A substantial rebrand and a streamlined range architecture, built to compete on shelf in the home care market
In the Italian laundry care market, local brands face pressure on two fronts: price competition from private labels and the investment power of multinational players. When competing on both fronts with the same tools is not an option, the focus shifts to brand value. Soft, the long-established Italian laundry detergent brand owned by Bologna-based Biochimica, chose ATC – All Things Communicate to address this challenge through a rebranding project starting from the most direct consumer touchpoint: the shelf.
The project began with a workshop involving marketing and sales stakeholders, followed by a phase of qualitative and quantitative research. This work laid the foundations for the packaging design strategy and identified the key value to communicate: cleaning performance for detergents and fragrance intensity for fabric softeners.
From there came the choice of a bold visual explosion of bubbles for laundry detergents and an enhanced floral expression for fabric softeners. The device sits within a packaging design system built around a coherent architecture, designed both to stand out on shelf and to communicate reassurance claims, with a clear hierarchy between promise and reassurance that consumers can grasp within the first two seconds. The system also highlights fragrance across detergent products, because scent represents a distinctive benefit that consumers already associate with the brand’s laundry offer.
The system was carefully adapted across the different lines, preserving the specific character of each sub-range while keeping them immediately recognisable at a glance. This is the most delicate aspect of a detergent packaging project spanning multiple ranges, where the family feeling needs to remain evident without flattening the differences that guide consumer choice at shelf.
The restyling was ultimately delivered with a brand book and a set of packaging guidelines, designed to preserve the design system beyond the initial project and ensure consistency in the brand identity over time.
For the liquid and powder detergent range, the new graphic system brings cleaning effectiveness to the forefront through an immediate visual language, designed to stand out on shelf while making promise, benefit and reassurance easy to read.
The Delicare range retains a more specific personality, adapting the codes of the new design system without losing consistency with the brand or recognisability compared with the other lines.
Flowers, colour and visual intensity translate the olfactory promise into an immediate visual language, differentiating the various product types and strengthening one of Soft’s most recognisable benefits.
The same fragrance travels across different formats and categories while maintaining consistent codes, hierarchies and family feeling. A concrete demonstration of how the design system can unite the entire range without flattening its individual characteristics.
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