For this fast-growing, family-owned business, we created a distinctive brand identity, driven by a positioning that captured its local heritage while projecting a vision for global growth. We also clarified the brand architecture, created a range of communications materials and built their website.

Situation

Founded in 1953, Brandt Consolidated is a family owned business specializing in products and services for the professional agronomy market.

By 2007, Brandt had grown considerably, spurred by several key acquisitions which extended capabilities and reach, yet had failed to build the brand. The company was supporting multiple brands (some in overlapping markets), confusing both internal and external audiences, complicating cross-selling, and creating inefficiencies in sales, marketing and product development.

As an aggressive, entrepreneurial company, opportunities for expansion created a series of complex, multi-faceted customer-vendor-competitor relationships. Brandt had reached a point where they needed to develop a strategy to turn their brand into an asset, and to build and manage their brand portfolio for continued growth.

Solution

CoreBrand gathered input from a range of sources, including: interviews with employees and customers; workshops with company leadership; retail and facilities site visits, and an extensive review of marketing materials from Brandt and their competitors.

“Control” became our central theme for the Brandt brand, as all of Brandt’s products and services are focused on helping growers gain control against the uncertainties of nature. A new logotype was designed to reflect the company’s more singular focus, and it is strengthened by a simple, powerful brand identity system that can be leveraged across a range of media.

With a portfolio that had been bogged down by weak acquired corporate brands and inconsistent product brands, CoreBrand recommended a focus on the Brandt brand building on both the existing equities in the market, as well as the company’s rich and compelling heritage. The new corporate brand architecture we developed has helped break down silos in the organization, and a new master branded product-naming system further concentrates efforts on the Brandt brand.