RWC

The challenge

RWC is a global manufacturer of innovative plumbing products founded in Australia in 1949 – with its headquarters in Atlanta, US and European office and factory in West London. Our opportunity to work with RWC came when they acquired leading British plumbing brand, John Guest, in 2018.

Our brief was to solve a complex branding challenge across a global group of businesses.

Alongside the RWC corporate brand, the group had six core product brands and a growing portfolio of regional brands and sub-brands – each with its own colours, naming conventions and market positioning approaches.

Group acquisition strategy had built a super-group of complementary plumbing and heating products aimed primarily at trades. But this family of brands approach would only work if customers could see a connection between them. We had to find a way to unify all the brands while retaining an element of individuality and personality.

Our approach

Our first step was to consider the corporate brand. Creating a strong, confident mark for RWC would ensure that its brand leadership would carry authority across the group and become the endorsing mark to connect them all.

At the same time, we refined the product brands. The group’s portfolio of products ranged from well-established global brands to start-ups and regional brands.

We created a family of identities using a common typeface and icon style. For each brand it was an evolutionary step forward, with important heritage retained wherever possible. The plan was to create a simple, expandable identity system with a clear set of distinctive brand assets.

From a behavioural economics perspective the branding is all about trust signalling. We’re building trust with new customers through group strength in consistent, reliable quality.

A series of global trade shows was identified as the opportunity to launch the refreshed family of brands. 2019 coincided with the group’s 70-year anniversary. ‘Celebrating 70 years of innovation’ became the focus of the launch.

The results

It has been a rapid and highly successful brand refresh for the global group.

The rebrand has been the catalyst to inspire and motivate employees who can see their part in a dynamic, growing organisation.

Customers and shareholders can immediately understand how the family of brands fit together to deliver an innovative, complementary range of products all aimed at making lives easier.