Brand consultancies Brand Matters and Morning have collaborated to create a new brand positioning and identity for Greene King, the FTSE 250 pub retailer and brewer.

Task

Greene King’s visual identity was fragmented (with many renditions of the ‘Greene King’ mark) and the iconography was not rooted in the heritage of the firm.

Photo: New Brand Positioning and Identity for Greene King

Solution

Focusing on the promise of ‘authentic hospitality’ the new visual identity includes a new brandmark based on the Crown of St Edmund (the martyred king who gave his name to Bury St Edmunds, home of Greene King), whilst the colour palette—green, bronze and stone—is inspired by the local Suffolk landscape.

The identity also had to reflect the brand’s personality— genuine, reliable, knowledgeable, convivial and engaging—all the attributes you want to find in an authentic pub. This was captured through the photographic imagery showing people enjoying the warmth and conviviality of their pub.

Finally an ‘authentic’ bespoke font, St Edmund Sans, has been created for Greene King—inspired by classic English humanist fonts.

Photo: New Brand Positioning and Identity for Greene King

The result

The new identity is being rolled-out now and will be applied to Greene King’s beer brands, pub estate and corporate materials over the next few months.

Mark Blythman, Strategy and Communications Director at Greene King said, “We see the new identity as an important opportunity to unite all aspects of the company— and to build on the strong reputation of the Greene King name. The results are outstanding and are testimony to the collaborative approach of Brand Matters and Morning.”

Photo: New Brand Positioning and Identity for Greene King

Simon John, Creative Partner at Brand Matters said, “We had to develop a new sense of identity for a company that has both a great brewing heritage going back more than 200 years and a fast-growing hospitality business.   And do it in a sensitive manner.  I think we’ve achieved that with a symbol and identity that capture an authentic organisation.”

Ian Haughton, Creative Director at Morning said, “Our challenge was to create a completely new visual identity grounded in the rich history of the brand. It had to be credible, to appear like it’s always been around, in order to unite the company under one brand. No questions asked. From feedback to-date we’ve succeeded!”

Photo: New Brand Positioning and Identity for Greene King

Photo: New Brand Positioning and Identity for Greene King