New logo: Milda

Milda is a leading margarine brand in Sweden and Denmark, owned by Unilever who are the world's leading margarine manufacturer. This April, Milda started rolling out new packaging with an altered logo.

Unilever introduced a new look for Milda's sister brands in Germany and Benelux (Rama, Blue Band and Planta) a year ago. Created by Design Bridge in London, it did away with many local design characteristics for a new common design. Although billed as a "unified global brand identity", it has apparently not been applied to other countries.

The Milda redesign goes in a different direction. It does adopt the custom-made typeface created for Rama in 2011, but overall the new look takes inspiration from the Milda's history. The new logo once again includes a red oval and a flower. They had been a part of Milda's logo for a half century, but were removed in another global realignment in 2006.
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New logo: Deli Reform

Deli Reform is a German margarine brand, manufactured by a local company called Walter Rau Lebensmittelwerke, a somewhat unusual example of a major margarine brand that isn't controlled by a multinational. Recently, Deli Reform refreshed its logo and packaging.

Deli Reform was introduced in the late 1950s and was originally sold in cubes with blue and red packaging. The red shape from the original packaging has been with the product with incremental updates since the beginning. Some decades ago a bunch of grains, fruits and a sunflower were added to the logo.

This latest update is another such incremental change, making the word "Reform" smaller and altering the red shape slightly. The packaging employs recent advances in printing to make room for more buttercups.
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New logo: Becel / Flora

This spring, the multinational consumer products company Unilever rebranded its high-fat margarine range in a few markets. Unilever has another range of margarines intended at lowering people's blood cholesterol, which is also getting a visual refresh. Internally, this product line is called "Healthy Heart", but to consumers these margarine are marketed under the names Becel (many European markets, Latin America and Canada), Flora (most anglo-saxon markets and Spain), Promise (United States) and Fruit d'Or (France).

Previous logo.

There is even more international variation when it comes to the lettering in the logo and the packaging, and the brand design formula seems to change somewhat now and then. For the last few years, the brand seems to have settled on a logo design featuring two ovals, one yellow, and one white with blue outline, with the local logotype on top.

Recently, probably at some point at the beginning of this year, Unilever started updating the logos again. This time the ovals have been replaced by a more literal outline of a heart.

A quick look through various Unilever websites suggests the updated look has so far been introduced in several European markets, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. Sometimes, the logo change has been accompanied by an overall packaging redesign, sometimes the new logo has simply been swapped for the old one.

New logo/packaging: Rama, Blue Band and Planta (Unilever margarines)

The multinational consumer products company Unilever was founded in the 1930s as a merger between a soap producer and a margarine company. Although it has expanded into other foodstuffs and hygiene products, margarine is still a central part of the company. Today, Unilever owns dozens of margarine brands around the world, most of which can be fitted into three categories: high fat/cooking, blood cholesterol lowering and low-fat.

Although there are different names in different countries, Unilever often enforces a cohesive International packaging design, where only the name changes. A few months ago, a new common design for the high-fat margarines started appearing. Created by Design Bridge in London, the new packaging features hand-drawn flowers on a sunny meadow with new typography.

The new Rama logo.

Unilever's internal name for this product category happens to be "Family Goodness", and the brand is clearly aimed at families. The brand vision is "Growing Great Kids", suggesting that Unilever wants to stress the importance of high-fat margarine for growing children.

"Our hand-drawn flowers in a sunny meadow present a deceptively simple visual identity that has grown from a strong brand strategy. The new branding talks to all parents using cross-cultural visual language and symbolism. It communicates growth and health in a universally engaging way. It conveys warm, sunny optimism and inspires trust. It is also easily applied to any packaging format and detailed brand guidelines guarantee that promotional items, literature and print conform to a unified visual identity and a common brand positioning – anywhere in the world." - Design Bridge case study



Packaging, before and after. (It seems the South-African Rama packaging has sneaked in here instead of the old German one.)


The new design has been around at least since early April, when it was covered by the German design blog Designtagebuch, and I remember seeing it in stores around then. At that point, the new look had been introduced for Rama in the German-speaking countries, Blue Band in the Netherlands and Planta in Belgium. A quick look around local Unilever websites suggests that the new design hasn't yet been introduced in any other markets.

Previous Rama logo.

Previous Blue Band logo.

Previous Planta logo.

The new look is a major shake-up for the German Rama brand, which has abandoned the "Rama girl" which has been seen on packaging for a long time, and in ads even longer. Blue Band gets to keep a tiny version of its "blue band" symbol for some reason. Planta's previous identity was part of an International generic design from 2006.
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