Redesigning the wonderful world of Rowse
Bluemarlin’s redesign of Rowse celebrates the brand’s innate connection to the wonderful world of nature, reinvigorating its standout across touch points and championing its support for honeybees and beekeepers across the nation and beyond. New packs hit shelves earlier this spring, and the brand has reported a record-breaking increase in sales in just three months, attracting new buyers.
“We began by defining new brand world principles to guide the creative,” comments Dan Monteith, Executive Director – Creative Brand Strategy at bluemarlin. “In identifying the consumer-cultural tensions that shape Rowse’s purpose and significance in peoples’ lives, we discovered a real need for people to take a break from stress of the hustle and bustle to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. To connect with nature, to feel uplifted and reassured.”
The new design elevates brand assets and inspires consumers to ‘simply wake up to nature through honeybees & honey.’ Rooted in founder Tony Rowse’s love of beekeeping, the logo has been evolved to suggest a bee in flight whilst the silhouette of a field reinforces the brand’s connection to nature.
A palette of warm colour helps differentiate variants across the range. The final touch is a circular emblem that conveys the commitment to ‘Hives for Lives’, Rowse’s CSR platform.
“Our aim was to encourage people to turn off auto-pilot, not only in shopping for honey, but in life in general, and marvel at the wonderful world around them,” comments David Hodgson, Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director at bluemarlin. “The new visual identity tells this moving story with a sense of wonder and a bit of fun, whilst also making consumers aware of the sheer breadth of Rowse’s offering.”
In addition to the packaging refresh of the 31 strong range, bluemarlin was tasked with reconfiguring the brand’s portfolio architecture and producing a brand purpose film.
Early performance data show that Rowse has created quite a buzz over the last few months, experiencing a significant increase of +£12.6m RSV vs prior year ( +23%), +724k new households, and +3.2pts value share. (Nielsen 05.09.20, and Kantar 06.09.20)
“Bluemarlin helped us connect the dots between brand and purpose with a design that stands out at shelf and drives interest across our total honey portfolio,’ comments Kirstie Jamieson, Marketing & Category Director at Valeo Foods. “Consumers clearly got the message. The results are amazing and show that our mission to celebrate the wonderful world around us is important and absolutely achievable.”