We wanted to use the medium that would be seen by the majority of our loyal Clover Fresh Milk Buyers – the packaging. For six years, Clover Packaging has been recognisable for its distinctive illustration of a farm with green pastures, fresh flowers and cows grazing. So we decided to show in the simplest way, what the drought means. We removed the cows, the flowers and the leaves from the trees. We replaced rolling green hills, with dry, dusty land in shades of brown. In a very direct and simple way we told the story of the drought, the impact of it on our business and on the farms, and more broadly, how it affects us all. It was the packaging our customers knew so well, but with a clearly different story to tell.

We created a new plate, with the new design and used it to change our packaging, but essentially our current tetra-packs (1litre) and plastic bottles (2l), with shrink-wrap labels, dictated how we would produce our new bottles. All materials remained the same, with the only design changes being made to the illustration and colours on-pack.

Despite a 27.5% increase in the price of Clover Fresh Milk over this period, the sales grew by more than 8%. Our communication not only prevented a brand switch, but surprisingly got shoppers to choose to buy even more Clover Fresh Milk.

We had to think very carefully about the media, and decided to use the packaging (small scale) - not only because it was the most pertinent when making the purchase decision in-store, but it was also the most impactful. It also meant that our message left the store with our consumers, and could be mulled over as the Fresh Milk was placed in the fridge or discussed as it was being consumed by the household. In a time when the drought in SA was a big part of conversation, our media ensured that our brand was part of that conversation.

The intention of this campaign was to use public sympathy to soften the blow of the price increase. We positioned Clover as a caring and responsible South African brand that is implementing a drought relief premium that will be passed onto their dairy farmers to help them during this very dire and difficult time. It was decided that they primary choice of channel for this campaign should be in-store as this is where consumers would be faced with the price tag and the final purchase decision. As Clover is the biggest dairy brand, shelf-space and our packaging is one of their strongest communication channels.

The target audience comprised of the entire South African public because dairy is a commodity consumed by all incomes, races, genders and classes and the drought issue is affecting the entire South African public.

South Africa has experienced the worst drought in over 100 years, affecting farmers and ultimately consumers nationwide. As the biggest South African dairy brand, the dairy farmers that supply Clover milk are under extreme pressure to keep their farms alive during this dire time. As a result, Clover decided to implement a drought relief premium order to increase the cost price that would be paid to farmers – this in turn would increase the price point of Clover milk at a consumer level. The brief had a limited budget and our role was to communicate to consumers why the price was increasing while retaining sales and brand loyalty.