New Zealand Natural

Since their humble beginnings in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand Natural have focussed on crafting pure and simple ice cream to bring more joy into every day.

While maintaining consistency in the product, inconsistencies had begun to emerge in the New Zealand Natural brand. Without a clear articulation of what the brand stood for, it had become confused and the business was struggling to carve out a competitive advantage in the sector.

Inspired by renewed ambitions to grow the business and diversify their product, channel and market, New Zealand Natural realised they needed a brand that would give them clarity of purpose to expand and innovate.

In taking their brand to new shores and expanding to new categories, we needed to create a brand that could tell the same story in new ways and places. A brand with both a consistent global footprint and the ability to flex across local markets and a growing number of touch points – to ensure we were always keeping the customer at the heart.

And, in broadening their offering through product innovation, we needed to create the space for New Zealand Natural to transition into a true lifestyle brand, capable of releasing new products in adjacent categories.

We began the journey by looking close to home. To build renewed meaning into both parts of the brand name – with ‘New Zealand’ to reflect provenance and personality, and ‘Natural’ to draw out cues around authenticity and sustainability.

Building on the foundational work of Future Food Studio – the multidisciplinary studio who were engaged to help the brand re-invent their retail experience – we created a strategic platform to capture and share the essence and feeling of summer. Centred around the idea of ‘the art of hanging out’, we developed a brand that would bring all the right ingredients together to create the space and freedom for people to be their true and natural selves.

In order to deliver on this idea, New Zealand Natural needed a brand that was more than just a logo. A brand that could flex to adapt to a range of customer experiences – from retail parlours and supermarket aisles to social platforms and lifestyle merchandise.

Central to this was creating a visual identity system which reflected their newly defined brand strategy and supported a diverse range of customer experiences. Taking the best of what tradition has to offer – namely the strong brandmark – we infused it with a rich visual language to give the brand a distinct look and feel.

We partnered with renowned Melbourne artist, Beci Orpin, to create a detailed artwork composition which brought ‘the art of hanging out’ to life, featuring abstract and literal elements that talk to provenance and product. The bespoke artwork has the flexibility to shift scale and colour to create a range of different emotions and adapt to various markets and touchpoints.

A revitalised colour palette is inspired by the natural world around us, while the photography system authentically captures the moments, people and places that are true to New Zealand Natural. Finally, equipped with a robust toolkit we collaborated with a global architecture practice to translate the identity into a store environment.

Just as important as how we look is how we sound. We created a flexible, full-of-flavour brand language system that encourages authenticity and belonging, using highly sensory language in an approachable way that allows people to experience our products at a distance.

With new meaning and vitality imbued into their brand, New Zealand Natural is now ready to begin their quest to capture more hearts, minds and mouths around the world.

“FutureBrand showcased themselves as true leaders in brand building. They brought fresh perspectives and new ideas to the project, which helped our brand reach new heights.”

Scott Koetsier, General Manager Sales and Marketing, Emerald Foods Group

“FutureBrand pushed the boundaries, exploring what New Zealand Natural stood for today and showing us the brand’s future potential. Their visionary future focus coupled with strategic and creative direction enabled us to truly redefine our brand.”

Antje Rummel, Head of Marketing, Emerald Foods Group