Bagley (FMCG snacking industry), a brand since 1866 for snacking products in Argentina. Renovated in 1996.
CONTEXT
It was in the mid-1990s that Bagley, the Argentinian snacking company called us to evaluate their brand Bagley which was created by Melville Sewell Bagley in 1866. He was an American who had migrated to Argentina at the outbreak of the 1861 Civil War in America. He created criollita, a type of cracker, which became the benchmark and a staple snack in Argentina. When the arrival of the American chips category started to negatively impact the criollitas market, we were appointed to review and renovate this old brand.
PURPOSE
Modern American newcomer brands of chips were making Bagley brand look very traditional. Bagley was missing the attractiveness score from the young generation although criollitas was a fundamental staple snack in Argentina.
OBJECTIVE
How to renovate such an old brand by bringing it upto the trend of the new generation? How to boost the classic criollita product market and increase Bagley’s share by launching new category products followed by the criollita archetype so Bagley can retain leadership in the market?
STRATEGIC EXECUTION
When we entered and did our market watch, we found the presence and popularity of criollitas to be very high, from shanty towns upto sophisticated places of Buenos Aires. There was no deficiency in the product quality. We spent a great deal of time with Argentinian customers from the slums to the football stadia to sophisticated Argentinian homes and in the many popular tango dance happenings, upto the Bagley factory. Here Melville Bagley’s legacy was well preserved in his office with his work table and other artifacts. We found Bagley’s original signature in his working room. The typography in the brand we designed was inspired by his signature, while the open book in the brand recounts Bagley’s story. He has become a legend, an industrial inventor whose output has been enjoyed by many generation. That’s why the positioning statement we created for Bagley brand is “Link of generations.” We rejuvenated and contemporarized the old brand and re-introduced the 150-year-old criollitas with other new category products, so Bagley got back its leadership.