How Amul Stayed Relevant for 75 Years Without a Rebrand • Brands Are Adapting to AI Search • The Personal Brand Trap

Welcome to the fifth edition of our weekly roundup of branding news, thought leadership, and insightful articles on brand strategy.

Each week, we curate and summarize the most relevant stories from the branding industry, so you can stay informed without having to search for them yourself. Enjoy!

• Consumer Research That Actually Brings Brands Closer to People
  Brands lose relevance when they rely on outdated assumptions instead of understanding how consumers actually live, think, and behave. The piece highlights six practical ways to improve consumer research.

• Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s feud ruined a $100 million brand. It’s a crucial lesson for every founder
  Founders should treat the Blake Lively–Justin Baldoni controversy as a warning about reputation risk. Social media backlash can quickly hurt sales, brand value, and consumer trust—even if the product itself hasn’t changed.

• FutureBrand develops new ecosystem for Riyadh Air

  FutureBrand developed Riyadh Air’s complete brand ecosystem, detailing its positioning, visual identity, and sonic properties. Designed as a digital-first carrier, it merges advanced technology with local culture to construct a multisensory passenger experience across digital and physical touchpoints.

• Dove’s former CMO on the ‘ideologically tainted’ purpose debate

  Former Dove CMO Alessandro Manfredi reflects on the polarization of brand purpose. He argues that while superficial purpose initiatives have failed, true purpose succeeds when integrated deep into the brand long-term, adapting its narratives consistently to authentic shifts in culture.

• Branded Sentiments: HEIRLOOMING—The Tenderness of Belonging to Something Older

  This article explores heirlooming, a branding strategy focusing on shared history, tenderness, and quiet belonging over cheap, exploitatative nostalgia. Responding to a broader shift toward emotional sincerity, heirlooming connects consumers to cultural legacies older than their individual tastes.

• Positioning a £107M funding platform as the undisputed category leader.
  Faced with a visual identity that lagged behind its business growth, AdTech funding platform Revving underwent a comprehensive strategic rebrand. The new system pairs simplified B2B messaging with dynamic 3D iconography to demystify complex capital funding processes for prospective clients.

• How GE Aerospace built its brand before the product even existed
  Faced with establishing itself as an independent company while selling pre-orders for engines years away from flight, GE Aerospace focused on trust. By featuring actual employees rather than actors in its campaigns, the brand grounded its long-term technical promises in organizational credibility.

• The personal brand trap: Why humans shouldn’t think of themselves as brands
  Treating yourself as a “personal brand” is limiting because brands are designed to be consistent and marketable, while humans are meant to grow, change, and evolve. Instead of obsessing over a polished personal brand, it encourages focusing on your values, expertise, and authentic perspective, letting your reputation emerge from your work rather than from self-marketing.

• How Amul Stayed Relevant for 75 Years Without a Single Rebrand
  Indian dairy cooperative Amul demonstrates extraordinary brand discipline by avoiding modern redesign cycles. Rooted in a purpose-driven cooperative model, the brand relies on a single, long-standing visual identity, proving that emotional trust and consistency outperform trend-driven aesthetic pivots.

• How to evolve a legacy brand without diluting it
  Evaluating the US Soccer World Cup kits, this piece outlines how legacy brands must balance heritage and modernity. To capitalize on major events, strategists must segment audiences cleanly, localize messaging across diverse regions, and design with distinct historical assets.

• Why custom type is vital for new brands
  Brands that launch with a strong identity, including a strategic use of typography, will stand out to audiences from the beginning, says Chris Nott, co-founder of Studio Drama.

• Pentagram redesigns Welsh denim label Hiut
  Pentagram partner Hugh Miller designed a visually refined visual identity for premium denim label Hiut. Grounded in its Aberteifi manufacturing heritage, the rebrand incorporates Welsh typography and factory-inspired visuals to balance raw industrial utility with elevated, premium artisan craftsmanship.

• Regular Practice gives whole-food brand Frood an identity built for joy, not worthiness
  London studio Regular Practice shaped the visual identity for Swedish food brand Frood. Sidestepping typical joyless wellness visual tropes, the design prioritizes a playful and warm aesthetic to signal culinary pleasure alongside organic, ultra-processed-free health benefits.

• Manual’s future-facing identity for the Obama Presidential Center

  Design studio Manual developed a comprehensive visual identity for the Chicago-based Obama Presidential Center. Breaking away from retrospective and formal presidential institutional styles, the design system employs active typographic styles to position the site as a cooperative venue for civic action.

• Bristol’s radical spirit informs Bristol Dockyards rebrand

  The museum housing the SS Great Britain has rebranded as Bristol Dockyards to reverse declining visits. Created by How&How, the identity introduces a bold color scheme inspired by local homes alongside a defiant tone that aligns with Bristol’s radical spirit.

• Tátil Design gives Vanto Group a seismic rebrand

  Tátil Design rebranded global consultancy Vanto Group, shifting it away from standard corporate conventions. Inspired by geology and seismic movement, the new identity uses modular circular grids and custom typography to turn a previously abstract methodology into a distinct visual positioning.

• The rebrand disrupting UK retailers with big heats from the streets of Singapore.

  To overcome a confusing, overloaded narrative, food brand Homi Kitchen rebranded as Yumm Singa. The new positioning swaps a gentle, mismatching visual aesthetic for loud, high-contrast packaging, a defiant tone, and a celebratory name that reflects the product’s intense, spicy profile.

• First National launches new brand identity via Whippet

  Creative agency Whippet has rolled out First National’s first major brand refresh in ten years. The new identity centers on a subtle roof form embedded within the logo, uniting its national network using a visual asset inspired by the homes they represent.

• The Marketing Academy Foundation unveils brand refresh

  To combat shrinking entry-level roles and high youth unemployment, the social mobility charity refreshed its brand positioning. Focusing on the line “Driven by social mobility. Dedicated to marketing,” the update signals a confident era to better resolve accessibility barriers in creative sectors.

• Creative Dive: How Pepsi Packaging Paid Tribute to Vietnam’s Street Food Culture
  Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam launched a special-edition series of cans featuring detailed illustrations of nine iconic street dishes. The localized packaging leverages national culinary pride, reinforcing the soft drink’s connection to Vietnam’s authentic dining culture as a mealtime companion.

• Starbucks UK on bringing local flavour to a global brand
  Starbucks UK has launched its “Made in Starbucks” campaign to reposition its physical stores as creative collaborative hubs. The localized strategy aims to build brand affinity among younger demographics by addressing local anxieties about vanishing community spaces.

• ‘It’s Wattie’s you need’: Kiwi icon returns in first masterbrand campaign since 2021 via TBWA\NZ
  New Zealand canned-food brand Wattie’s launched its first masterbrand campaign in years to reinforce its local roots. Combining nostalgic jingles with contemporary scenarios, the strategy rebuilds everyday brand affinity so the company can keep supporting local growers and communities.

• Franjos Kitchen challenges motherhood stereotypes in bold ‘Lift Like A Mother’ campaign via Willow & Blake
  Franjos Kitchen rejected common sanitized, soft-focus representations of maternal wellness in its new brand campaign. Instead, the bold framing highlights the literal physical and mental endurance mothers require daily, shifting maternal marketing from fragile comfort toward active structural strength.

• Soccer Sleepwear: Pringles and INNOCEAN Berlin Reinvent Matchday Comfort
  Pringles developed the “Night Kit,” a hybrid soccer jersey and pyjama set designed for late-night viewing. Pragmatically combining apparel with snack culture, the brand extension comments on shifting modern fandom behavior, prioritizing cozy home viewing over loud stadium-like settings.

• Why brands need to ditch “the monolithic Gen Z” concept
  Brands must move past outdated assumptions about age-based cohorts, which oversimplify demographic realities. Recognizing that digital democratization lets young creatives build authority independently, strategists should stop relying on hollow nostalgia and begin addressing structural societal contexts.

• The Wellness Industry’s Next Big Trend? Looking Like It Has No Trends at All
  Longevity brand AEVUM has rejected typical startup visual tropes like friendly gradients or dopamine-bright packaging. Developed by Greatergood, the supplement’s monochromatic design and classic heraldic monogram signal permanence and medical credibility, shifting the premium wellness narrative away from fast-moving trends.

• ‘Business to bot to consumer’: How brands are adapting to AI search

  Generative search and chatbot models are reshaping digital journeys. Illustrating the shift, HubSpot lost 80% of educational website traffic to AI overviews, forcing a strategic shift toward optimizing content directly for LLMs to capture highly qualified buyers later in their journeys.

• People First Bank launches first national brand platform ‘All Kinds of Good’ via Frost*collective
  B Corp certified People First Bank has debuted its first national brand platform. Built around real community impact stories, the campaign communicates the customer-owned bank’s commitment to reinvesting profits into community initiatives rather than prioritizing institutional shareholder demands.

• Accenture buys creator agency Whalar
  Accenture has acquired creator agency Whalar, marking a significant transition of the creator economy into institutionalized business infrastructure. The deal highlights that influencer marketing is moving from simple sponsorship deals into consulting-scale operations embedded in core brand strategies.

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Your Team at The Branding Journal
www.thebrandingjournal.com