Daler-Rowney – Make Your Mark

The Brief

Daler-Rowney is the UK’s leading producer of artists’ materials including paints, papers, brushes, canvases and more. The company saw its approaching 225th anniversary as an opportunity to breath new life into the brand and try to redress competitive pressures and revive sales in this sector. The logo was to remain but all other aspects of the brand needed to be re-launched both internally and externally on a global scale.

Milestone won a pitch to tackle this brief, the first step of which was to carry out a Brand Audit. As part of this process, Milestone visited retailers and spoke to staff, distributors, students and professional artists. This exercise highlighted that although there was a lot of respect for the brand there was confusion over the current and future direction of the business. It was clear that we needed to re-engage the professional artist community and strengthen relationships with trade channel and key customer groups.

The Solution

During our Brand Storm process for helping brands define and develop the positioning, we quickly identified the need to draw out the brand’s passion and creativity.

‘Be Inspired’. became the overall campaign theme, launched initially to over 400 staff by inviting them to contribute to a giant art installations, to be displayed at main office sites in the UK, USA and Dominican Republic.

Professional artists, colleges and galleries were also inspired to participate by sponsoring and taking part in events and competitions.

To inspire customers, the new creative look and feel for Daler-Rowney imagery was run out across advertising, literature, catalogue and website as well as in-store materials. A branding device was also created for products and point of sale. A dedicated brand resource micro-site ‘dalerism.co.uk’ was built to provide global access to brand assets, materials and templates, news flashes and press releases.

Outcomes

A great response to internal activities has created a buzz and momentum about the brand, its heritage and its central relationship with the art world. This is now spreading out to the wider consumer audiences. There is now a clear direction for the brand which is understood and being delivered through the retailer network and relevant media. Relationships with students, leisure painters and professional artists is strengthening through a series of targeted campaigns, events and competitions.