Restructuring and refreshing a leading cooler brand

the opportunity

A well-loved pioneer in the global cooler market with countless patents, Arctic Zone products are found anywhere lunch or cool drinks are being enjoyed. After four decades in the industry — which led to various sub-brands, countless high-performing SKUs, and a cluster of highly competitive distributors — the brand suffered from an identity crisis. Their positioning lacked clarity, their products were cannibalizing one another in overlapping channels, and they no longer had a clear picture of the consumer segments they aimed to serve.

Arctic Zone came to us to develop a brand architecture and positioning that made stakeholders, buyers, and consumers more confident and inspired. We identified Titan as a high-performing product line buried within most sales channels, and defined the relationship between Titan and Arctic Zone, differentiating their consumers, their product offerings, and their brand identity.

the outcome

Discovering Titan’s potential for overall brand growth led to a strategic pivot in the project, whereby we ultimately created an entirely unique sub-brand within Arctic Zone that’s able to stand alone at major retailers like Costco and on marketplaces like Amazon. To leverage Arctic Zone’s brand equity, we also renamed Titan from Titan Deep Freeze to Titan by Arctic Zone, a slight shift with exponential long-term benefits.

The brand architecture also included significant changes to their product offerings (done in consultation with their product team), shifting all lunch products under the Arctic Zone brand and all adventure-focused, performance-based products under Titan. This led to clarity within the organization across all departments, allowing the internal team to focus on innovation and marketing. Consumers now better understand each brand’s unique value, and the sub-brands can now better target their audiences.

Our work produced solutions that will drive growth for Arctic Zone, balancing physical (brick and mortar) and digital (DTC/owned channels) to win the retail game.

verticals

• Retail
• Outdoor

services

• Stakeholder Research
• Market Research
• Consumer Insights
  • Qualitative / Consumer Immersion
• Brand Architecture & Brand Positioning
• Comprehensive Brand Refresh