Unifying an Innovative Coffee Portfolio
Since German housewife Melitta Bentz created the first ever
pour-over filtration system in 1908, the Melitta brand has been dedicated to the pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee. Having expanded beyond its iconic filters into coffee and non-electric coffee systems, the brand was looking for cohesion at shelf and to remain competitive in the dynamic coffee aisle.
Our flexible, strategic approach maintained the beloved green architecture of the filters, while offering premium aesthetics to the innovative new product lines such as the bagged ground coffees and Pour-Over™ coffee brewers. The U.S. branch of Melitta brings in more than $100 million in annual sales: half from filters and half from coffee and coffee products.
PROJECT SCOPE
Positioning
Naming
Packaging Design
Global Package Solutions
Photography & Illustrations
Production Management
As the largest coffee filter brand worldwide, it was critical to build upon the established architecture to maintain
shop-ability for current consumers. We created an evolutionary design for the base filters to better align with its global packaging siblings and uphold a strong shelf presence.
With the Café Collection, we needed to better position Melitta as a more flavorful, more indulgent brand of bagged, ground coffee. Creating sleek black bags with gloss detailing and European destination-based flavor names, we further added to Melitta’s global brand image and drew upon consumers' imaginations.
To distinguish the Café Collection from competitors, we designed each bag with art-deco style posters, capitalizing on its flavorful European charm.
Inspired by modern European design, we built a smart, clean architecture with sleek new product photography for Melitta’s full range of canned coffees, coffee makers, coffee brewers,
and pour-overs.
Chris Hillman
VP Marketing, Melitta USA
Unlike other design firms in my experience, Hughes is extremely brand-focused and strategic. Their end goal is to achieve the client’s business objective, and not simply to create pretty designs. Not only do they have a strong intuitive sense of consumers, but they also have a knack for interpreting and translating consumer insights into a compelling visual brand story.
