Toptyzhka: brand update
The Toptyzhka brand of dairy products for children has been on the Russian market since 2002. The range is represented by a variety of dairy products: UHT-milk enriched with vitamins, glazed cottage cheese bars , milkshakes, ice cream.
When the Milkom company made the decision to enter federal retail and expand its line of products, the company decided to renew the brand. Since the product was launched on the market, consumer preferences and the children’s products context market have changed quite a bit, and Toptyzhka’s visual style and promotion strategy lost its relevance. The brand did not have the necessary potential to enter new networks and regions.
Mildberry’s task was to completely update the Toptyzhka brand, including developing a new strategy, creating a communication platform, and redesigning the character and packaging.
New kids, new moms
After analyzing the children’s psycho-social profiles of different ages, the Mildberry team suggested focusing on the core of the target audience: children from 5 to 8 years old. At this age, the child learns the world through action and interacts with others through cooperative play. Relationships and reference groups become important to children, like parents and friends. The child begins to show interest in the personal qualities of other people, and communication becomes more verbal.
Another audience for baby products is mothers. These are women, mostly between 25 and 45 years old, who want their children to grow up healthy and happy. The modern mother is concerned about the quality and safety of baby food. Despite how busy she might be, and her career, she strives to be closer to her child, choosing products that the children must also like.
The updated Toptyzhka brand had to meet the expectations of two target audiences to peak the interest among children and acquire trust from the parents.
Fun with Toptyzhka
The brand positioning has been updated to take into account the insights of both children and adults. The main idea of the developed brand strategy is safe adventures with Toptyzhka.
Toptyzhka’s world is a safe environment for children’s development, where they feel free, and their parents feel calm. The brand offers children the value of adventure in a quest format. Toptyzhka gives the child vivid impressions within games and creative activities, the opportunity to make their own choices, to explore new boundaries of freedom and independence. For mums, the quest principle makes the unpredictability of the adventure planned, keeping their kids safe.
The brand’s main element is its character: a cheerful, active and mischievous teddy bear, who sometimes even breaks the rules. Toptyzhka is a reliable person, resourceful and enthusiastic, always ready for new adventures. Children look to him as though he is an older brother or a friend, with whom there’s never a dull moment.
In addition to Toptyzhka’s personality, the agency team worked on a holistic image of the brand character: the specifics of his movements, facial expressions, clothing style and tastes, hobbies, habitat, and even distinctive sounds.
A Character with a personality
The result of the strategic phase of brand repositioning became the ground level for the development of a new packaging and character design.
Toptyzhka has been redesigned taking into account modern trends in creating characters for FMCG brands. Instead of the outdated “smoothing” techniques of 3D characters, CGI graphics were used, which are used in the creation of animated films. Hyper-realistic stylization creates a sense of the reality and introduces it into the environment familiar to consumers.
Modernization of the brand’s graphic elements was carried out while maintaining its recognition. However, after the redesign, Toptyzhka became closer to the children, turning into a teenager and a true friend.
Communication Development
The brand connects two audiences — mothers and children — with the basic idea of the value of contact with a child through common adventures. In order to achieve this, a theme plan was developed in the communication platform for creating adult and children’s content.
Every day Toptyzhka invites the children to take part in a fun adventure: with him you can learn how to go hiking, learn how not to be late, make crafts or play active and intellectual games. The brand tells parents how to communicate properly with the child and organize leisure time, and also shares information about the production and benefits of dairy products.
Content management is a key tool for promoting brands in today’s digital media. Mildberry developed the Toptyzhka content management strategy, defining the basic principles, sources and message topics, and also proposed how to further develop communications, both offline and online.
The updated Toptyzhka can already be found on store shelves in different Russian regions of Russia, and it is possible to follow the development of brand communications on social networks.
