For more than a century, the Bega Group has been a proudly Australian owned purpose-led business, producing some of the country's most iconic brands.
With its heart grounded in its Bega Valley origins – the company defines itself as a national business with a local mindset.
Prompted by the 2021 acquisition of the Lion Dairy and Drinks portfolio, Bega Group needed a new brand identity system and strategy that would unite all their business units as a single group.
They engaged The Edison Agency to capture the heart of the Bega Group culture and apply it across a new-look corporate rebrand. The relaunch sought to create impact through:
- Better reflecting Bega Group’s business transformation ambitions, purpose-led initiatives and what its business units stand for today;
- capturing the humility and social purpose sitting at the heart of the Bega Group culture;
- increase the business’ link with the Bega Valley and its transformative circular economy initiatives; and
- evolve the corporate brand, symbolising the shift from its long history in cheese to a multi-category food, beverage and ingredients business.
Former Bega Group CEO, Paul van Heerwaarden, said, “Following several acquisitions in recent years and a significant transformation of the company, it was important that we represent the Bega Group of today and how we continue to serve all Australians with great food for a better future.”
Gaining insight
The new Bega Group identity evolved from the heart of the Bega Valley itself – initiated by a consumer and stakeholder research project led by The Edison Agency and strategic research partners, Pollinate.
Edison Agency founder and head of strategy Amber Bonney said, “Our role in this project was to gather the insights and create a blueprint for change that was iterative and engaged key functions of the business to create a collaborative brand solution that reflected the needs of their people, many of whom have been with the business for more than a decade.”
The research gained much needed insight into the perceptions of both the corporate and consumer Bega brands – identifying a key opportunity to increase the corporate brand’s link with the Bega Valley and its transformative circular economy initiatives.
Following an extensive insights-led process, Bega Group felt it was time to evolve the corporate brand from red to green, symbolising the shift from its long history in cheese to a multi-category food, beverage and ingredients business.
Existing product brands (including on cheese and Bega peanut butter) will continue with the trusted red logo but the new Bega Group identity will serve to unite all business units as a single Group.
The solution
The Edison Agency developed a strategy and new brand identity system to capture Bega Group's culture.
The evolved brandmark reflects the business’ authentic connection to its home in the Bega Valley, an important part of the business’ iconic history as one of Australia’s oldest dairy producers. Showcasing Bega’s commitment to the Australian environment, it’s people and farming communities – the new brand signifies change for a “better future”.
Bonney said, “The visual identity evolved from the business’ commitment to growth and humility – by separating the corporate brand from the product (particularly cheese) brand, we were able to reflect the true scale of the Group across Foodservice, Nutritional’s and Ingredients, Dairy and Drinks and Foods portfolios.
“As a purpose-led business ourselves, we are proud to have been trusted with such an important junction in time for this Aussie success story.”
As well as a new brandmark, Edison developed a comprehensive new print and digital design system including a bespoke purpose signature, dynamic new colour palette, photography image bank, infographic library, wayfinding, truck livery and marketing collateral templates.
Bega executive general manager (Dairy and Drinks) Darryn Wallace said the brand language is a symbol of the company’s commitment to transformation through social impact.
“Historically, our corporate profile has been intrinsically linked to our cheese brands but now we have the opportunity to celebrate so much more – great brands, an innovative culture, commitment to our people, farming community and partners.
“One of the most important attributes of the new corporate design is the creation of a bespoke signature to bring our purpose of, “Creating great food for a better future”, to life as the hallmark rally cry. We are proud of the new design– it’s fresh, dynamic and warm and sets the business up for an exciting next chapter of growth,” Wallace said.
For brand considerations
For businesses’ considering rebranding, Bonney said drawing from true authenticity remains paramount in ensuring an outcome an organisation can rally behind.
Making the effort to uncover historical sentiment, stakeholder engagement and understanding purpose are all instrumental building blocks to guide both the future vision and design solutions.
Bonney’s advice to organisations considering the value of a corporate rebrand is a series of questions:
- Does your business vision and purpose align to perception, reputation, and experience of your business?
- How do your employees feel about how you show up as an employer brand? Is there room for improvement and growth?
- Are you having trouble attracting and retaining top talent?
- Are you hanging onto an image from the past that is no longer relevant to your customers and end users?
“Change needs to come from the inside out, and sometimes it can be useful for an external party to hold that mirror up to allow you to see what’s really there,” Boney said.
