Meredith
Identity
Visual Systems
Engaging beyond print: a lifestyle brand emerges
Meredith has been a leader in the publishing industry for more than 100 years. The Meredith portfolio includes such venerable brands as Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, Fitness, Family Circle, More and Traditional Home as well as 12 local network-affiliated television brands.
Meredith wanted to reposition from its old image as a dusty publishing company to its new reality: the largest media and marketing services company reaching women in the world. Repositioning involved an exploration of whether there could be a positioning for the parent that could be shared and have relevance to all businesses. We also worked to align the company’s communications practices and visual image with its updated positioning strategy.
Challenges
While Meredith’s corporate brand and business groups (Publishing and Broadcasting) spoke to legacy distribution channels and competencies, they did not capture 1) the dynamic, multi-platform nature of how today’s Meredith delivers content; 2) the media brands consumers trust every day; or 3) the strength of Meredith’s marketing solutions.
Meredith could attain a higher order positioning for the parent, having relevance to all audiences by representing a greater “story” with focus more on the markets it serves, less on what it makes/publishes. Clients’ experiences with Meredith were far more multi-dimensional, and they already viewed Meredith as an innovative, progressive partner — beyond publishing. But the corporate brand was not conveying those messages to its breadth of audiences.
Actions
Developed a new brand positioning strategy centered around “Engaging Lives,” which spoke to how Meredith’s media brands connect to the heart of what matters most to people, creating a meaningful dialogue between consumers and marketers
Developed a brand architecture and nomenclature strategy to complement the new brand positioning and expand from dated, channel-based ways of thinking about the portfolio (Publishing and Broadcasting) to organizing principles more reflective of Meredith’s strong brands and marketing capabilities (National Media Brands, Local Media Brands and Marketing Solutions)
Developed a new visual identity to convey the new positioning and brand architecture, carried across the organization and codified in brand guidelines The updated corporate logo featured four interlaced letter “m’s” that reflect both Meredith’s ability to distribute content across multiple platforms, its significant marketing capabilities, and also communicate Meredith’s brand values and culture
Designed a comprehensive visual system – codified in brand guidelines – which applied the new identify across touchpoints including stationery, marketing materials, ad campaign, etc.
Results
The Meredith brand now reflects the dynamic media and marketing company behind it, and reinforces a fresh, optimistic future for employees, clients and consumers. Meredith’s new brand was extremely well-received internally and externally, won design awards, and aided growth in an otherwise stagnant industry.
The Conference Board Review noted: “Meredith employees love their new brand. It has also received consistently positive reviews from the branding and design communities…simple but fresh, balanced nicely with a calm and confident wordmark.”
As a follow-on to this engagement, Lippincott also advised Meredith on naming and design solutions for brands within its portfolio.
Awards
Advertising Age: “2009 Publishing Company of the Year”
AIR: ‘Best Media Company to do Business With’ by clients and agencies
Logo Lounge V.6: 2000 International Identities by Leading Designers.