Comfort Destinations
Travel the World from the Comfort of Your Home
Losing relevancy with their existing buyers, Comfort wanted to relaunch their range of Fabric conditioners and beads to attract to younger shoppers by creating a sensorial experience rather than a generic pack.
Our solution was a creative concept based on dreamy escapism, with instantly recognisable landscapes contrasted by floating scent ingredients to create a quick sensorial read for the consumer – prompting a repositioning from functional care to sensorial escape.
Clear branding and simplified claims in an intuitive hierarchy helped elevate the contemporary reposition. By focusing on fragrance storytelling, consumer insight and brand identity design, Comfort was able to modernise its image, connect with a younger target audience, and reaffirm its role in the laundry care category.
In-Depth Case Study
Reframing Fabric Conditioner in a Crowded Category
Competition and innovation is par for the course in the highly competitive laundry care category. With countless fabric conditioners vying for attention, the challenge for brands is to stay relevant and differentiate themselves from functional sameness.
Comfort, a long-standing household name, recognised that while its heritage of softness and freshness was strong, younger consumers were no longer seeing fabric conditioner as essential. Many questioned whether the extra cost and usage step added value compared to detergent alone.
To re-engage existing buyers and attract a younger target audience, Comfort needed to refresh both its brand positioning and its packaging design through innovation. The answer was Comfort Destinations, a range that used brand storytelling, fragrance cues, and strong visual identity to transform fabric conditioner into an aspirational, sensory journey.
Situation Analysis: Functional Sameness in Laundry Care
The fabric conditioner market is dominated by functional claims: extra softness, long-lasting fragrance, anti-wrinkle benefits, colour protection, and sensitive-skin suitability. While these claims remain important, they often blur together, creating a sea of sameness on shelf.
Fabric conditioner packaging traditionally relied on simple colour codes or fragrance descriptors, but lacked the kind of strong brand identity and visual design that could inspire consumers.
Research also revealed a generational divide. While older shoppers appreciated the added care and softness fabric conditioner provided, younger audiences often skipped it altogether. They questioned the benefit versus the cost and felt the extra step of adding it to the load was a hassle.
For Comfort to drive trial and repurchase, they needed to add some spice to the brand through innovation to reinvigorate the brand positioning to create a stronger brand identity. This would require the development of packaging design that communicated both functional trust and a new kind of emotional appeal.
A New Positioning Strategy: Dreamy Escapism and Lifestyle Appeal
The strategic insight was clear: fragrance is one of the most powerful triggers of emotion (and evokes memories).
In regard to the target audience, younger consumers, in particular, were seeking affordable luxuries and lifestyle-led products that could elevate everyday laundry routines into experiences.
Comfort saw an opportunity to reposition fabric conditioner as more than functional care — instead, as a sensorial escape.
The creative idea was to transform fabric conditioner into a passport to destinations. Each variant in the Comfort Destinations range was anchored in an aspirational location, combining fragrance storytelling with dreamy visual identity. Floating scent ingredients gave consumers an intuitive, sensory shortcut, while landscapes provided a clear emotional hook.
This positioning not only tackled the relevance challenge but also reframed fabric conditioner as a lifestyle choice that delivered the best possible care while connecting emotionally with consumers. It also provided a strong platform for marketing materials, from social media activations to in-store displays, ensuring the brand spoke consistently across all channels. Fragrance was elevated from a simple product benefit to an emotional storytelling tool that evoked travel, memory, and aspiration.
The Cowan Solution: Packaging Design as a Brand-Building Tool
Cowan’s task was to bring this positioning to life through packaging design and a refreshed brand identity system.
Our approach was rooted in brand building approach: clarity, creativity, and strategic planning, ensuring that the new Comfort Destinations range felt premium, modern and relevant to a younger target audience.
The packaging became more than a container — it was transformed into a storytelling tool, capturing lifestyle aspirations of travel and fragrance.
Key Elements of the Design Process
Dreamy holiday location landscapes with matching visual identity
Each pack featured instantly recognisable imagery inspired by global destinations. This created a strong visual identity that was both aspirational and easy for consumers to navigate.
Floating fragrance cues
Scent ingredients were elevated on pack, signalling travel destinations and fragrance strength in an intuitive, graphic way.
Simplified communication hierarchy
Functional claims were refined and focused, with softness, freshness, and escapism placed front and centre for easy navigation.
Consistency and brand guidelines
Clear style guides and brand guidelines ensured a cohesive identity across all SKUs and marketing channels.
Strong brand identity at shelf
The refreshed logo and modernised visual language created a stronger brand presence while retaining Comfort’s heritage.
Results: Stronger Shelf Standout and Consumer Engagement
The Comfort Destinations launch repositioned Comfort as a contemporary brand with a strong brand identity and emotional appeal. Consumers responded positively to the fragrance-led storytelling and the evocative packaging design. Shopper research showed that the dreamy visual identity and floating fragrance cues created faster recognition and clearer navigation at shelf.
Shopper Research Findings: Faster Recognition at Shelf
The simplified communication hierarchy reduced confusion in a cluttered category and improved product selection speed. Overall, the new packaging system was embedded within the marketing strategy and gave Comfort a competitive edge in execution. From social media to paid advertising, the refreshed visual identity extended well beyond the pack, driving trial and repeat purchase.
Conclusion: Reigniting the Core Through Packaging and Brand Identity
Comfort Destinations demonstrates the power of packaging design and visual identity in driving brand repositioning. By focusing on fragrance storytelling, consumer insight and brand identity design, Comfort was able to modernise its image, connect with a younger target audience, and reaffirm its role in the laundry care category.
The project shows that fabric conditioner can be reframed from a functional product into an emotional, lifestyle-driven choice. Through strong brand identity, thoughtful logo design, and consistent brand guidelines, the Comfort Destinations range not only delivered the best possible care for clothes but also gave consumers a reason to bring fabric conditioner back into their everyday laundry routine.
Helpful related brands: A New Type of Comfort in Laundary Care
What we did:
Packaging Design, Production & Final Art
