Nestlé and General Mills Shift Focus of Breakfast Cereal Fitness

Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW) – the cereal joint venture between Nestlé and General Mills – will emphasise health over body shape by relaunching its Fitness brand of breakfast cereals.

The new look will promote the range’s focus on ‘nutritious energy’, with the main difference being the loss of the female body shape silhouette that previously adorned boxes of the cereal.

The two companies said that the relaunch was ‘a fundamental shift’ that would help the brand to better meet consumers’ changing health needs, after two decades of strong growth. It will aim to engage consumers by replacing the female silhouette with ‘a dynamic design’ – built around a flowing ‘C’ motif – that captures the feeling of energy.

The redesign, by FutureBrand, will also be rolled out across Nestlé’s portfolio of Fitness products, which includes cereal-based snacks and dairy.

The brand had already begun experimenting with a similar design in some regions.

CPW global marketing manager Philippe Nougaret said: “The brand went through a significant repositioning in order to strengthen consumer relevance and this new visual identity is an essential part of it. It communicates the new energy positioning in an obvious manner while keeping and reinterpreting some of the strong visual assets that the brand has built throughout the years.

“It tested extremely well in research, ensuring both strong ‘findability’ and ‘shoppability’ amongst current brand loyalists and driving significantly stronger appeal amongst non-users.”

Marshall Ward, senior vice-president of FutureBrand, added: “The redesign encapsulates the brand idea of tasty, nutritious energy and marks a new era for the brand. It reinforces the proposition of energy, while creating a distinct, vibrant expression for the brand to relaunch and grow from.”

And Marie-Thérèse Cassidy, executive creative director for FutureBrand London, continued: “To reflect the evolving consumer attitude towards health and wellness, we shifted the focus from the female figure towards a more optimistic and joyful expression of energy and taste.

“We gently modernised the Fitness wordmark and locked it up with a more animated silhouette. Both are underpinned with the product story of nutritious energy. The new brand mark is framed with a wave, which through colour, texture and beautiful photography we celebrate taste and enjoyment in a multi-sensorial way. The personality of the wave adapts to reflect different taste experience of products throughout their ever-growing portfolio.”

The new Fitness brand identity is being launched in mainland Europe, including France, Italy, Germany and Austria.