APA DIN NOY
Bottled water, driven by social causes.
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PRODUCTS
2014
How do you build a frozen food brand that people trust in a category where trust is the last thing a consumer is willing to give.
There are product categories where the battle is fought in the consumer’s mind before they ever reach the store. Frozen food is one of them.
The perception has been shaped by years of accumulated associations: frozen means processed, processed means compromise, compromise means you had no better option. Any brand entering this category automatically inherits this burden, regardless of how good the product actually is.
Septem Generation, a Romanian company with deep experience in trading, processing and distribution of food products across Europe, wanted to build a retail brand that would break this logic entirely.
Projects entering a category with deeply embedded negative perceptions need, before anything else, a clear understanding of the ground on which they are building.
Frozen food has an image problem that does not necessarily come from quality, but from outdated associations. Decades of heavily processed products, labels designed to obscure rather than inform, and communication that deliberately avoided detail have built a category portrait that is very difficult to escape.
And yet the reality is more nuanced. Rapid freezing, when done correctly and immediately after harvest, preserves nutritional values better than many fresh products that spend days moving through distribution chains.
At the same time, Materra was not starting from an existing brand or product. Everything needed to be built from scratch, from the structure of the offer and the logic of the product range to the meaning the brand would carry in the life of a real consumer. This dual pressure, of fighting category perceptions while building an identity from the ground up, shifted the conversation from design into something closer to foundation work.
The research process combined Design Thinking and Service Design workshops with individual interviews and user experience mapping.
The goal was to validate the hypotheses we already held and to understand what actually happens in the moment a consumer stands in front of the frozen food aisle.
People want quick solutions, but they are no longer willing to not know what they are eating. They want convenience, but feel guilty when they buy something they cannot explain. They buy frozen products because they have no time, and they justify the choice to themselves through necessity.
The competitive analysis confirmed that the category’s communication was built largely on images of nature and vague quality promises, with no data, no real transparency about process, and no voice willing to treat the consumer as an informed adult.
The positioning that emerged from this phase was a logical conclusion drawn from everything we had come to understand about the category, the consumer, and the context in which Septem Generation operated.
The credibility of this positioning comes from the production chain that Septem Generation controls: certified producers, processing under optimal conditions, full traceability, European food safety standards.
The naming emerged as an expression of this balance between nature and rigour, between origin and process, between the emotional and the functional. Materra combines raw material and the earth it comes from. Two words that anchored the brand simultaneously in the concrete and in responsibility.
A solid strategic foundation. At the end of the Fuel phase, the brand had arguments built from the inside out.
Opportunity mapping, audience definition, founding team alignment.
Category communication audit, unoccupied spaces and differentiation opportunities.
Positioning, central promise, values, message architecture.
Range structure, offer logic, expansion criteria.
Generation, semantic and legal validation, strategic rationale.
Manifesto, tone of voice, tone of communication.
Language directions grounded in strategy.
Site structure, information hierarchy, navigation logic.
In a category where labels hide more than they reveal, Materra took the opposite approach. Information is not buried on the back of the packaging. It is part of the identity itself.
The visual system was built around this logic: balance between natural and rigorous, between emotional and functional, between accessible and informed. The palette and tone were calibrated to communicate freshness and honesty, deliberately avoiding the green clichés of “natural products.”
The packaging of a frozen product is the only moment where the brand and the consumer meet face to face. It is a sales tool and an education tool at once.
For Materra, the packaging was designed to function on both levels simultaneously. Visually, it communicates immediately what category it belongs to and why it deserves to be chosen. Informationally, it offers clear product data structured to be read and understood quickly, not hunted down with a magnifying glass.
The result is packaging that does not apologise for being frozen.
The Materra website was conceived as a natural extension of the brand logic, a space where users can understand the products, the process and the company’s values.
The UI kit and digital components were built modularly, so the system can grow alongside the brand.
At the end of the Spark phase, Materra had a visual presence that communicated clarity, honesty and accessible information.
Logo, typography, colour palette, iconography, usage guidelines.
All formats, print-ready files, production specifications.
Architecture, wireframes, UI, page design.
Scalable system, ready for expansion.
A frozen product you can trust is a matter of strategic design solved from the foundation.
The Materra activation focused on creating touchpoints that were coherent with what the brand promised. From packaging and digital to launch materials and communication with distribution partners, the strategy resisted the temptation to launch everything at once. A gradual build was chosen, and all launch materials respected the same visual system and tone of voice established in Spark, so that every touchpoint contributed to the same brand portrait.
A brand portrait ready for serious retail. At the end of the Oxygen phase, Materra was prepared for partnerships within the context of a retail brand with ambition.
Full communication strategy.
Creative concept, materials, production supervision.
Retail supports, digital content, partner materials.
Copywriting, applied brand voice, communication scenarios.
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