Merriwa is one of Australia’s most successful organisations offering integrated employment opportunities for people with disability. Situated in the North East Victorian city of Wangaratta since inception in 1975, Merriwa is recognised as a highly progressive social enterprise.
Being a community-based enterprise and not subject to ownership by any individual or group of individuals, Merriwa is not constrained by the need to return dividends to its “owners”.
Instead, Merriwa employs the notion of social dividends to the community by ensuring that a suitable percentage of its profits are invested into community services and initiatives.
Brand Bureau was approached by Merriwa to manage the company's marketing and communication.
Extensive stakeholder consultation resulted in a report outlining our recommendations. We secured Board endorsement of our approach, which as a first step included rebranding Merriwa - complete with a new tagline.
The journey to develop the new brand involved a series of steps to ensure the brand embodies the organisation’s values and portrays Merriwa as the vibrant, dynamic and people-centred organisation that it is.
The first step in the journey involved Merriwa engaging brand development experts, Brand Bureau. Brand Bureau’s first worked to understand Merriwa’s strategic intent and learn what the organisation wanted to convey.
Next Brand Bureau undertook an industry analysis to ensure the new brand would be unique and set Merriwa apart from both other disability support providers and the commercial competitors of the various Merriwa divisions.
Then several new brand concepts where developed and Brand Bureau consulted with Merriwa’s management team and Board to select and refine the favoured concept.
Bart Crawley, Merriwa’s CEO explains, “We are extremely proud of our new brand. The new brand has been designed to convey that Merriwa is approachable and dynamic. The typeface font was selected to demonstrate reliability and strength but also a friendly community focus. The graphic arrows that face inwards, towards the “i”, which can also represent a person, symbolise that Merriwa Industries is very much a people-centred organisation.
The new brand also incorporates the new tagline ‘Bringing quality to life’. Bart Crawley explains, “The tagline articulates both sides of our story. For our clients the tagline demonstrates that we help to bring value and worth to their lives. For customers, the tagline shows our commitment to providing them with quality products and services.”
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