Arm & Hammer re:considered (Concept)

Designed by designojo, United States.

Arm & Hammer re:considered (concept)

For much of its 160 year history Church and Dwight has sold baking soda under the Arm & Hammer brand name in an iconic yellow box, with the classic Arm & Hammer symbol. Sometime in the mid 1970’s the brand extensions began to multiply like bunnies, initially with household cleaning products and later within the personal care category.

Today Arm & Hammer markets everything from laundry detergent and bathroom cleaners to cat litter and toothpaste. Church & Dwight has positioned Arm & Hammer as an “ingredient brand” which they have successfully leveraged across numerous product categories with a core promise- the power of baking soda and its proven deodorizing effects.

Packaging across their diverse range of products and consumer targets, for the most part, builds upon familiar Arm & Hammer visual assets: the muscular arm and sledge hammer icon within the red circle and a predominately yellow color palette.

We were somewhat curious about how the brand might be evolved to speak more uniquely to consumers within each specific product segment while retaining a link back to the Arm & Hammer master brand. Clearly the visual and emotional drivers for a consumer shopping the toothpaste aisle at a drugstore are different from a shopper buying cat litter at the neighborhood pet care super store. How would packaging be impacted by analysis of the competitive landscape within these individual product categories? What would be the best visual strategy to communicate the many specific product benefits while building upon the strength of the Arm & Hammer brand? And just how elastic is the brand to further line extensions?