Case Study

Forterra: Brand Guardianship Project

New brand guidelines ensure consistency and quality across the board

Industry: Construction

Number of employees: 1.8K +

#Brandguidelines #agencypds #Buildingmaterials

Find out more about…
The client
The challenge
The solution
The project team
The results

The client

Forterra is a leading manufacturer of clay and concrete building products, used extensively within the construction sector, employing over 1,800 people across 18 facilities in the UK. Forterra’s brands enjoy a long pedigree and have developed a broad customer base. They manufacture a wide range of trusted products that form an essential and substantial part of the built environment. They are one of the largest brick and aircrete block manufacturers in the country and the only producer of the iconic London Brick. Other trusted brands from Forterra include Thermalite, Conbloc, Ecostock, Butterley, Cradley, Red Bank, Bison Precast and Formpave.

The challenge

As a well-established brand in the UK with a longstanding reputation for manufacturing excellence, Forterra is committed to ensuring all marketing and communication is consistent, of high quality, and true to its brand identity.

However, given the high volume of marketing activity handled by multiple agencies across their product portfolio, it was proving increasingly difficult for Forterra to govern and protect its brand identity.

While Forterra did have brand guidelines in place, these were not comprehensive. As a result, there were often inconsistencies in how logos, colours, layouts and other visual branding elements were used across the board. Given the negative impact this could have on brand recognition and its reputation in the market, Forterra sought to resolve this issue.

Key challenges

The original brand guidelines lacked clarity and detail.
Branding elements were used inconsistently across the board.
It was difficult to protect Forterra’s brand identity and reputation.
There was a risk of eroding brand recognition.

The solution

Forterra commissioned PDS to conduct an in-depth review of their brand guidelines, as well as an audit of all existing marketing, communications, and brand-building materials.

After conducting our research, we recommended that Forterra establish a new set of clear, detailed brand guidelines to ensure consistency and cohesiveness across all visual branding elements.

PDS was given the mandate to develop these new brand guidelines for Forterra. Working closely with our client, we established a new set of rules on how to approach the various branding elements, including logos, colour palettes and layouts. We communicated these in a user-friendly way, including instructions on how to market different Forterra brands together, so there is a cohesive and harmonious brand identity across the product portfolio.

The project team

Jayne Gowan (Relationship Manager), David Nelson (Lead Creative)

Jayne Gowan

Relationship Manager

David Nelson

Lead Creative

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Key outcomes

After an audit, PDS created new brand guidelines to address these issues.
These provide greater clarity and direction to all marketing teams.
They also bring a freshness and clarity to all marketing projects.
This has increased marketing efficiency and sped up new project delivery.

The results

The new brand guidelines have brought freshness and clarity to all marketing projects – ensuring consistency, quality, and optimum engagement across all branded communications.

Further, they are easy for any agency or internal team to use and provide all the necessary information in one place. This is helping to increase marketing efficiency and accelerate the delivery of new campaigns and projects.

All stakeholders now have the clarity and direction they need when working with the brand, making it much easier for them to work more efficiently. As less time is spent debating each element, Forterra can focus its resources on higher-value creative projects that further strengthen its brand identity and reputation.

Forterra now has a solid foundation from which to implement a broader rebranding initiative. This includes a website redevelopment project, which PDS also managed.

“The brand guideline refresh has enabled the business to bring clarity to the brand hierarchy and to adopt best-practice when representing the breadth of the Forterra portfolio in the marketplace. We now have a robust set of guidelines that support our ability to react with pace when developing strategic campaigns and with confidence that our brands are being represented with consistency and respect.”

Head of Marketing & Communications

Looking to maintain robust Brand Guardianship like Forterra?

Brand consistency is crucial for businesses to remain recognisable and stand out from the competition, we know that this takes significant investment of time, budget, and resources. Brand guidelines provide clarity and consistency to your communications, with clear brand guidelines, you can ensure that your brand is consistently represented across all channels to your target audience.

Talk to us about how agencypds can support you with brand guidelines.