Brand strategy for world’s largest components manufacturer

Revitalising RS PRO

Despite RS Components being a globally recognised brand with hundreds of thousands of customers, their own brand range of products had little brand awareness amongst their customer base. With a large range including 60,000 products and enormous diversity, the question of what customers should expect from the range had resulted in poor awareness of the brand and an expectation of poor quality.

With private label products a strategic priority for the business, the challenge was to create a clear proposition and identity and articulate it to customers through consistent messaging and visuals language. The key objective for the project was to transition from selling individual products purely on features, to customers choosing RS PRO as their brand of choice.

To bring this new proposition to life we created a visual identity that could be used to communicate the brand pillars.

Crafting a Compelling Brand Proposition

By analysing customer behaviour and data, we discovered limited awareness and purchases of RS PRO, the brand’s own products. Through workshops and audits we developed the strategy around three key brand pillars; Quality, Choice, Availability. By clearly defining these with a hierarchy that showed the relevance of each, the RS PRO label meant more than just a budget alternative.

The strapline ‘Our Range, Your Choice’ summarised the new proposition. To bring this new proposition to life we created a visual identity that could be used to communicate the brand pillars but also help the products to be identified amongst other brands. We created the visual philosophy of ‘everyday beauty’ for the brand, elevating the everyday to heroes in their own right. This adjustment of focus, helped to shift the brand visual perception from basic alternative to positive choice.

Streamlining Brand Execution

To ensure that the strategy and the execution were clear for everyone using the branding we created a range of templates and messaging based on the new proposition and design philosophy. These templates were then made available through the RS Components online brand platform, a centralised resource for all to use. Hero products were showcased with ‘everyday beauty’ through photographer Rikard Osterland’s images, enhancing their quality in banners, covers, and pack shots.

A clear brand strategy, proposition, and design philosophy facilitated easier understanding and regional expression as the branding was delegated to regional teams. Clear guidance, assets, and hierarchy were provided for different audiences and applications at various levels.

Driving Global Brand Rollout

Ensuring consistency across global teams and preventing asset degradation, we collaborated with stakeholders worldwide to gather input and create branding guidelines. We developed universal logos, assets, templates, and messaging, distributed through the RS PRO Brandzone platform. This equipped teams and regional brand owners with a design system for creating new marketing collateral and applying assets to thousands of products.

With a clear new proposition and all of the tools to bring it to life, the branding has been rolled out globally within RS Components and through all of their customer touch points. The clarity on what values drive RS PRO products has enabled them to consolidate their communications and create more consistent, centralised messaging and sharing of material.