Featured image for Alden's Organic: How a Small Pacific Northwest Brand Found Its Way Into The National Market

Alden's Organic: How a Small Pacific Northwest Brand Found Its Way Into The National Market

by Natalie Mouradian on 03/20/2018 | 3 Minute Read

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Seattle based agency Retail Voodoo designed this clean packaging for Alden’s Organic, a line of premium ice cream that comes with a down-to-earth feeling.

“Despite being the first organic ice cream made at-scale, Alden’s had little-to-no brand awareness outside of the narrowest of conscious consumers frequenting the natural channel in the Pacific Northwest.

When we began working with Alden’s we asked ourselves, how we could take an old-fashioned, family-owned, deep-rooted, ‘we’ve-always-done-it-this-way’ ice cream brand and convert it to a mainstream, commercially viable brand celebrating its strong values?

Alden’s is a premium organic ice cream that works to make its half-gallon product priced so that more families can afford organic. But this never came up in sales presentations or when addressing the public. External communication sounded like many other ice cream brands because it didn’t cover two differentiators that make the company great.”

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“The company’s commitment to multi-generational sustainability and organic family-farms were overlooked brand assets. Research showed that U.S. shoppers did not feel that there was a viable premium organic ice cream brand. 

Most importantly, we needed to make sure that Alden’s got credit for being the only organic ice cream of scale. 

Trend data revealed two key yearnings in American culture that Alden’s could meet in people’s lives. 

Comfort is king. In times of chaos and stress, people long for foods associated with memories and times of comfort. Ice cream is a natural fit. Simpler claims. This resulted in a very concise ‘no-baddies’ list that is featured on each product.”  

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"We needed to give the product portfolio a point-of-view that would emphasize Alden’s as a family brand, making simple, family-friendly flavors and wearing its family values on its sleeve. We narrowed it to the classics and worked directly with Oregon Ice Cream’s resident ice cream guru to make them amazing (full disclosure we mostly tasted them and provided feedback – David even put on 10 pounds). 

Our go to market strategy began with this simple line: Scoop Up Happy. 

Minimalist, nostalgic packaging allows the name to be read as Alden’s Organic, flat color combined with hyper-realistic photography of the novelties, delivers on the promise of simple pleasures for a complex world. 

Our rollout was an ice cream social and series of roadshows with a real ice cream truck. Alden’s even drove the truck directly onto the floor of Expo West."


Designed By: Retail VoodooClient: Alden's OrganicDesigners: Jessica Lennard, Eric Wyttenbach and David PhillipsCreative Director: David LemleyLocation: Seattle, Washington