A box, is called masterpiece by Three Squirrels?

FIRST AND FOREMOST

This is Three Squirrels' most expensive gift box and an expansion of its brand in the premium-end segment.

Over the course of our four-year partnership, we have remodelled and translated a significant number of product lines -- certainly this is not only from the visual level. The naming of the high-end nut gift box is a case in point. The product name "Wu Hua Tian Bao," was extracted from a famous piece of literature, Teng Wang Ge Xu (also called Preface to the Prince Teng's Pavilion), written by Wang Bo in the Tang Dynasty. The word can be understood as "precious and natural treasures."

The product's overall design is enhanced by a variety of seals and calligraphy, which contributes to its cultural immersion. Furthermore, it allows Three Squirrels to adopt a distinctly oriental expression, rather than attempting to imitate imported products in order to emphasise its high-end status.

Our client is at a pivotal point in its growth, and the remodelling of all series of products is paving the way for the next decade. When our clients entrust all of these to me, I consider every factor, including tradition and contemporaneity, Eastern and Western, and even youth and maturity. This is why Three Squirrels always preferred PICA for their core products.

PICA Head Shuwei, Qi

CHINESE REPRESENTATIVE OF HIGH-END NUTS

As a leading enterprise in the roasted nut industry, Three Squirrels' KPI for the first quarter of the current year have attracted much attention. Three Squirrels' first quarter results of 2024 saw revenue of approximately 3.646 billion RMB, representing a 91.83% increase year-on-year. After reaching its first 10 billion revenue, the company's ambitions are still continuing, with the announcement of reaching 20 billion in revenue by 2026.

The Shan Hai Qi Zhen·Wu Hua Tian Bao version is Three Squirrel's high-end nuts gift box, weighing up to 5kg and its price reached up to RMB 800. It is currently the strategic star product of Three Squirrels and also the most expensive one.

For the past 12 years, Three Squirrels has appeared as a friendly and youthful image, how to maintain the cultural gene of Thress Squirrels and become a preferred choice in the high-end scene?

Three Squrrals Most Precious Gift Box

All are seasonally ripe, plump and large nuts, sourced from rare indigenous varieties in the original production area, containing macadamia nuts, golden torreya grandis, pecans, purple cashews, lycium ruthenicum, pistachios, hand-peeled pine nuts and pecan kernels.

RE-EPITOMISING OF FOUNDER'S PHILOSOPHY

The concept of forest food created by the brand's founder has been reinterpreted by designer Qi Shuwei, "I hope this collection to be more formal and classic, but also retain Three Squirrel's aesthetic system - childlike, fun and forest. We can see that the squirrel's clothing is interspersed, and the overall picture is still very natural. Other nut brands may highlight their global selection, but our vocabulary is used more localised: ‘Shan Hai Qi Zhen (a word extracted from classic Chinese literature) - Treasures from Mountain and Sea’, because Three Squirrels is a Chinese nut brand."

LANGUAGE TRANSLATION OF SQUIRRELS AROUND THE MOUNTAIN AND SEA OF WONDERS

Clarifiying the meaning of the theme in this scheme began with 'Treasures from Mountain and Sea', which refers to delicacies and nuts from around the world. Therefore, PICA did not choose a pure Chinese style, but drew on ancient hand-drawn maps as its designing style, and enriched the details of the "Global Nuts Hunting" with props from the Western tale of global treasure hunt, pushing the the ancient and mysterious treasure hunt atmosphere to the extreme.

The cleverness of this design lies more in the picture of the Chinese dragon is used throughout, so that the oriental totem occupies the main part of the design, with squirrels full of confidence in the return of the dragon, which integrated Western elements and innovation.

CONCEPT OF ANTIQUE GIFT BOX

The box will be filled with 5kg of nuts, in which normal cartons are unable to sustain, hence the concept of treasure box emerged. The idea was inspired by antique suitcase and treasure boxs, and it’s obvious for customers to see that all the treasures from the mountains and seas are packed into the box by squarrals, which combined both traditional style and its unique charm, and also continues the integrity of Three Squirrel’s brand.

INTERLOCKING MODULAR DESIGN

In the new territory, the primary task is to help Three Squirrels remove its intrinsic label as internet celebrity snacks. To find its mature and inheritable cultural core, Qi Shuwei's greatest strengths played a leading role in this regard. Numerous designers have created work for Three Squirrels’s nut products. To which Qi Shuwei responded in public, "We did not make disruptive innovations for every product lines, all SKUs after package changing is continuing the forest theme series set by PICA in 2021. You can even see the growth and connections among all the SKUs affecting each other. In my opinion, a great strategy will help the designers. I hope Three Squirrels can maintain its unique delights and forest styles, since we know for a brand who has just experienced its darkest hour, it won't happen overnight to come back to its peak condition, and it definitely needs a smarter way to create a new connection with the public".

SELF-DRIVEN INNOVATIONS

The design of the hot stamping version surpasses all other Dragon Element gift boxes. The dragon's scales, the dragon's whiskers, and the squirrel's bandana and telescope, all have been hot stamped and embossed on a large surface in a bright, shimmering gold, so that the illustration is neither the absolute subject nor reduced to a monotonous background.

"A unique, memorable and fantastic detail should be combined in every Squirrel’s product, presenting warmth different from the nuts we are exposed to in our daily lives"

SCHEME DISPLAY

With a series of in-depth creations, Three Squirrels gradually built a complete system of the 2.0 brand, rich in texture and shows a high-quality oriental style. PICASTRATEGY