Cheez Doodles is expanding with new flavors, products — complete refresh of its packaging by Perspective: Branding. The San Francisco-based design firm, was tapped by Wise Foods to refresh the brand across all sku’s and increase shelf impact, while protecting recognizable brand elements. “The brand’s core mixes great taste and fun with a playfully mischievous quality,” says Simon Thorneycroft, Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Perspective: Branding. “At the heart of the taste experience is the real, intense cheese flavor, so we decided to elevate the importance, size and impact of the Cheez Doodles logo and make the Wise logo an endorser of the brand.”
The shift in focus, adds Thorneycroft, “allowed the design team to build a more meaningful story into the brandmark, helping to define its purpose while linking it to the core strengths of the brand.” This included transforming the yellow circle of type previously found in the logo into the “world of cheddar,” which also injects an element of whimsy. Increasing the scale of the word Cheez vs. Doodles also helped to emphasize taste appeal in the brand name. Background colors were changed from candy tones to ones associated with food flavors and a paint-like texture resembling sprinkled cheese dust adds to the appeal. Real photography of cheddar cheese and the product taken from an overhead angle reinforces the quality taste experience while also parodying how a consumer would view the product at the point of consumption.
The existing line includes 35 SKUs and, with this rebrand, 3 new items were introduced: Cheez Doodles Extreme, Cheez Doodles Queso Habanero and Cheez Doodles Baseballs. Cheez Doodles Extreme is designed as a sub-brand and features the product as a striking match, while Queso Habanero follows the core packaging design system. The brand also partnered with the New York Mets to introduce an exclusive item: Cheez Doodles Baseballs, sold throughout the greater Metro New York market. According to Jeremy Bjork, Chief Marketing Officer at Wise Foods, the new look is “fresh, clean and fun. It is true to the brand essence and doesn’t try hard to be something it’s not. These are all qualities that resonated strongly with our target audience.”
