ForFarmers, Europe’s leading livestock nutrition company, was planning an IPO. In preparation, it had developed a new business strategy to create one seamless, pan-European organisation but lacked a compelling and unifying story to underpin this development.

Our brief was to help redevelop and build its overarching brand story and communication approach.

Our first step was to examine ForFarmers’ operating sphere and importantly its stakeholders’ attitudes. Its various European markets were not only at differing stages of development but also had very dissimilar cultural attitudes to livestock production and feed. To explore these attitudes we ran a focused piece of research amongst both staff and farmers in core markets.

The insights gained from this research helped us to re-interpret the business strategy, translating it into a coherent and motivating brand story.

One key challenge was to develop a clear and differentiating mission statement to encapsulate ForFarmers’ very purpose. Our solution was to introduce the line ‘For the Future of Farming’.

This statement expresses succinctly what the company stands for by stressing its commitment to supporting farmers and working to ensure the long term success of the sector. For a sector such as farming, which over the years has been buffeted by one crisis after another and whose members often feel under-valued, this was seen as a highly positive and supportive initiative.

To emphasise this commitment, the statement was etched into a ‘seal of commitment’.

Over time, use of the seal is not only building awareness of the company but is also developing a strong association between the ForFarmers’ brand and the long-term viability of the sector.

In order to embed the new positioning, especially amongst staff, we developed a corporate story around ‘For the Future of Farming’. This has ensured that staff throughout the organisation are clear as to: what the company stands for; how it plans to achieve its goals and; why they should work for the company.

The whole strategic development was captured in a concise brand book, ‘Working side-by-side’. This ‘easy read’ outlines the whole story, covering: the business and brand strategies; aims and ambitions; mission, vision and values; proposition; promise; deliverables and; key supporting pillars.