Facing a shift in industry trends, the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) needed to update its image, broaden its target audience to include more potential members, and amplify its indispensability to some of the biggest food and consumer packaged goods manufacturers, operators, and distribution partners across the U.S. Enter The Martin Group. We were tasked with rebranding the 72-year-old organization as IFMA – The Food Away from Home Association, as well as using our fully integrated agency to reset IFMA as an industry leader integral to its members’ present and future. Operating in a turbulent and challenging post-COVID era for the food away from home industry, IFMA has been faced with many unique hurdles for growing membership, including competition from retail associations, media companies, and for-profit thought leadership entities. This led the association to look to: evolve the look, feel, and function of its brand to better represent its mission and trajectory; position the organization as the undisputed authority within the ever-evolving food-away-from-home (FAFH) ecosystem; and strengthen its value proposition for a wider, more diverse set of potential members as manufacturers and operators continue to consolidate
To answer these needs, The Martin Group set out to better understand, redesign, and relaunch the brand with a variety of in-depth measures. Starting by surveying current IFMA members—with questions about perceptions of, issues with, and available improvements to be made of the brand—our team set out to discover what a new IFMA could look like. With these learnings, we retained the IFMA name to uphold the brand’s legacy of equity, then added “The Food Away From Home Association” to reflect the brand’s evolution into the leading food-away-from-home industry association, delivering exceptional opportunities for its members to learn, lead, and succeed as one. This coincided with the creation of a new logo, which our team devised to comprise of four intersecting swirls that represent a quartet of industry segments joining together through the work of the association to empower, nurture, and connect the $1.5 trillion food and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) ecosystem. Finally, our team enabled the rebranded organization to roll out its new name, logo, and renewed mission at its Presidents Conference, providing IFMA personnel with presentation direction, supporting graphics, and a video animation to display throughout the entire three-day conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.
After insightful information earned through our comprehensive survey—and feedback from a subcommittee consisting of leaders from some of the world’s most prominent food and CPG brands—we landed on successful elements of a rebrand. The name “IFMA – The Food Away from Home Association” was deemed to be reflective of the brand’s heritage and evolving mission and more inclusive to new potential members, and the new logo was heralded as emblematic of an inclusivity the brand aims to embody. Finally, the unveiling of each at its Presidents Conference proved impactful, and successfully relaunched the brand for its renewed purpose.