Does this branding appeal to you? Please be brutally honest.

[NimbleStork]

We’re two female founders in our 30s developing a new protein shot designed for women and are currently arguing over what the brand should actually look like.

Rather than sitting in our own little bubble, we thought Mumsnet might be the best place to get some properly honest opinions…:)
We’ve narrowed it down to a few different design directions and made this survey. It's very quick and genuinely takes about 2 minutes!
Would love to know which one you’d actually pick up and why (and which one you absolutely wouldn’t).

Thank you in advance!

The coffee cup on top of the laptop is lunacy 😂😂

Or some lentils!

I’m target market too. What will make me change from taking MyProtein as I do now to your brand? That’s what you need to focus on. I’d never take a “shot” either. I don’t want something with loads of packaging in individual servings as it makes it more expensive.

If this is to do with maintaining muscle mass during ageing, would these really appeal to women? Most men use gym protein because they are too lazy to prepare food, and know nothing about nutrition.

I'm 63 and maintain muscle mass by running 5k twice a week, lifting a few weights at home and living an active life. And by eating a diet of protein-rich food and 30 fruit & veg a week.

There isn't any explanation why I would choose a protein shot over the pleasure of eating things that taste good, have texture and aroma.

I've worked in product marketing and branding for 20 years and have seen this same misconception play out more than I can remember.

Your brand is not your logo or a colour or a mood board.

Your brand is your identity - a story, an experience, a feeling, that uniquely connects your product to your (well defined) target audience. Only once you truly understand and can articulate that clearly, should you consider the visual identity (which is what you are asking about).

Sorry but none of them appeal to me because I’m bloody sick of seeing protein everything on the shelves. Why is your “protein shot” (ugh) any different to all the millions of other protein products already available?

I chose the beige/white one because it felt cleaner and spa-like. The yellow one was a complete turnoff, especially for a drink, and same for the blue/green one. Your customers will be consuming something for their health so the colour shouldn’t resemble urine or algae. 😆

Following on from my previous message - who is your audience? Are you looking to target women who haven't previously considered a protein supplement? If so, do you have a solid understanding of the barriers you are looking to overcome? Because "wanting prettier packaging" is very unlikely to be it. I know nothing about the market, but I'm guessing that barriers would be

Cost (assume you're not competing on price, so rule this one out)
Visibility (have you identified a subset of women who will not be aware of protein supplements as a product, with a plan of how to reach them?)
Perceived need (are you planning to educate women who are aware of protein supplements, but don't feel they need them? This could be a good strategy as demonstrated by the PPs on this thread - it's well nigh impossible for women 50+ to hit target protein macros through diet alone)
Etc

Or are you trying to win women who are already using protein supplements? In which case the obvious question is how? What is the usp?

I’m confused. Only the beige one depicts something you consume. I don’t understand all the scent, candles and droppers. They all seem like beauty products. The yellow colour scheme is my favourite.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2020.622391/full

Admittedly it's 5 years old, but the recommendations on dietary protein are quite complex and it's hard to see how a shot drink supplement would achieve anything, tbh. You'd surely have to have a lot of sweet ingredients because the leucine has a bitter taste. It also doesn't dissolve well in liquids.

Anyway, I'm not your target audience probably (47, not into fitness) but if I was going to buy i supplement I'd want the packaging to look clean and serious, as a health improver, not 'girly' or 'aspirational' as a lifestyle influencer.

I think you need to finish developing the product - and be crystal clear about who benefits most from it - before you even think about branding. Everything else follows from your target audience.

I am not interested in the product and the advertising would not catch my eye.

"it's well nigh impossible for women 50+ to hit target protein macros through diet alone"

I'm 57kg, and for an active woman of that weight, googling tells me 68g of protein is needed. 2 eggs, 1 tap of peanut butter on a rice cake, 80g chicken breast in a wrap, 100g of chicken/fish/beef for dinner, and a bit of greek yoghurt with some pumpkin seeds would be plenty.

1. Standard influencer style - unnoticeable and bland
2. Quasi-pharmaceuticals - makes reasonably intelligent people very wary
3. Ikea

My understanding is that peromenopausal and menopausal women need more like 1.2 to 1.6g per kg to properly protect muscle mass, which is really hard to achieve at a time when many women are simultaneously having to reduce calorie intake to avoid gaining weight because their baseline metabolic rate as dropped.

That's been my experience anyway. For me personally, the thing that has put me off protein supplementation is that they are typically heavily processed / UPF - something else that many women are trying to avoid.

Obviously that's just my experience, and yours could well be very different - I'm certainly not an expert. But I'd imagine there will be other women like me who are underserved by the current offerings on the market. And that is the golden rule of product positioning for this kind of product. The whole point is that you are targeting a specific market with a very specific product. The generalist market is already saturated I'd imagine.

They look like mood boards for the income demographic, not the actual wants or nutritional needs of a woman.

A couple of other things to think about @NimbleStork

• you NEVER appraise design on the basis of whether people like it or not. You do so based on what it is communicating about your brand - does it convey the right mood/benefit/tone/price point etc? Only once you have a clear communication brief do you then build in appeal
• using mood boards is a difficult approach to take online - even face-to-face they can be problematic, as people assume they are, or see them as, advertising. They can be taken very literally, as you have already seen from some of the responses here
• there's no concept statement here to tell people what your product is, what it's benefit(s) are and/or what it's competitive point of difference is. You need to be assessing response to design routes in the context of this concept statement.

But above all - do your research properly! If you don't have a background in marketing/branding/NPD/design, then find someone who does. Otherwise all you will be doing is throwing your money down the drain. As others have pointed out, this is already a crowded market.

Skimmed milk powder has more protein per serving than the average protein powder.

I think you’re getting this a bit backwards. Before you even consider branding you need to identify and understand your competitors, what your USP is, why consumers would choose you over others and what the user journey is. Once you know your core messages/what you want to convey and what your competitors are doing/why users would choose you over others it’ll be a lot easier to define your actual branding rather than bland mood boards with little identity.

The protein supplement stuff is so over saturated. Can't you do something original?

I'm confused as to why you have other brands on the boards. 🤷‍♀️

I assume I'm your demographic - menopausal and often grumpy - and to be honest none of them really appeal to me. The yellow has a young fitness vibe for me and the blue one very medicinal, the beige is more friendly I'd say?

I think what's just as important is honesty. Tell me - why do I need to take it? Justify it to the consumer because as far as I can see, what you are offering can be obtained my eating protein and a healthy diet. The market is also really saturated with this type of thing. I believe it's only a matter of time before these supplements are widely deemed to be unnecessary for most people who follow a healthy diet.

That’s a very good point, and a great study. Our protein shots use an innovative type of whey protein called beta-lactoglobulin (BLG), which is naturally particularly rich in leucine. This allows us to deliver 20g of protein with a high leucine content in a tiny, convenient 100ml shot. We also won’t be adding any synthetic sweeteners, which is why we’re spending additional time in R&D to make sure we can deliver a great-tasting product with as clean and simple a formulation as possible.

On what basis are you claiming that beta-lactoglobulin is "innovative"? It's basically the main whey protein in cows milk.

Why is your product better than just drinking some milk?

Okay, but why should people pick your product over the hundreds of other protein products already on the market? What does yours do that theirs doesn't?