Besht from Kothari foods, is a line of healthy snacks made with alternative bases such as Ragi and Oats. Targeted to be launched in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, the snacks needed to be developed in a manner that would help them stand out in an over-crowded, but perennially hungry market.

The project brief was to create the brand from scratch, name, architecture, visual identity, et al. plus the packaging. We saw this project through from the early steps of coming up with the name, to then branding it, developing a mascot and creating the packaging for the snacks, as if it was our own.

Knowing that the early adopters of our products would mostly be pre-teen kids who lived without any pretences, we ensured that the visual identity was appropriately loud, bold, eye catching, colourful, and most importantly ‘unserious’. In line with that philosophy, we also developed the mascot ‘Tera Bhai’ for the brand, who embodied its whimsical nature.

Finally, with Jaaved Jaaferi being roped in as the brand ambassador and the real-life counterpart of our mascot, the brand was ready for its much-awaited immediate sell-out from stores (which did happen).

The brand name is an adaptation of the word “Best”, which has been altered to “Besht” to cater to a Tier 2 and Tier 3 town customer. The logo also directly represents the word “best”, by making the ‘S’ in the logo look like a hand giving a thumbs-up, which is a universal symbol for approval or a mark of guarantee. In this case, the thumbs-up guarantees an excellence in taste and in health. The packaging design is fun, playful and bright, represented through a use of bright colours and a 3D modelled mascot. The packaging also shows a visual representation of the chips along with the flavour and a colour to represent the flavour on the pack. The mascot is designed to cater to a younger audience, wearing a pair of ripped jeans, a set of headphones and sporting a designer pair of shades.