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The United Family
Creating a brand architecture to distinguish the power of United's family of food retail assets.
The United Family—formerly known as United Supermarkets—is the parent organization that manages a group of food retail brands, with over 65 stores in West Texas, North Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. These brands include United Supermarkets, United Express, Market Street and Amigos. Shook Kelley worked with United on a multi-stage project to develop and clarify the company’s brand architecture, which then led to separate projects for each brand. Shook Kelley developed brand strategies and identities for each of their grocery store chain brands, as well as further work designing concept stores for some of the brands. In September of 2013, the privately-owned United Family was sold to Albertsons LLC, which has planned to allow the United Family to continue operating and managing its brands independently of its new corporate parent.
The United Family faced several major brand-related challenges. First, it needed to find greater relevance throughout its market area for each of its brands. Second, it needed to clarify the purpose, meaning and strategic direction for each of its brands. Creating greater distinctiveness for each brand was useful both for the internal organization’s clarity, as well as the external consumer’s understanding. And third, it needed to distinguish strategic concerns between more West Texas locations and Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex locations.
The project helped United take stock of their brand assets and put a steering wheel on their direction
Shook Kelley helped United articulate all of the potential concerns, and walked them through the decision-making process that would lead to a more refined brand architecture. The end result was a explanation of the distinctive vision, purpose and uniqueness of each United brand, as well as the creation of a Brand Stewardship Committee which could help further refine the purpose of each brand. The project was useful for United, because it helped them take stock of their brand assets and allowed them to put a steering wheel on brand directions. One of the most illuminating aspect of the project was the decision to eliminate a higher end convenience store brand, in favor of consolidating all convenience store brands under one banner.
United Supermarkets is the first and primary traditional format grocery store owned by United, and was therefore inherited as the name of the parent company, as well. However, this created some degree of confusion for the internal organization, because United was both a store brand and parent company. In order to best serve the interests of the organization’s new brand architecture, but still wanting to preserve the tradition and legacy of United, the client agreed with Shook Kelley’s newly created name, The United Family. On the heels of separate brand strategy and brand identity projects for each of the brands, the United Family brand identity was specifically created to tie all of the identity work together in one cohesive design component.
In addition to the brand strategy work and brand architecture project, Shook Kelley also helped The United Family on associated projects, including brand strategy and prototype store designs for Market Street and United Supermarkets. One of the biggest impacts inside the organization was the creation of a Brand Stewardship Committee, composed of long-time United team members. The Committee created a space inside the organization that is wholly dedicated to understanding, managing and steering the United Family’s brands, a task that had not been clearly managed up to that point. This provided the organization a degree of clarity unique in the industry. Since the completion of the project, the United Family was sold to Albertsons LLC for $385 million. One key point of the sale included United’s distinctive and well-defined collection of brands.
The internally-focused United Family brand work helped further cement an organizational culture that was already powerful. But up to this point, most of the stories and legends that United Family team members told one another was oral history. This made it challenging for new team members to understand the organization’s powerful ethos, until they had been there for many years. The overall body of work around branding at the United Family helped create an organization where new team members could learn this unique culture in a much more rapid way. It made Being United a more clear and coherent transformation.
The United Family—formerly known as United Supermarkets—is the parent organization that manages a group of food retail brands, with over 65 stores in West Texas, North Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. These brands include United Supermarkets, United Express, Market Street and Amigos. Shook Kelley worked with United on a multi-stage project to develop and clarify the company’s brand architecture, which then led to separate projects for each brand. Shook Kelley developed brand strategies and identities for each of their grocery store chain brands, as well as further work designing concept stores for some of the brands. In September of 2013, the privately-owned United Family was sold to Albertsons LLC, which has planned to allow the United Family to continue operating and managing its brands independently of its new corporate parent.
The United Family faced several major brand-related challenges. First, it needed to find greater relevance throughout its market area for each of its brands. Second, it needed to clarify the purpose, meaning and strategic direction for each of its brands. Creating greater distinctiveness for each brand was useful both for the internal organization’s clarity, as well as the external consumer’s understanding. And third, it needed to distinguish strategic concerns between more West Texas locations and Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex locations.
The project helped United take stock of their brand assets and put a steering wheel on their direction
Shook Kelley helped United articulate all of the potential concerns, and walked them through the decision-making process that would lead to a more refined brand architecture. The end result was a explanation of the distinctive vision, purpose and uniqueness of each United brand, as well as the creation of a Brand Stewardship Committee which could help further refine the purpose of each brand. The project was useful for United, because it helped them take stock of their brand assets and allowed them to put a steering wheel on brand directions. One of the most illuminating aspect of the project was the decision to eliminate a higher end convenience store brand, in favor of consolidating all convenience store brands under one banner.
United Supermarkets is the first and primary traditional format grocery store owned by United, and was therefore inherited as the name of the parent company, as well. However, this created some degree of confusion for the internal organization, because United was both a store brand and parent company. In order to best serve the interests of the organization’s new brand architecture, but still wanting to preserve the tradition and legacy of United, the client agreed with Shook Kelley’s newly created name, The United Family. On the heels of separate brand strategy and brand identity projects for each of the brands, the United Family brand identity was specifically created to tie all of the identity work together in one cohesive design component.
In addition to the brand strategy work and brand architecture project, Shook Kelley also helped The United Family on associated projects, including brand strategy and prototype store designs for Market Street and United Supermarkets. One of the biggest impacts inside the organization was the creation of a Brand Stewardship Committee, composed of long-time United team members. The Committee created a space inside the organization that is wholly dedicated to understanding, managing and steering the United Family’s brands, a task that had not been clearly managed up to that point. This provided the organization a degree of clarity unique in the industry. Since the completion of the project, the United Family was sold to Albertsons LLC for $385 million. One key point of the sale included United’s distinctive and well-defined collection of brands.
The internally-focused United Family brand work helped further cement an organizational culture that was already powerful. But up to this point, most of the stories and legends that United Family team members told one another was oral history. This made it challenging for new team members to understand the organization’s powerful ethos, until they had been there for many years. The overall body of work around branding at the United Family helped create an organization where new team members could learn this unique culture in a much more rapid way. It made Being United a more clear and coherent transformation.