Kraft Heinz rebrands Mio liquid concentrate to meet Gen Z wellness trends

Dive Brief:

• Kraft Heinz has rebranded its liquid concentrate Mio to better market the offering to a Gen Z audience, according to details shared with Marketing Dive.   
• The makeover shifts Mio’s positioning away from a mission to “fix water” toward one focused on wellness benefits, or the idea of “Wellness on your wavelength.” Softer visual features, brighter colors and a wave pattern emphasize the pivot on packaging and promotional materials.  
• Mio, which debuted in 2011, partnered with branding agency BrandOpus on the refresh. This is the latest in a growing list of Kraft Heinz rebrands that seek to modernize the packaged foods giant’s portfolio for a pickier young audience.  

Dive Insight:

Mio has long marketed itself as a way to jazz up water, with its portable squirt bottles of liquid concentrate adding flavor to a typically plain beverage. In 2020, the brand ran a “We Fix Water” campaign created with VaynerMedia that took the concept to extreme heights. One ad showed a castaway wandering in the desert who is reluctant to take a drink of life-saving H20 until a rescuer tosses down a Mio. 

The Kraft Heinz product is now pivoting away from the tongue-in-cheek approach in favor of a more earnest embrace of wellness. The changes, which include a new visual identity, respond to demands from Gen Z consumers who were looking for more from the brand. 

A wave pattern is prominent on packaging and Mio is introducing an interlocking “M Wave” as a leading asset to hammer home the idea of “Wellness on your wavelength.” Mio has added a softer sans-serif logo of its full name in lowercase letters, occupying key packaging real estate that used to display a bolder upper-case “M.” Packaging also now carries icons that call out wellness benefits, such as a lightning bolt for energy. In addition, the brand has swapped out a “sterile” color scheme of whites, blacks and silvers in favor of more vibrant hues, such as cobalt and cyan blues and cherry reds. 

More lively packaging could help Mio stand out on store shelves, social media and through merchandise, increasingly important channels for brands to communicate with Gen Z. A sizzle reel previewing the rebrand shows models decked out in Mio apparel and showing off items like a branded bucket hat, tote bag and phone case.

To complement the rebrand, Mio this week launched Tap, a faucet that features the new design elements. The kitchen accessory, which retails for $159 on Amazon, recognizes a surge in popularity for the energy drink category, which has seen sales jump 71% since 2017, according to Mintel. 

“Establishing a design that can translate across their small but mighty packaging forms through to a vibrant new look & assets for use across all brand touchpoints, this design is not only flexible & fluid in its depiction of modern wellness, but also in its ability to create a compelling and cohesive brand world,” said Alice Waterman, U.S. managing director at BrandOpus, in a statement. 

Mio’s shakeup builds on a series rebrands from Kraft Heinz that kicked off with a reassessment of its portfolio several years ago following steep write-downs. Brands that have received a refresh since then include Jell-O, Ore-Ida, Kraft Singles and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.