Innovation for Immunity
Strong As A Dragon, Multifunctional As Cocoon Thinkers, Designers And Makers - How Astaforce is coming to Life.
Text: Jiří Votruba, Managing Director of Cocoon Prague
Being curious was always a part of my character. Start-upping, so to speak, was also a big part of my associate's mentality and so it was our mutual passion for innovating, that has planted the first seed of Cocoon’s today’s course back in 2017. And alongside our core business back then - the branding - we decided to broaden our capabilities and to invest Cocoon’s capacities, know-how and energy in building new companies and offering innovations services. Our Thinkers, Designers, Makers company was born.
A bit later the perfect opportunity arises. Approached by a client, a Czech producer of almost magical natural antioxidant called astaxanthin, we were to develop and market a completely new product concept with this new and powerful ingredient, previously almost unknown to the Czech market. An ingredient that claims to be 6000x more powerful than vitamin C, naturally produced and harvested in the Czech Republic, simply a dietary supplements’ Holy grail.
To be honest, we were hesitant at first. We have never heard of this astaxanthin before, nor were we sure wether our energy and resources investment would pay off. The complexity of this task was challenging.
The hesitation went away the minute we stepped into our client’s production facility in Northern Bohemia. The sci-fi-like production plant in the middle of nature, powered by renewable sources, producing naturally this “red gold” substance called astaxanthin convinced us, that we have met the right partner and found the right ingredient to build a completely new product. We have then come with our new brand vision: Helping our consumers to be healthy, resilient and strong.
Our team work started. The client brought their product know-how and production capacities, Cocooners have added our innovation, strategic and creative capabilities. Over the course of 2,5 years 26 Cocooners invested more than 2500 hours to the project. Managing such a complex project meant not only managing the team of Thinkers, Designers, Makers on Cocoon’s side, but also coordinating up to 16 other external suppliers.
Let’s now have a look at the key milestones of the project development.
What is the right format?
We knew from the very beginning that we want to differentiate our product on several levels. The first question was whether to offer our product in capsules (like many other food supplements) or other format that would additionally improve lives of our consumers.
We’ve interviewed industry experts and consumers, which led us to a decision to go for powder soluble in water. Consumer would be able to enjoy the benefits of astaxanthin, consuming the product in liquid form, whilst keeping the hydration level up every day.
So many benefits, which one to own?
Astaxanthin, the strongest natural antioxidant - “the red gold” - offers many benefits. It has positive effect on nails, hair, eyesight, heart, skin, joints, immunity…. and the list goes on. So what should be the one thing to focus on and build our product concept and brand around? Given the target audience and also the times the world has been going through in past two years, the choice was made to turn everything around immunity boosting. Astaxanthin is great for immunity on its own, but we’ve decided to go even further and created an immunity boosting cocktail that included also other immunity helping ingredients such as selen and zinc.
At this point in our project we’ve created a one-of-a-kind immunity boosting formula in a unique format - water soluble powder.
Astaforce identity is born.
On one hand we’ve had a target audience that needed to perform at their best all day long, and on the other hand there was our product, a powerful immunity boosting drink based on the strongest natural antioxidant. Therefore, power, strength, resilience and life energy boosting had to be reflected in the brand positioning. Our main brand archetype was the Warrior and was later executed in verbal and visual identity of the brand. The colour of astaxanthin itself is red and, given the brand positioning, red colour was chosen as the main identity asset, along with the image of a dragon projecting strength and power.
Astaforce is coming to market.
Having the product and the brand identity set, we’ve proceeded with other disciplines - packaging design, advertising campaign, website and e-shop. Astaforce hit the market this fall.
Tremendous achievement of all Cocoon’s Thinkers, Designers, Makers.
It has been an enormous adventure with 2,5 years worth of twist and turns, tastings, experiments, changes and, at the end of the day, fair share of fun. Our team of Thinkers, Designers, Makers can be righteously proud of themselves for being creative, meticulous, cooperative and hard-working. The product is currently hitting the market, right on time before the winter holidays, which means our work continues with the promotion, social media, PR and more.
