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For: Marketing professionals and business owners in pharmaceutical companies, dietary supplement manufacturers, and natural product producers who have been launching lines one by one for years and now look at their shelf as a patchwork quilt.
Developing an Umbrella Brand for Dietary Supplements: AVL Case Study for Altayvitaminy Plant
How to bring a fragmented portfolio of dietary supplements under a single umbrella without erasing the recognition of sub-brands with decades of history.
Project Fact Sheet
AVL (Altay Vita Lab), umbrella brand for dietary supplements from Altayvitaminy Plant
Business Type: dietary supplement manufacturing, pharmaceuticals
Scale: a plant in Biysk, operating since 1949. Dozens of SKUs in the portfolio, strong sub-brands 'Osovit' and 'Maral' with established audiences
Scale: a plant in Biysk, operating since 1949. Dozens of SKUs in the portfolio, strong sub-brands 'Osovit' and 'Maral' with established audiences
- ChallengeTo bring a fragmented dietary supplement portfolio under a single umbrella and prepare the brand for marketplace launch without destroying existing sub-brand recognition.
- SolutionUmbrella brand naming, positioning, development of two packaging types, and a full scalability guideline.
Scope: naming, logo, brand identity, packaging master layouts, marketplace product card concepts. - ResultA unified brand architecture for dozens of SKUs. Master layouts for three packaging formats and a line coding system. Product card concepts for Wildberries and Ozon.
Key highlight
A hybrid umbrella architecture that works simultaneously with strong sub-brands and new products.
The Challenge: Why 'One Design for All' Was Not an Option
Over decades, Altayvitaminy Plant had assembled a portfolio that outwardly looked like several different companies. 'Osovit' - vitamin and mineral complexes with its own audience. 'Maral' - a line with maral antlers for men’s health, with a recognisable packaging colour. Plus a separate oil series, a separate 'Red Root' line.
The problem was not outdated design. The problem was that the portfolio did not read as products from a single manufacturer. On the pharmacy shelf and in marketplace grids, customers did not connect 'Osovit' and 'Maral' to the same plant. New products would have to be launched from scratch, without the support of the parent brand’s expertise.
The problem was not outdated design. The problem was that the portfolio did not read as products from a single manufacturer. On the pharmacy shelf and in marketplace grids, customers did not connect 'Osovit' and 'Maral' to the same plant. New products would have to be launched from scratch, without the support of the parent brand’s expertise.
Simple unification would break the accumulated recognition of the sub-brands. A regular Osovit customer would come to the pharmacy and not find the familiar packaging. A system was needed that added a common 'roof' over the existing lines without erasing their individual faces.
Naming: How AVL Was Born
The client wanted to retain a reference to Altai in the name and obtain a trademark that could be registered without conflict with existing players. The project team developed twenty options across three logical groups: abbreviations based on the word 'Altai', Latin semantic constructions, and names drawing on Altai heritage.
The client chose AVL — Altay Vita Lab. Short, registerable, simultaneously referencing laboratory expertise and Altai. The search engine results for the name are clean, with no overlap with major brands.
The client chose AVL — Altay Vita Lab. Short, registerable, simultaneously referencing laboratory expertise and Altai. The search engine results for the name are clean, with no overlap with major brands.
Positioning and Brand Character
In parallel with naming the umbrella brand, the team formulated the platform. The positioning tagline: 'The Potent Force of Altai'. This is not an abstract slogan: it sets the tone for the entire layout and colour palette. 'Potent' speaks to expertise and pharmaceutical background; 'Force of Altai' speaks to endemism and the natural origin of the ingredients.
The brand character was built around four pillars:
The brand character was built around four pillars:
- Altai’s ecological purity
- The uniqueness of endemic plants
- The harmony between nature and humanity
- The expertise of a plant with a three-quarter-century history
Two Packaging Constructions Under One System
The key solution of the project was not a single universal layout, but two constructions under one umbrella.
First construction — for lines with a strong sub-brand. Here, the label features the AVL logo on a panel with a natural photo, below which the sub-brand name appears prominently ('Osovit', 'Maral'), followed by the product purpose ('Chondro. For joints and spine'), property icons, and a panel indicating the number of capsules.
Second construction — for new lines without a sub-brand. When there is no accumulated recognition, all communication is built around the umbrella. On the packaging for a new calcium or ferritin product, the dominant elements become a large symbol of the element (Ca, Fe), the dosage, and the stamp 'Natural Force of Altai'. The AVL logo and a graphic element in the form of a stylised mountain anchor the product within the system.
One system — two ways to apply it. From here, the system can be scaled infinitely to new assortment items: any product falls into one of the two constructions and automatically takes its place in the unified line.
First construction — for lines with a strong sub-brand. Here, the label features the AVL logo on a panel with a natural photo, below which the sub-brand name appears prominently ('Osovit', 'Maral'), followed by the product purpose ('Chondro. For joints and spine'), property icons, and a panel indicating the number of capsules.
Second construction — for new lines without a sub-brand. When there is no accumulated recognition, all communication is built around the umbrella. On the packaging for a new calcium or ferritin product, the dominant elements become a large symbol of the element (Ca, Fe), the dosage, and the stamp 'Natural Force of Altai'. The AVL logo and a graphic element in the form of a stylised mountain anchor the product within the system.
One system — two ways to apply it. From here, the system can be scaled infinitely to new assortment items: any product falls into one of the two constructions and automatically takes its place in the unified line.
Guidelines: What Prevents the Brand from Falling Apart
Without guidelines, any system will fall apart after two or three updates — especially in a manufacturing environment with dozens of SKUs and multiple contractors. Therefore, the AVL umbrella brand guidelines fix not only the logo and palette but also the mathematics of layout: clear space, point sizes for fonts, alignment of each block, and panel margins.
Marketplace Product Cards
Packaging design for marketplaces is a separate workstream that cannot be postponed for 'later'. On Wildberries, the customer does not see a jar on a shelf but a square preview image in a grid of twenty competitors. If the packaging does not withstand this compression, sales are lost before the click.
The project team developed a concept consisting of eight cards with a clear narrative arc. The background of each card maintains a common code. On the marketplace shelf, AVL does not look like yet another jar marked '-40%', but as an expert natural brand.
The project team developed a concept consisting of eight cards with a clear narrative arc. The background of each card maintains a common code. On the marketplace shelf, AVL does not look like yet another jar marked '-40%', but as an expert natural brand.
Key Takeaways from This Case Study
A fragmented dietary supplement portfolio can be unified without losing each line’s individual identity. The key solution is a hybrid brand architecture, where the umbrella becomes a common roof while sub-brands retain their own colours and recognisable elements.
A second important decision was the rejection of sterile aesthetics in favour of a natural yet expert presentation: 'The Potent Force of Altai' works not as a slogan but as a principle governing layout, colour, and graphics.
If your portfolio has been assembled over years and now resembles several different companies on a single shelf, this case study shows how to stitch it into a single fabric.
A second important decision was the rejection of sterile aesthetics in favour of a natural yet expert presentation: 'The Potent Force of Altai' works not as a slogan but as a principle governing layout, colour, and graphics.
If your portfolio has been assembled over years and now resembles several different companies on a single shelf, this case study shows how to stitch it into a single fabric.
Want to build a similar system for a new brand?
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Q&A
No. In the AVL case study, 'Osovit' and 'Maral' retained their own colours and logos — only the architecture changed: the sub-brand was placed under the umbrella on the label, but its 'face' remained recognisable to regular customers.
For AVL, we prepared twenty options across three logical groups: abbreviations, Latin semantic constructions, and Altai heritage. However, three is usually sufficient. All candidates are checked for registration availability and search result cleanliness before being presented to the client.
Project Team:
- and eightclient
- Ekaterina Sichkarfounder of the creative agency SICHKAR GROUP
- Valeria KuzmaCEO
- Vero YuvakaevaDesigner
- Ekaterina FilippovaDesigner
- Arlabclient
- Ekaterina Sichkarfounder of the creative agency SICHKAR GROUP
- Valeria KuzmaCEO
- Viktoria LymarHead of Branding & Design
- Vladislav SkorobogatovSenior Designer
- Vero YuvakaevaDesigner
- Ekaterina FilippovaDesigner
- Vadim CherniyDesigner
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