Moving beyond the Producer-to-Retailer Business Model: Developing a New Consumer Food Brand
The Company
Keelings is an extremely successful Irish family business that has been producing fruits and salads since the 1930s. Over the past 35 years, the production and commercial activities at Keelings have expanded considerably to include growing, sourcing, shipping, marketing and distributing fresh produce from sources around the world to Irish, UK and European markets. www.keelings.com
The Project & Scope
Keelings approached Bradley McGurk when faced with the opportunity to expand beyond their business-to-business model (supplying retailers) by also selling their berry products directly to consumers. Keelings had a strong brand already, but knew they had to take a fresh tack with this new strategic move to “own the Irish strawberry market space” in the minds of consumers. We were tasked with copywriting the Keelings story and with follow-through into logo design, packaging design and marketing communications for the new consumer brand. We recognised that, while Keelings have teams of experts travelling the world to source produce for year-round availability of fruits, the farming and growing aspects remain very much the heart of their business. We used this understanding to create a compatible logo with a new tagline “taste the passion”. We also developed all copywriting for in-store promotional materials.
The Outcome
The Keelings consumer brand was an instant success and continues to be the most widely recognised brand for berries in supermarkets today. Through this brand extension, the Keelings group has achieved volumes of sales for their berry produce that have by far exceeded expectations.
