Interview: Beaphar strengthens retail position through strategic branding.

Interview: Beaphar strengthens retail position through strategic branding 

Over the past 7 years, the pet industry has grown and Beaphar's retail environment has become increasingly digital. Building brand preference through a well-developed emotional connection from advertising to marketplace shelf space is ever more crucial.

Below you can read the interview that goes into the details of how Beaphar and their agency June20 built this brand, and was published in Media Marketing magazine in 2023.

The ingredients?

Interview about a strong client – agency partnership

Beaphar has been working with June20 since 2016. From day one, the Ghent-based agency has supported the Dutch pet care brand in positioning itself in an increasingly digital world. We hear how this works from Marlies Nijmeijer (global brand & marketing manager at Beaphar), Wolfgang Florizoone (MD at June20), and Justine Wittoek (Account Director).

Your collaboration stemmed from a need for repositioning that would serve as the foundation for brand identity, packaging, and product strategy?

Marlies Nijmeijer: Beaphar offers a wide range of pet care products. It's a Dutch family business now run by the third generation.

We sell in 86 countries worldwide – including Belgium – with the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom as our core markets.

Traditionally, each market could determine its own strategy, including packaging and brand positioning. Moreover, our product portfolio was highly fragmented. With this dual challenge in mind, we joined June20 in 2016: we wanted structure in our portfolio and centralization of our marketing and communication.

How did you approach that process at June20?

Wolf Florizoone: Our collaboration is an interesting example of how a manufacturer and an agency can leverage the full potential of branding to create a positive impact on the retail environment (both B2B and B2C).

Due to the fragmented packaging, some product names were stronger than the Beaphar brand itself. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's more efficient to have a strong brand for new introductions and to generate brand preference.

We therefore defined the brand based on two strategic pillars. The first is the emotional connection between people and their pets, which are members of the family. A good foundation to work with, by the way, according to our Engineering Emotions approach. We drew inspiration from the codes in human FMCG and applied them to the codes within our segment.

The second pillar concerns the qualitative reliability and availability of the products. Beaphar specializes in generic versions of freely available patents, making the products just as effective but often slightly more affordable compared to competitors.

Both pillars shape the brand identity and corporate identity or logo, as well as the product range, packaging, and marketing communications. Consistency is paramount throughout the entire journey.

MN: This framework serves as a benchmark for us to continually check our "recognizability" and see if a product fits within our range, for example. Beaphar has a growth strategy, and to support this growth, our goal is to increase brand awareness. We are growing our revenue year after year, and this growth is partly supported by ever-increasing brand recognition. This is thanks to our investments in increasing brand visibility, including through television and digital media. Today, we have a very recognizable story.

How are these brand values reflected in your communications?

WF: You could see our approach as an application of the "Touch – Tell – Sell" media model for brand communication, starting with brand awareness through various touchpoints throughout the funnel and progressing to more tactical actions to promote brand preference. We have a multi-channel approach that ensures we drive traffic to our website and those of our (e)tailers. We also developed the website together. Beaphar has consciously chosen not to compete with retailers, but rather to act as a facilitator, providing the distribution channels with content and advertising, so they can optimally sell Beaphar products themselves. We truly position Beaphar as the expert in pet care products. We have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in this area.

MN: This enormous amount of content is produced in symbiosis between June20 and Beaphar's internal design and marketing teams. This is done within the brand guidelines developed in collaboration with June20. This applies not only to corporate identity, but also to tone of voice, media use, and visualization. We work very closely together: the Beaphar design team and the June20 design team are in regular contact, collaborate on new developments, and keep each other sharp. To do this effectively, a cultural fit between client and agency is essential. And we truly have that.

Justine Wittoek: Our collaboration is based on openness, where we can both clearly express our positive and negative opinions, so we can work on those. We're always striving for improvement. Every few months, we hold strategic meetings, as well as more informal gatherings and activities with the teams.

MN: Thanks to our inclusive collaboration, the June20 colleagues truly feel like our own.

What has changed since your collaboration with June20 began?

MN: In recent years, we've been confronted with a rapidly digitizing world. June20 has also helped us make the transition from physical to digital shelves. We're focusing heavily on this: how should our product look and be found online, and how do we further attract consumers, including online?

On the other hand, some of our markets are currently experiencing the "cost of living crisis," so we now also want to draw more heavily on the second pillar of our identity: Beaphar's quality is just as good, but its products are often cheaper than those of competitors. But this functional message isn't enough: it should never be separated from its emotional component, which is encapsulated in our tagline, "Because pets are family too."

You've been working hand in hand for seven years. What have you learned from each other?

MN: At Beaphar, we've learned the importance of emotional communication. That helps us differentiate ourselves as a brand, especially in our case: we're not the most innovative product, but we are the one with the warmest feeling.

WF: We've learned a great deal from Beaphar about collaboration between teams across the globe, and how to maintain and strengthen connections between people through a shared corporate culture and the exchange of knowledge and best practices. And we admire Beaphar's can-do mentality: the drive and the space for initiative and entrepreneurship.

Enginering emotions together, we built a distinctive brand through modelling its emotional connection. Because pets are family too!

Sources: https://www.mm.be/news-nl-72714-beaphar-versterkte-retailpositie-dankzij-strategische-branding