It's a phrase that we at Brandfusion often use to describe what we do.
But in our field of branding, assessing the value and impact of work is perhaps the most difficult thing to do. One reason would be, on the one hand, that branding itself is only one stage in a continuous process of building and capitalizing a brand, and on the other hand, that the results obtained from it are seen over time and are influenced by a multitude of internal and external business factors, from how it is implemented, to the competitive or socio-economic environment in which manifests itself.
Therefore, the fact that we participated in a prestigious international competition dedicated to excellence in this field, such as Transform Awards, and our work being among the nominees for this year's award for Europe's Best Visual Identity in the FMCG sector, is a welcome confirmation that what we do is valuable. And not only from the perspective of winning an award or recognition in a very dynamic industry globally, but especially from the transformation that we have been able to trigger at the level of our client brand and business, Adams Supplements, through rebranding. (You can find out more about this project herein.)
In the case of Adams Supplements, we are talking about a Romanian brand of dietary supplements, present on the market for 15 years, without notable development or communication actions, whose image was outdated and inconsistent, “too colorful”, as Zsolt Benedek, the founder of the business, mentioned in our first discussion. Hence the need to update the packaging design to keep the brand safe in a category where competition pressure and consumer expectations are growing.
However, as we well know, just a change at the level of logo and packaging design, however creative and significant, risks not being able to produce the desired effect if it is not anchored in the business context and if it is not based on a solid brand foundation. Therefore, after assessing the state of affairs, it was clear to us that we needed to rebuild the Adams Supplements brand from scratch.
We began the rebranding process with an extensive market analysis, followed by qualitative research in which we conducted in-depth interviews with several consumers of dietary supplements, the aim being to discover the profile that the brand can address in a relevant and different way from its competition. This is how we identified the positioning opportunity that guided us in creating the new Adams, with an authentic brand platform, a fresh visual identity and a bold packaging design.
It certainly sounds less complicated than it actually was. In reality, our proposal initially met with little resistance from the client, as it took him out of his comfort zone, being quite different from the expectations and directions he plotted at the beginning of the project. But the arguments provided by the rigorous strategic approach, through which we were able to decipher a complex category, listen to the “voice of the consumer” and translate all the insights gained into a well-articulated brand, cleared his doubt in the end. So are the first sales results after the recent relaunch of the brand.
All is well when it ends well, Shakespeare would say, but we hope this is just the beginning of a story that has every chance of becoming a success, especially for the Adams brand.
For us, more important than the nomination we get and the prize we can win at the end of March, is the confidence in the power of branding to change the perspective of a brand and the people around it, when it is done with head and soul.