Lacroix said it worked with M&M to revamp its overall brand, including the in-store experience, logo, website, staff uniforms and store brand packaging.

Previously, customers ordered M&M's products from a service counter and M&M staff were responsible for picking the items and filling the customer's basket, said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, president, Shikatani Lacroix. This eliminated any opportunity for customers to browse and make impulse purchases. The interior redesign removed the service counters and restructured the retail spaced to invite customers to walk around freely and explore the retailer's full range of products which are now displayed in freezer cases along the walls of the store. And the departments are positioned within the store based on how customers shop for their meal solutions, making the whole experience intuitive.

With the store brand packaging more visible and accessible to customers, Shikatani Lacroix realized the retailer's former solid white plain packaging would not connect with or provide proper quality and purchase decision cues for customers. Therefore, it redesigned the packaging to offer beautiful full-color food imagery to increase appetite appeal and help customers navigate M&M's 400-plus SKUs. Also, it was redesigned to be color-coded to help customers differentiate between the various food categories. The color coding corresponds to the colorful store signage above the product freezers, further assisting customers in navigating the store. And the color coding on the packaging and signs delivers a strong shelf impact and color blocking, helping to reinforce the wide range of offerings, Lacroix said.

"By adding beautiful food shots and telling more of the story behind M&M Food Market products, we are able to elevate the food and get more credit for the quality of what we have to offer," said Allan Lindsay, vice president of marketing and technical services, M&M Food Market. "Consumer response to the new packaging has been very positive, and we have been very pleased with both their response and the business results that we have seen as we are implementing the changes."