Harraways has been milling oats in Dunedin for over 150 years and is now the only company still milling home grown oats in New Zealand. Whilst many NZ brands claim heritage , Harraways is one of the few brands with a genuine, authentic heritage story to tell.
At the start of our project, Peter and the Harraways team had a clear view of the opportunities and challenges they faced. The market for oats is growing, thanks to increasing awareness of their health benefits and Harraways was investing in a doubling of production with ambitious export and NPD plans. However, the brand was under heavy competitive pressure from Nestlé owned Uncle Toby’s and from private label.
It was clear that the brand was an under-utilised asset. It lacked relevance and didn’t have a clear sense of what it stands for, and it looked old-fashioned, recessive and confused on-shelf. But it is a brand that many people love and with a rich, authentic story to tell.
I worked with the Harraways team, and Marx, their design agency, to develop a new Purpose for the brand and from that to define how that should be brought to life, specifically through the brand visual identity and new products. This foundational work has paid dividends with 2020 being a bumper year for Harraways.
