Honest Tea Refreshes Labels as PET (Plastic) Line Gains National Distribution

BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Honest Tea, the nation's top-selling organic bottled tea company, today unveiled a redesign of its PET (plastic) line of Honest Tea® and Honest Ade®.  Starting in September, the new look will begin hitting store shelves.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110906/LA62361)

The label refresh was initiated over three years ago after a series of consumer insights suggested that the brand could be making a bigger visual impact on store shelves.

"Gaining national distribution is like getting a primetime premiere, and we want to make sure we're wearing our best outfit," said Seth Goldman, President & TeaEO of Honest Tea.  "As any brand manager knows, updating your visual identity can be a grueling process, but we are delighted with the final results."

The new designs feature a white background that highlights clean, vibrant images of the ingredients.  Fresh tea leaves and large cut-open fruit are presented in an elegant and often playful way, to reinforce the simplicity and deliciousness of the ingredients.  The tea labels also feature a prominent call-out specifying "Brewed Organic [Green, Black or White] Tea Leaves" to reinforce the authenticity of the ingredients. The images on the Honest Ade labels include fun treatment of the fruit by giving it unexpected scale and context– such as a lemon half serving as a beach umbrella. To further increase shelf standout, the brand's logo has evolved too.  While maintaining the Garamond font that has become a part of the brand's graphic identity, the word "Honest" is now larger, to create greater brand unity across the line.  The iconic "T" shape remains as a recognizable symbol on the line of tea products.  

"We had a lot of fun developing this new look," said Peter Kaye, VP of Marketing  "We want our labels to stand out on store shelves and drive appetite appeal, all while maintaining our signature Honest brand look. We are thrilled to finally be unveiling our hard work and think both our loyal consumers, and many new consumers, will be interested in the appetizing images and fun stories each variety takes on."

Honest Tea's internal team worked with international brand design agency Turner Duckworth to help develop the new label design architecture.  Michael Kravit, Honest Tea's Creative Director said, "We drew inspiration from the simplicity of the ingredients to drive the overall look and as a result, the labels are true to the Honest brand and what's inside the bottle."

The new labels are not reflective of any formula changes.

For more information, visit www.honesttea.com.  Follow Honest Tea on Twitter: @HonestTea and like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/HonestTea.

About Honest Tea

Honest Tea is the nation's top-selling organic bottled tea company with a mission to make great-tasting, truly healthy organic beverages sweetened with less sugar and fewer calories than most bottled beverages. Honest Tea's product lines include: Honest Tea ready-to-drink bottled teas in glass and PET #1 (plastic) bottles, Honest Ade organic thirst quenchers, Honest Kids drink pouches and Honest CocoaNova, a brewed cacao infusion.  All varieties are USDA-certified organic and Fair Trade Certified™. Since Honest Tea was founded in Bethesda, Maryland in 1998, the company has sustained an impressive double-digit annual growth rate. In addition to being named one of The Better World Shopping Guide's "Ten Best Companies on the Planet based on their overall social and environmental record," Honest Tea was also listed as one of PlanetGreen.com's "Top 7 Green Corporations of 2010," received Greenopia.com's coveted 4-Leaf Rating as "the greenest beverage company" for the third year in a row and was recently ranked by The Huffington Post as one of the leading "8 Revolutionary Socially Responsible Companies." In March 2011, The Coca-Cola Company purchased Honest Tea, completing a transaction that began in 2008 when Coca-Cola took a minority interest in Honest Tea.

SOURCE Honest Tea