公司团队知道他们的产品虽然很好，但问题在于怎么让人愿意尝试它。斯库克拉夫特表示：“我们没有很多的预算，所以我们得把包装当成主要宣传媒介。它们就相当于超市里的广告牌。”包装上的每一个设计元素，包括明亮的颜色、泡泡状的字体，以及用了很多感叹号和问号的文案，都是为了吸引消费者拿起包装盒。（比如包装上有一行字写道：“对，我们是素食主义者，所以你呢？”）这种精灵古怪的表达和描述都是为了说服消费者购买，只要他们愿意买一盒尝尝，产品就终于可以为自己代言了。

该公司的品牌重塑取得了成功，欧洲地区的销量开始迅速增长，去年，Oatly开始大张旗鼓进军美国。在下文中，斯库克拉夫特详解了Oatly的这次品牌重塑何以取得成功，以及广大中小企业在塑造品牌形象时往往会掉进哪些陷阱。

Otaly更像一个活生生的人，而不是一个品牌

直到今天，Oatly的广告、包装文案以及官网上的大部分文章都是由斯库克拉夫特亲自操刀的。很多品牌的广告语都是字斟句酌的商业语言，但Oatly的文案往往带着三分武断、调侃和政治化的色彩。（比如该公司官网是这样描述产品的营养信息的：“如果你想发电子邮件，或者下载一部电影，最好用光纤。如果你只想让身体吸收一些纤维，给身体一些营养，那么喝一两杯燕麦乳就很不错。”）

斯库克拉夫特想让消费者知道，经营这家公司的是有血有肉的人，而不是千人一面的“机器人”。有时他也有些“用力过猛”，他甚至会把自己的私人电子邮件地址写在产品包装盒背面。（不喜欢产品的人如果写邮件给他报怨，他就会回赠一篇原创的小故事或打油诗，平息对方的怒火。不过由于顾客发来的邮件太多，6个月后他终于坚持不下去了，这种做法也只得告一段落。）

自从品牌重塑以来，斯库克拉夫特一直在坚持不懈地写新的文案。他希望公司的品牌信息能少一些营销话术，多一些与消费者的对话。他表示：“品牌重组的过程中一定不能忘了这一点，如果你真的认为，你不应该做一家冷冰冰的企业，而是应该与消费者对话，做一个活生生的人，发出自己的声音，那么你就得一直这样做。”

创意决策来自一个小团队

Oatly的品牌重塑主要靠四个人牵头，他们分别是斯库克拉夫特、公司CEO彼得森、设计师埃尔夫曼，以及F&B公司的另一名创意设计师马丁·林奇维斯特。没有市场部将他们的方案一遍遍地打回去重做，他们的创意也不会遭到稀释或被迫做出某些妥协。

斯库克拉夫特认为，更多公司都应该采取这样的品牌设计方式。如果有太多层级的人掣肘，你几乎不可能设计出一个独特的品牌声音。斯库克拉夫特指出，企业家应该自行决定品牌要传递的信息是什么，如果这一点你不能确定，就找家市场调查机构来做。等确定了品牌要传递的信息之后，你再去找一个创意设计师或者一个小团队，将这些信息传递给消费者。对于新成立的创业公司，说不定一个有才的朋友就能帮你搞定。家大业大的守成型企业则会聘请一个外部机构，或是委托给一个内部设计团队来完成。总之，关键是要找到真正有才华的人，把创意的决定权交给他们。

并非人人都喜欢品牌重塑

Oatly公司的新包装强调了公司对可持续发展的承诺，但同时也甩锅给了牛奶行业，称他们的发展是不可持续的，对此，牛奶行业自然十分不爽。另外，包装盒上偶尔出现的笑点，也并非每个人都知道。

在斯库克拉夫特看来，这次品牌重塑带来的积极影响显然说明了它的成功——但它带来的一些消极反应也同样说明了它的成功。“如果你真的想在竞争中突出重围，就必须说一些人们真正感兴趣的话。”他还表示：“你永远不可能让所有人都高兴，但是如果你一直奉行中庸之道，那么压根没有人会注意你。”（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

The team knew the product was good. They just needed to get people to try it. “We didn’t have a large budget, and we had to use the package as the main medium,” Schoolcraft says. “They were basically in-store billboards.” Every element of design — the bright colors, bubbly type-face, and exclamation and question mark-laden copy was meant to get shoppers to pick up the package (“YES, WE ARE VEGAN SO?” reads one large tagline). The quirky manifestos and descriptions would hopefully convince them to buy it — and then the product could finally speak for itself.

It worked. Sales rapidly increased in Europe, and late last year, Oatly began a strategic U.S. rollout to much fanfare. Below, Schoolcraft outlines why the rebranding was a success — as well as the pitfalls he often sees small businesses making when it comes to developing a strong brand identity.

Oatly sounds like a person — not a brand.

To this day, Schoolcraft writes the majority of the copy featured in Oatly’s ads and on its packages and website. Whereas most brands stick to polished corporate speak, Oatly’s copy is opinionated, political, and casual. (Here’s how a piece of nutritional information is communicated on the website: “If you want to send an email or stream a movie then optical fibers are way more amazing, but if you just want to get some fibers in your body so your body can get some nutritional justification, then a glass or two of our liquid oats are pretty great.”)

Schoolcraft wanted customers to know the company was being run by flesh-and-blood humans, not a robotic committee. Sometimes, he took this too far, such as when he included his personal email on the back of Oatly’s packaging. (Customers who didn’t like the product could email him and be mollified with an original poem or short story. After about six months, the backlog was unmanageable and the exchange came to an end.)

Since the re-design, Schoolcraft has continued to write new copy. He wants the brand’s messaging to feel less like marketing and more like a conversation. “You can’t just do a rebranding and leave it,” he says. “If you really believe that you are not acting like a company, that you just want to talk and have a voice and be a real person, you have to do it all the time.”

Creative decisions were made by a small team.

Oatly’s redesign was spearheaded by four people: Schoolcraft, Petersson, Elfman, and Martin Ringqvist, another creative at the agency. There was no back-and-forth with the a marketing department, and creative decisions weren’t diluted by crowdsourcing and compromise.

Schoolcraft argues that more companies should work like this: It’s hard to design a unique voice for your brand when too multiple layers of people are involved. Instead, he advises that entrepreneurs determine what their message is—if you need market research to figure this out “you should be doing something else” —and then find a trusted creative person or small team to communicate it to consumers. For brand-new startups, this might be a talented friend. For more established companies, it could be an agency or an in-house design team. The key is to find talented people, and hand over the creative reins.

Not everyone liked the redesign.

Oatly’s new packaging highlighted the company’s commitment to sustainability, in part by calling out unsustainable practices of the dairy industry. Understandably, the dairy industry wasn’t too happy. The occasionally nonsensical chatter on the back of the packaging also wasn’t for everyone.

For Schoolcraft, the positive responses generated by the brand was a mark of success — but so were the negative ones. “If you are going to break through all the clutter you’ve got to say something that people actually find interesting,” he says. “You’re not going to ever make everyone happy. But if you are just neutral no one is ever going to notice you.”