With new superhero characters, unexpected in the milk category, Freshways seeks to convey its super speed and efficiency.
Cow’s milk is a staple fridge item in most households in Britain, but most people are used to buying supermarkets’ own or well-known brands like Cravendale or Arla.
Despite being one of the largest independent dairy suppliers in the UK, Freshways is probably less familiar to consumers, as it sells mainly to wholesalers, cafes, hotels, retailers, and bakeries. You’ll most likely have come into contact with its products at your local convenience store, though its previous brand didn’t really foster any consumer recognition or loyalty.
However, all that is about to change as Freshways is looking to reestablish its position as a B2B2C brand in the UK dairy market with the help of creative agency White Bear. Despite previously not investing much in brand and marketing, Freshways realised that rebuilding its brand and communicating more effectively could open doors to a huge number of independent retailers countrywide and simultaneously make the brand more distinctive to consumers.
“Funnily, we nearly missed out on this amazing opportunity as the client’s email went into my junk mail,” says White Bear creative director Kelly Mackenzie. As it happened, Freshways had already been through a lengthy pitching process and hadn’t found the right agency.
In a stroke of luck, when Mackenzie approached them on LinkedIn six months later, White Bear got invited for a chat and came away with the job a few days later.
Essentially, the agency got the opportunity to work with a successful family business that had been around for 30 years but had never actually been branded. “It was time that they weren’t just a household staple but a household name, and the challenge was differentiating a commodity product in a category dominated by the big four and all about price,” says Mackenzie.
White Bear quickly identified Freshways’ USP: their amazing customer service and the fact that they reliably deliver milk within 12 hours, making them the freshest milk out there. This led to the development of a new positioning”—Thinking Fresh and Acting “Fresh—and the creation of Freshways Superheroes.
“These little guys make sure you never suffer milk shortages again, whether that is needing milk for your morning coffee or a shelf full of product in your corner shop,” says Mackenzie.
Freshways’ new logotype was designed to communicate this freshness and speed, taking your eye from bottom left to top right, like a superhero swooping in to save the day. White Bear revealed that the mark was inspired by the Superman logo—the first true superhero created by D.C. comics.
Mackenzie explains that the new branding was also inspired by Freshways’ amazing growth story. “From their West London roots to one of the nation’s biggest dairy players, they grew by doing things differently, by thinking outside the box, and by staying light on their feet.”
Freshways new tone of voice is defined as being ‘up the energy’, relatable and refreshing.
By coming across as energetic, upbeat and dynamic, Freshways seeks to show enthusiasm and its approach to a challenge. “Think of an athlete bouncing on his toes, ready to run,” says Mackenzie. “We keep our language short and punchy and don’t waffle.
“We use dynamic verbs for action and short sentences for pace – we’re not afraid to use one-word sentences.”
Being relatable and accessible is equally important, as Freshways needs to come across as an everyday brand for a wide audience. White Bear achieved this by using conversational, uncomplicated language.
For the refreshing pillar, the studio sought to covey the freshness of its products through metaphors and wordplay. Mackenzie describes it as “a light-hearted but distinctive tone” that uses “simple but evocative and sensory adjectives to describe flavours, textures and smells”.
White Bear also found a way to make the packaging fresh and bold without reinventing the wheel. Retaining the semiotics and colour codes of milk packaging – blue for whole milk, red for skimmed and green for semi-skimmed – makes it easier for consumers. However, the studio brought something different to Freshways by introducing pastels.
“We also brought our character to life on pack, which helps to differentiate the product into a staid category that showcases cow, after cow, after cow in a field,” says Mackenzie.
The identity was applied to the Freshways website, a newly designed website to increase enquiries and grow distribution, and a reskinned app that allows wholesalers, retailers, independents, and cafe chains to order when they need deliveries.
