New look bottle for Grand Marnier triple sec

Grand Marnier’s triple sec variant, Cordon Jaune, is heavily overshadowed by its mother brand; so much so that the company decided it was time the product had a new lick of paint.

The new bottle design for Grand Marnier’s triple sec variant enhances “contemporary and premium cues”

It engaged design agency JDO to make Cordon Jaune the “key entry-point” for new consumers into the Grand Marnier brand, according to JDO business development director Velda Croot. Another key demand was for the product to “up its profile”, given the fact that it’s so much less well-known than the more famous core Grand Marnier variant.

“Our approach focused on considering all design elements to increase contemporary and premium cues and to build on the French elegance and Parisian flair of the brand, while respecting the brand’s fabulous heritage and the evolutionary nature of the brief,” Croot explains.

“A main priority was the finessing of the detail. We’ve kept all the brand elements, but made them more modern. The ribbon and seal have been retained as important and recognisable brand equities, and the label stock and print has been upgraded to improve quality.”

With an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, revamp like this, deciding what to retain and improve is a key factor.

With Cordon Jaune, JDO decided to enhance references to Paris and Grand Marnier’s provenance, while retaining the brown glass bottle “as a nod to the heritage of the brand” – while also noting that most of the competition is dressed in tall, thin, clear flint glass.

And some very fine work was needed to achieve the overall result, Croot says. “The subtlest of pack details were modernised. The dot between Paris and France on the main label, for example, was made into a diamond to echo the GM logotype.”