01
Challenge
Modernize A Strong Legacy Brand
Foster Caviness started as a produce stand on a street corner in 1902. Now located behind the Greensboro Farmers’ Market, the company has always focused on supplying fresh produce while supporting local growers. Over time and with smart strategic leadership, the company has evolved into much more than simply a supplier of produce. Expansion into freight, processing and other points in the supply chain has set the company up for continued success going forward.
While the company had a strong people-first culture and values, it did not have a clearly articulated brand—or one that represented its recent evolution and growth into new and diversified revenue streams.
Our collective challenge was to evolve and crystallize the Foster Caviness brand in order to effectively communicate with both internal and external audiences.
02
Strategy
Foster Better Ways To Bring People And Food Together
Inherently, the brand feeds people. It’s how they do it that is special and unique. They genuinely have people’s best interests at heart. They want every human to live their best life and become the best version of themselves possible. They go beyond what is simply expected. They work hard and take their commitments seriously, but have a good time doing it. They are connected and accessible–leadership to employees, the company to its customers, each of us to our community and world. They foster better ways to bring people and food together. Hence, the simplification of the corporate name to FOSTER and the decision to focus the campaign on those who knew the brand the best.
03
Solution
Preserve The Past, But Represent The Future
The process started “at the roots” with an intense immersion in the Foster Caviness business–inclusive of a series of interviews with leaders, employees and customers designed to unearth current perceptions of the brand and explore valid, motivating and differentiated areas where the brand might grow. While the brand had slightly different inherent meaning for each audience, there were commonalities that could essentially be summarized as Foster Family–mutual respect and care, transparency and trust. Even though much about the company was in flux, those attributes from the past remained true and provided a powerful base upon which to build.
Campaign Components
- Brand immersion workshop
- Stakeholder interviews
- Brand pyramid
- Brand architecture system
- Visual and verbal identity
- Naming exploratory and recommendation
- Master brand brief
- Campaign exploratory (internal and external)
- Communications plan (internal and external)
- Website design and programming
Brand Evolution & Creative Design
Leveraging the equity in our name while contemporizing the brand.
Branded Collateral
Arming our drivers and brand ambassadors with useful branded items for the real world.
Sub Brand Logos
Creating a flexible, but unified, family of sub brands.
Poster
Highlighting the entire spectrum of (and distance covered by) Foster’s services, while reassuring the audience that “We’ve got the middle.”
Website
Creating an experience that connects with and serves a diverse group of key audiences (clients, prospects, employees and applicants).
Sub-Brand Page
Ensuring the mobile experience is stellar. After all, our people are often on the road!
04
Results
Turning skepticism into enthusiasm.
The internal launch announcing the new brand to employees was tremendously successful garnering regional press coverage and generating heartfelt enthusiasm among employees.
The new advertising campaign entitled “We’ve Got the Middle” was designed to work equally well at communicating how Foster serves it’s internal and external constituents.
To remedy the critical shortage of long-haul truck operators, an extremely limited paid media budget (less than $10,000) was put behind recruitment of drivers with their CDLA–resulting in 55K digital impressions and 1500 clicks.
172.86%
Increased active users on Careers page by 172.86%
226.72%
Increased page views on Careers page by 226.72%
Credits
Creative Director
Jane Doe
Brand Lead
Jane Doe
Designer
Jane Doe
Developer
Jane Doe
Creative Director
Jane Doe
Brand Lead
Jane Doe
Designer
Jane Doe
Developer
Jane Doe
Creative Director
Jane Doe
Brand Lead
Jane Doe
Designer
Jane Doe
Developer
Jane Doe
