The breads category in South Africa has rapidly evolved and fragmented in the last few years – complicating an already complex shelf, making the category more difficult to shop and confusing the shopper. Competitors have introduced new variants into the category – changing and cluttering the various combinations and increasing inconsistency of color and iconography across the category. With this, consumers are articulating more evolved needs from the category which require a new set of product cues including color, texture, shape and pack iconography to communicate new product intrinsics and health benefits. 

As a staple, high frequency category, the breads category navigation needs to be simple and quick– with brands effectively utilizing color, contrast, shape, and iconography cues at shelf to make the shopping experience as intuitive as possible. In addition, the bread shelf is not consistently designed across channels and outlets, creating challenges in merchandising.  Tiger Brands approached Neural Sense to investigate the effectiveness of their existing Albany brand within the breads category. The insights needed to inform the design of new packs for the range, including opportunities that will increase salience (standout on shelf) and aid intuitive category navigation – ultimately designing a pack that wins at a distance of 30 feet, 3 feet and 3 inches from the shopper.