Athletic Alliance Brand Refresh: Science Meets Sweat
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
Reaffirm Athletic Alliance’s commitment to their audience with a fan-focused brand refresh.
SERVICES PROVIDED
BRAND STRATEGY
BRAND IDENTITY DESIGN
PACKAGING DESIGN
BRANDED MATERIALS, APPAREL & MERCHANDISE
CONTENT CREATION
Athletic Alliance is a well-established sports supplement company with products in GNC stores for nearly a decade. Rather than abandon those impressions, our objective was to create an updated identity and a family of packaging which was still clearly identifiable to existing customers.
The brand update also needed to honor a renewed commitment to creating value for customers, new and existing. Groundwork made a laundry list of improvements to the product line, some obvious and some subtle. The cumulative effect is a product line designed from the ground up to inspire more conversions.
PACKAGING IMPROVEMENTS
More prominent branding & product name makes the product easier to identify on the shelf and more memorable.
Metallic purple lids are assertive, on-brand, and strongly differentiated from competitors.
Product type & function is clear and noticeable, improving read order.
Large, easy-to-find servings per container bring attention to a critical point of comparison.
Larger colored sections make products more distinct from one another and easier to locate.
A less cluttered front panel is more accessible and easier to understand.
“Stack” graphics provide information about the benefits of the product family and encourage purchase.
Clear per-serving information for calories, sugar, and fat.
THINKING CUSTOMER-FIRST
Brands grow from the ground up when their most faithful followers rally around them. If you want them to stand with you, stand for them. Consider their life, their preferences, and what they want to become. Help them buy to belong. Think customer-first.
WHO · ATHLETIC ALLIANCE'S MODEL CUSTOMER
Ultra-competitive “alpha” males, leading work-hard, play-hard lifestyles, fulfilled by being top dog, and attracted to pillars of masculinity and crisp, clean vibes.
Chief Strategist and Creative Director Nate Ripley helped Athletic Alliance kick off their brand update by identifying their ideal customer. Developing customer profiles then gave us an even clearer picture of the lifestyle and mindset of their most faithful fans.
MOOD BOARDS · OUR IDEAL CUSTOMER’S BEST LIFE
The new and improved Athletic Alliance brand grew from our ideal customer’s aesthetic. Clean, energetic, strong, performance-driven, and powerful are a few descriptive words that come to mind.
Brand strategy doesn’t work if it isn’t applied. Mood boards help us translate customer desires into brand presence.
Athletic Alliance’s ideal customer is motivated by being top dog and proving that the top is where he belongs. Symbols of masculinity, fast cars, sports and competition, clubs and nightlife, fitness, power, and feelings of superiority were points of inspiration.
APPLICATIONS & CONTENT CREATION
Going beyond basics—content and materials to bring Athletic Alliance’s brand to the world.
Creating an attractive brand means designing a rich visual language that speaks to the customer and tells the brand’s story. It goes far beyond a logo design or a few color choices. If we want to engage our most faithful fans, we need to create value for them.
Athletic Alliance needed a tagline to capture the spirit of the brand. Clean, clinical, powerful, and exotic. Performance products made for the determined few who understand that greatness demands consistency and commitment. Athletic Alliance’s creed and tagline came to life—science meets sweat. It takes both to reach your physical peak; you can’t be your best without them.
With the messaging completed, Groundwork set out to create assets and imagery that could bring Athletic Alliance to the world.
APPAREL & MERCHANDISE
If they love it, they’ll want the world to know.
A brand’s biggest fans love to sing its praises. It helps to make telling their friends about you as easy as possible. In Athletic Alliance’s case, that meant creating t-shirts, shaker bottles, lanyards, and other accessories that the brand’s most faithful fans would be proud to wear at the gym.
Great merchandise is more than a revenue stream; it spreads a brand’s message far and wide.
ATHLETIC ALLIANCE · PROJECT RESULTS AND IMPACT
Groundwork positioned Athletic Alliance for success with an updated brand identity, packaging, content, and materials. Because this project is fresh and ongoing, check back soon for an update!
Thanks for stopping by!
GET IN TOUCH
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO:
Marty Neumier, Seth Godin, Blair Enns, and the other giants who’s shoulders we stand on.
UNSPLASH CREDITS:
ANASTASE MARAGOS
JACKSON HAYES
LOGAN WEAVER
GEORGIE COBBS
CIBELLY ROBERTA
MORE CASE STUDIES
BEAR ‘N BEAVER—DELICIOUSLY DISTINCTIVE CRAFT SODA
GRIZZLY—LIFESTYLE SPORTS SUPPLEMENTS FOR ADVENTURE SEEKERS
STILL CURIOUS?
Want to know what we’re thinking about at Groundwork? Subscribe to our newsletter. We won’t use this list to spam you. It’s just new articles every sometimes.
