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5 Steps for a Successful Food & Beverage Brand Refresh | Union

Top 5 Steps to Add to Your Food & Beverage Brand Refresh Strategy

Food &amp; beverage brand visuals aren’t evergreen. Times change and what effectively grabs the attention of your customer base changes. If you’re ready to give your <a href="https://union.co/industries/food-beverage">F&amp;B brand</a> a glow-up, we have you covered. Here are the top five steps to take to ensure a successful brand refresh.

Before you start, it’s crucial to understand the reason driving your desired design changes. Most successful F&amp;B brand refreshes are stimulated by one or more of the following: 
<ul><li dir="ltr">An outdated look</li><li dir="ltr">An evolving customer base</li><li dir="ltr">Organizational growth</li><li dir="ltr">A changing brand mission</li></ul>
Understanding the reason behind a brand refresh not only helps you set a direction and focus for your new brand aesthetic, but it can also help inform whether or not you need a brand refresh or a complete brand redesign. 
Think of a brand refresh as changing out the curb appeal of a house that you own – new paint, maybe a new door and some shutters. A brand redesign, on the other hand, is the equivalent of tearing down a structure and building something new from the group up – new pillars, vision, etc.
Going with the refresh? Where possible, take the time to back your approach with specific data points that show how your current brand design may be holding back (or even damaging) your brand in the market. Use these data points to guide your refresh efforts and ensure you end up with design choices that solve these critical issues.

(1) Establish the purpose of your brand refresh

Before you get all excited about introducing your new brand to the mass market, take some lessons from a few <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tropicana-packaging-change-failure-2013-9">failed food &amp; beverage brand refreshes</a>. 
The most significant risk factor to a successful brand refresh is a design vacuum – a group of people (or one person) that designs the new aesthetic with limited or no outside input or feedback. 
Of course, you should ping internal stakeholders like senior leadership and board members for their approval, but it’s also important to get buy-in from external stakeholders such as retail buyers and end customers. 
Where needed, utilize consumer research and surveys to solicit feedback and get market approval before committing to an extensive, pricey launch.

(2) Get input from key stakeholders

Once you understand your refresh reason, use it to anchor your brand refresh scope. Then, identify the specific design elements of your current visual identity system that will need to be updated. 
For example, if your refresh is centered on an outdated online look and feel, you may want to update your logo and color scheme to a more modern feel. 
If your logo is strong, but your packaging isn’t as eye-catching as it needs to be at the retail level, then you can focus your attention on improving your in-store presentation. 
“A brand refresh is more than just a new logo,” said Union Associate Creative Director Lucas Fitzpatrick. “For F&amp;B brands, it’s an opportunity to recreate how you represent your brand promise to engage with your customers and capture the sale.”
Here are just a few of the design elements to include in your new visual identity system: 
<ul><li dir="ltr">Logo</li><li dir="ltr">Color Palette</li><li dir="ltr">Typography</li><li dir="ltr">Imagery</li><li dir="ltr">Packaging</li><li dir="ltr">Digital Presence</li><li dir="ltr">Social Media Aesthetic </li><li dir="ltr">Motion Graphics </li></ul>

(3) Create a new visual identity system

Brands are built on consistency. 
From internal teams to external partners, everyone needs to have a clear understanding of how to present your new brand design to the market. 
As you roll out your new brand, be sure to outline new brand guidelines in a digital file that makes it easy for your team and partners to share, understand and incorporate your new brand aesthetic into their marketing and product initiatives. 
“Strong brand guidelines are more than just a set of dos and don’ts,” Fitzpatrick said. “They’re a tool that should empower your team to feel confident in executing their creative vision in a way that strengthens your core brand – not distracts from it.”

(4) Set your new brand guidelines

For a brand refresh to make an impact on your audience and increase sales, it has to be incorporated into every aspect of your food &amp; beverage brand. Every customer touchpoint needs to reflect the new branding, from your website and point-of-purchase display to your packaging and Instagram feed.
“It can be confusing for customers to see conflicting branding in the market,” Fitzpatrick said. “Confused customers don’t make purchases. Commit to your new brand and don’t look back.”

(5) Commit. Commit. Commit.

Tweaking the logo, updating the packaging, or refining your color palette may sound like small things, but it can make a huge difference in how your brand is received and perceived by your customers. Don’t let an outdated aesthetic keep you from growing your food &amp; beverage brand and increasing your market share.
If you’re working on a <a href="https://union.co/services/data-brand-strategy/brand-strategy">brand refresh</a> strategy, Union can help. Schedule a call or send us an email to <a href="https://union.co/contact">learn more.</a>

New look. Same brand.

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