#OnShelf: Sustainable strategy from Diesel

by Louise Burgers. From a new sustainable strategy from Diesel; to bigger pack sizes from Squish; and a new Castle Lite campaign to inspire consumers after a hard year.

Squish launches new 200ml bigger pouch for toddlers

Convenient baby food brand, Squish has launched an SA first, a new larger 200ml pouch size especially for toddlers and their growing appetites. The new, bigger 200ml pouch range sees the baby and toddler food brand extending its existing range of ready-to-eat 100% fruit and veg and yoghurt purees and pressed juices. The range includes three yoghurt flavours and three 100% fruit puree flavours packaged in the convenient new, bigger 200ml pouch. “We have created this larger pouch size with our consumers in mind, providing a new, innovative solution for babies and toddlers with growing appetites,” says Tamara Patel, brand manager for Squish at RFG. “The bigger Squish 200ml pouch is perfectly sized for growing kids, in a convenient format that parents want, in a size they want.”

Patel explains that the latest extension to the Squish product range came after identifying the opportunity to introduce a larger pack-size. She says, “Our Squish puree range is made from 100% fruit and vegetables, and is preservative, colourant and flavourant free with no added starch. Our 100% fruit and veg puree with yoghurt range is made with double cream yoghurt, not yoghurt powder, which offers us a notable point of difference.” And the brand is fully in control of its supply chain, meaning it can control the quality of raw materials from the fields, right through to the end product. The brand extension is also capitalising on the switch in consumer behaviour from jars to pouches. The pouch format offers a safe, hygienic and convenient alternative.

Diesel announces sustainable denim strategy

Diesel and its creative director Glenn Martens are have announced the company’s next chapter in its sustainability initiative, For Responsible Living: the Diesel Library. To be unveiled for Spring/Summer 2022, Diesel Library takes a genderless design approach and represents a new strategy for Diesel’s core category, denim. Going forward, the library will offer a wide range of evergreen and longer-lasting denim items (including trousers, jackets, tops, skirts and more) on a made-to-stay basis, with 50% of the overall denim collection having a permanent shelf life. Martens’ intention is to refresh the base of every category at the brand. It also reinforces its commitment to innovation and the exploration of new production techniques to create desirable, durable and quality denim items, which intend to outlive ‘fast fashion’ trends. These items will be made using fibres, washes and treatments that have been selected based on efficient and responsible resource uses. All the above features will be traced and communicated through a QR Code printed onto the hangtag attached to each Diesel Library piece. In this way, each garment will be equipped with a digital passport that guarantees customers access to a dedicated web page where they can learn more about all the responsible attributes of each specific item. Everything at Diesel will be created under this banner, moving away from the 5-Pocket delineation between women and men. In this, a new personality, and new branding attributes, will be established. A sneak peek of the first DIESEL LIBRARY collection will be seen during Glenn Martens’ premiere show in June 2021. The garments will be available in selected Diesel stores in South Africa and on the Diesel website starting from February 2022.

Stay in the game with Castle

Castle Lite has launched a new campaign that seeks to inspire consumers to have the confidence to own every moment and ‘Stay in the Game’. Advertising assets include a new TV commercial which features rapper and style icon, Riky Rick, as well as Trevor Noah. They’ve also enlisted the help of entrepreneur, Theo Baloyi to round out the trio of personalities who speak to the “ruler within each one of us and inspire the confidence to ace every moment”. Castle Lite seeks to inspire consumers to have the confidence to own every moment. At the core of being a ruler, the ad posits, is the “unassailable quality of being unstoppable and being in tune with your aspirations”. “Seeing everything that our consumers have been through over the past year and a half, our aim was to inspire them with powerful imagery and remain relevant within their changed dynamic. Stay in the Game is about ‘maximising without compromise’. Those moments you want to take time out and have fun with friends, where you want to let go without losing the momentum you have built. With Castle Lite, you remain in the game – whether that is while you are out with friends, cycling in the Cradle or connecting work prospects – it is about living a full life. Not doing less so you can do more, but doing it all and having fun along the way,” Castle Lite brand director, Silke Bucker revealed.

Main image credit: Squish.

Louise Burgers is the Publisher and Editor and Co-Founder of RetailingAfrica.com. She has spent over 20 years writing about the FMCG retailing, marketing, media and advertising industry in South Africa and on the African continent. She has specialised in local and Africa consumer trends and is a passionate Afro-optimist who believes it is Africa’s time to rise again and that the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) will be a global gamechanger in the next decade.

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