Background: Nova Funghi was founded in 1980 by the company owner Paolo Scapin to process locally-produced champignon mushrooms to supply the catering industry with a ready product. It was a great success.
The careful attention to the product and innovation compared to tradition ensured that the product portfolio increased considerably until becoming important for the catering industry and mass retailing, both as supplier of private brands and as a brand in itself.
Nova Funghi is now a leading player in the ready speciality vegetable sector, starting from the well-known tinned funghi trifolati (mushrooms cooked in olive oil with parsley and garlic) through to more innovative products launched recently.

Strategy: When the company reached its 40th anniversary, it decided on the great step of the relaunch of the brand through the redefinition of positioning and resulting restyling of the trademark and the whole range of products.

The strategy is based on four main columns:
1) focus on the brand’s positioning, the starting point for every communication project;
2) as a result, the evolution of the brand identity, adding a distinctive, recognisable and memorable sign, full of content and able to give strong support to the value of the offer;
3) create a strong packaging design system, highly visible and recognisable on the shelves and able to keep the offer together as it suffered from launches made at different times which were often disconnected;
4) the launch of the ‘Premium’ range, which offers a considerable change of pace to the market with high added value quality products.

At the same time, the phrase “dal 1980 – ricetta originale del fondatore” (since 1980, the founder’s original recipe), mushrooms cooked in olive oil with parsley and garlic prepared with an innovative technique able to recover the flavour of the original recipe, gives further impulse and greater visibility to the strategy.

Project: The process of analysing and redefining positioning led to the awareness that Nova mainly produces and offers ready to eat semi-finished or finished products. Basically, the core of the brand is in its ability to turn fresh, carefully selected vegetables into tasty meals that can be used directly or as ingredients for other dishes. This is a different standpoint from many competitors who mainly present themselves as good freshness preservers.
Therefore, the trademark changes its shape, maintaining the continuity of lettering desired by the owner, taking inspiration from the fluted borders of sun blinds protecting restaurant windows and then finding its essence as the seal of quality, which can even be interpreted as a sun umbrella, seen from above, protecting guests.
All the packaging design system, structured with great clarity and simplicity, develops from this concept – the red fluting above and the white below, colours which have always been the brand’s historic ones. The linearity and order then pair with the taste and abundance of the tailor-made photos to express the great value and flavour of the product.
The bottom of the tin is also printed with the trademark and used as a top to emphasise its presence in the point of sale.
The whole package has been designed to exploit the spaces available on the tins and ensure the greatest chance of noticing the brand’s presence when passing along the shelves.

The result is a strong, cohesive and united brand, proudly belonging to the NOVA family which guarantees its quality.