Client
Agrii
A leading provider of agronomy services, technology and strategic advice to farmers across the UK, Agrii was formed from the merger of two existing companies – UAP and Masstock. Their holding company, Origin Enterprises, briefed us to position, brand and unite the new entity.
We’d never heard of ‘agronomy’ before we created the Agrii brand. But it’s really interesting, and all to do with helping farmers get the best possible yield. With demand for food increasing, and legislation becoming more complex, farmers are facing challenging times.
Offering services to help increase farming profitability, Origin Enterprises approached us for help in merging two companies well established in the UK – UAP and Masstock.
The new brand would have a strong technological and scientific capability at its centre. It had to demonstrate that ‘big is good’ but without losing the specialness of the farmer / agronomist relationship and the strong service-led culture. A system of brand architecture would be needed to make the link between product and service based elements within the new company.
A name was needed to claim the ‘higher ground’ (a leadership business in agri-intelligence), the merger meant the organisation would be big enough to ‘own the generic’ claiming agri-intelligence. We named the new brand Agrii.
We grounded the positioning in both intelligence and relationships – ‘agri intelligence offered by a new agri culture’. The concept of ‘two to the power of one’ helped us to capture the importance staff placed on the one-to-one relationship between the farmer and the agronomist. This was expressed visually in the brand mark which makes use of a ‘hidden’ plus sign created by the linking ii’s. This graphic element acts as a distinct way of signalling the ‘intelligence’ that runs through the organisation and is used throughout the brand architecture.
With the normal sensitivities around mergers it was crucial to involve staff from both organisations at the start of the process. Although a series of workshops identified a set of complementary values for both businesses, there was a common fear that the scale of the new business would make it cold and commercially driven.
For launch, a personalised box, which included business cards, brand video and brand story booklet, was sent out to every staff member to make them feel valued and equally part of the new brand from the outset.
The new brand was taken online – Agrii's website is a mine of useful information serving as a hub to connect a wide community of farmers and agronomists. It features up to the minute news and the latest developments in farming and agricultural science. The new branding also gives Agrii a strong presence across their social media platforms.
ASHA & Co really challenged us. They gave us a great piece of work, and a plan which is bold and creative. We have a strong solution. Now the hard work starts!
Mark Thomas, Director of Brand and Communications
+5.6%
in Agri-services operating profit since the brand launch
55,000
trails plots across the UK
31%
of all practising agronomists use Agrii
With the presentation of facts and stats being so important, we created customised information graphics templates to enable Agrii to clearly own and convey the data they gathered to their customers.
Subsequent to the brand creation, we have continued to help Agrii maintain their positioning with a number of core initiatives. In order to demonstrate the relationship Agrii has with the farmer, it was important to not just ‘say’ but ‘do’. Agrii vehicles are now used to help rescue farmers and their livestock during severe flooding - as a rapid response fleet.
Legacy is important to farmers, which is why it was recommended that Agrii sets up a bursary scheme for farm professionals of the future, to encourage and reward those passionate about the future of farming.
In the year following the merger and rebrand, Origin Enterprises reported growth in revenues for Agrii and an increase in group profits of over ten per cent, together with a strong operational performance. Having been adopted by Origin’s agronomy operation in Poland in 2016, in 2019 Agrii became the new brand name replacing Comfert, Redoxim and Agroscope in both Ukraine and Romania.
