Maxell Corporation of America

Maxell Packaging

Maxell, with its iconic “chair-man” identity, has long been a leader in the media storage category. As a way to stay relevant in a technology-driven marketplace that has made VHS and CDs nearly obsolete, the brand began offering products in other categories. Thus, the company reached out to Bailey to help it find a way to convince consumers that Maxell’s history of performance can translate to the data, headphone and computer peripheral categories in which they now compete.

After an extensive review of the competitors in each category, Bailey implemented a subbrand strategy to segment the products. This helps develop a consistent brand look and feel but also adds category differentiation. The new design unifies the brand in the shopper’s eye to create brand recognition throughout the store, while communicating category-specific messaging to increase credibility.

The new design utilizes a light gray dot-pattern background with an inner glow to create a halo effect that draws the consumer’s eye toward the product imagery and content within the color-coded panels specific to each category. A system of icons was implemented cross-category to highlight significant benefit copy, and to further marry the categories’ visual brand language. Lastly, Maxell’s “chair-man” was not “gone with the wind” in the new design; instead it maintains the most prominence in the MaxMusic category, featured loud and proud within the purple/blue color panel of the PDP.