Dieffenbach’s UGLIES Potato Chips

Sometimes it’s good to be Ugly! Dieffenbach’s partnered with WFM to develop and introduce its UGLIES brand of potato chips. This strong regional company expanded the brand to a new national audience, attracting both media and industry attention at launch. WFM started with naming and brand exploratory in order to differentiate from legacy players in the category and connect with consumers in an authentic way. Designing the graphics with broader food trends in mind, like reducing food waste and celebrating peculiar potatoes that are routinely given the “thumbs down” by the legacy brands, stood out as core principles and differentiation points for the brand.

Ugly is the New Beautiful

After thoughtful consideration and evaluation of the retail context and audience, the brand launched with an attention grabbing and irreverent approach leveraging the bold UGLIES name and iconic “thumbs down” visual. WFM and Dieffenbach’s understood that differentiation on-shelf was key, and that the brand needed an authentic, delicious personality—all while communicating benefits of reducing food waste, fighting hunger, and product expectations in the bag. UGLIES proves that different can be delicious too and contributed to Dieffenbach’s ongoing growth and distribution gains.