The Client

Whether you’ve been working outdoors your whole life or are new to nature, you’ve probably come across Arbortec in some shape or form.

They’ve been providing arborists, climbers and foresters with protective chainsaw equipment for over 30 years and are recognised as an industry leader in the manufacturing and delivery of ultimate chainsaw apparel and tree connect equipment for their global community.

With arboriculture proving to be one of the fastest growing sports, we were ready and raring to go with this one!

The Challenge

Arbortec approached us with a series of strategic challenges, including:

  • A lack of brand consistency. They needed their brand to align with their global vision.
  • Linked to the point above, the brand logo was outdated and in need of an overhaul.
  • Despite a strong social presence, the time was now right to establish stronger strategic foundations to build from.
  • Working with many distributors across the UK and globally meant they would be entrusting lots of people to tell the Arbortec story on their behalf. It was important that everyone was aligned and singing from the same hymn sheet.
  • They needed to activate their diverse and broad audience.

The Result

We always say that the best answers come from the best questions, which is why we take the time to fully diagnose the key challenges of a brand before prescribing the most effective way forward.

As a part of this process, we ran a number of strategic workshops with key stakeholders at Arbortec, where we took key learnings from the wider market, developed new overarching personas, built the Arbortec proposition and accompanying brand values and focused on how best to prioritise the next 12 months of marketing.

Following this strategic consultancy phase, we created a logo that was unique to Arbortec and based on informed decision-making defined in the strategy workshops and brand briefing sessions.

We wanted to introduce elements that subtly represented the industry in its current existence, but offered inherent flexibility to move into other marketplaces in the future.

Finally, we produced a comprehensive set of brand guidelines to ensure cohesion between the Arbortec brand, its distributors, retailers and consumers.

The aim of the guidelines was to help to ensure that Arbortec became a brand that’s recognisable across the globe, even when certain brand elements are removed. We wanted all future marketing communications to be instantly recognisable, so that any small fragment will be identified as part of the Arbortec brand, even without having to use the logo.

The guidelines were created as a go-to reference guide for marketing best practice and for everything you would need to know about communicating the Arbortec brand.

"Arbortec is one of those rare companies, that is still family-run, but with massive ambitions. I loved working with Guy, Win, Camilla and the entire team to bring their new brand identity to fruition."

ALASTAIR LECOMTEBrandwave - Creative Director

"It's hugely rewarding to have been involved in shaping the future of the Arbortec brand. It's always nice to see the strategic foundations set out during our workshops brought to life with such a successful launch of the new brand!"

WILL COWELLBrandwave - Senior Account Manager

“We have very much enjoyed spending the last decade educating people on the fact that we should be positioning ourselves within the action sports market. Our positive contribution to nature, alongside our innovative apparel, has clearly helped to drive this conversation, but the time had come to engage an agency capable of creating a brand that could comfortably sit alongside, and even rival, top sporting brands. After many months of strategy, scrutiny and development, we are absolutely delighted with the work Brandwave delivered. We look forward to a sustained partnership and to seeing the new Arbortec brand continue to grow on a global level.”

GUY BROTHERSArbortec - Managing Director