Major rebrand = major risk.

My first impression of Michaela is that she’s got her shit together.

Organised, a lot of energy and an incredible amount of attention to detail. Someone I would trust.

Michaela Davis is CEO at Stuff That Matters, a mens personal care brand.

We grabbed a coffee and she was kind enough to share with me the full story behind their dramatic rebrand.

I’ve always wanted to peek behind-the-scenes at the discussions, decisions and processes that led to a major brand overhaul.

When you get ingrained in a company culture, it’s easy to accept that “your way” of doing something is “the way” of doing it.

But there are a million paths to success, so buckle up and pay attention.

Why? What drove the decision?

The question on any curious persons lips. Whyyyy?

There’s generally only 2 reasons why a company takes a dramatic rebrand:

1. They have to - a legal or trademark issue
   

2. They want to (so badly that they feel like they have to)

Stuff is in the latter camp - it was a strategic decision.

To truly understand the why, we need some broader context.

More than just a consumer goods brand

Stuff was founded by Hunter Johnson, who also founded the mental health charity, Man Cave.

Man Cave teach emotional intelligence and mental health to young boys, helping to solve gender based violence and generational issues.

Hunter realised the impact brands and advertising can have on culture - particularly the attitudes and beliefs systems of young men.

So he decided to kill two birds with one stone - create a consumer goods brand to help fund the charity and push the culture towards positivity.

An insights engine

This charity association means that the people behind the brand are also face-to-face with their target consumers - every. single. day.

They’ve run sessions with almost 80,000 young men, collecting insights about how they engage with brands along the way.

But given how methodical Michaela is, this was just the start - to truly understand their audience, they commissioned a usage and attitudes study around personal care for men, reaching over 5,000 households (including sampling).

They had two key realisations

1. 70% of young men felt the personal care brands they used didn’t represent them or their values

2. 85% who tried the “better-for-you” Stuff products would use it again

Action-intention gap

Another core insight collected was that although people say they want to buy sustainable and natural products, most don’t.

Natural, aluminium-free deodorants are still an emerging market and for the mainstream consumer, “not stinking” is much higher on the priority list than natural ingredients.

Two scary truths & product-market-fit

The team were left facing a daunting reality.

They didn’t have the product lineup they needed to reach mainstream consumers and grow this thing properly

AND

They didn’t have a brand identity that truly reflected the values of their target audience of young men.

This is where the rebrand comes in…

They knew they needed a reset to move forward.

So they put everything on the table.
Product, price, promotion, place.
Everything was reviewed and up for consideration.

Even the brand name.

The name “Stuff” kinda sucks for a brand.
You can’t google it.
It’s not memorable.
And it doesn’t communicate anything.

On a mission to preach the mission

Brand name does a lot of the heavy lifting in communicating the ‘essence’ of a brand.

There’s only so much information you can put on pack, so a priority in this process was making the brand name work harder to communicate their point of difference.

They partnered with local Melbourne agency TRiC, a branding studio, to create a whole new brand identity and packaging design.

Not only are they rolling out a new name and new identity, but they are launching a huge range of NPD and expanding outside the niche of natural into the world of mainstream deodorants.

The $700 million prize

The decision to broaden their brand outside just natural deodorants and skin care is underpinned by the opportunity - the deodorant market in Australia alone is worth $700 million in sales.

And it’s ripe for disruption on shelf.

The wall of dark colours is screaming for a bright palette, just like the designs from the new Stuff That Matters.

Doing it right

In going through the design process, Michaela and the team leveraged the power of contrast in context.

But it wasn’t that clear cut at the start.

Michaela said they fell in love with a design on the screen, but it wasn’t until they mocked it up using stickers and a DIY grocery store shelf in their office that they actually “saw” it properly.

When they put the design into the broader context of a busy retail shelf, they realised it needed way more work to stand out and capture attention.

Risk vs reward

Ultimately, the new design direction may be a little polarising for some people.

But they are laser-focused on their core audience - Gen Z young men, and they’ve put in the hard yards to ensure the design lands with this audience.

The new products launched represent 10x the market opportunity than their previous natural/skin care range.

The team are confident this new branding direction is going to maximise this opportunity and make more out of it, but they also acknowledge that it is not without risk and that it’s their job to bring shoppers along on the journey.

Big bold moves

It’s exciting to see a brand breakthrough in this category with a real mission and a great story.

So far, the hard work has paid off. The brand is now ranged in Woolworths, Big W, Sephora, Priceline and independent grocers & pharmacies.

Go and buy it.