A new look for Dobbies Foodhall
While Dobbies are known for their expertise and great quality of experience in gardening, awareness of their fantastic Foodhalls is surprisingly low.
We were tasked with rebranding their Foodhalls, defining a new proposition and bringing it to life for customers across multiple touch points. The ambition was for Dobbies Foodhalls to grow into exciting destinations and for customers to tell their friends and family, ‘You’ve got to visit!’

An exciting proposition
Dobbies wanted their Foodhalls to be places of discovery, where customers know they can experience something new and different, every time they visit. We shaped this into the proposition ’Exciting, every day’ and we identified the three core values of Dobbies Foodhall – quality, value for money and convenience.
Using this new proposition, we created a clear purpose, vision and identity for Dobbies Foodhall that’s in line with their overall brand.

Getting the messaging right
We knew that messaging was key to making Dobbies Foodhalls enticing, straight-forward places to shop. This meant strategic rationalisation of all comms, from quality stories to pricing and promotions.
We established a hierarchy of four messaging types: value, service, inspire/educate and way-finding. Using this framework, we made sure that customers would see the right messages at every step of their journey.


Creating a new identity
Drawing from the master brand, we developed a new look and feel that’s tailored to the food retail environment but still works with the wider Dobbies brand.
We wanted to create an exciting, welcoming shopping space, so we designed a contemporary aesthetic with an authentic, energetic feel, and a fresh tone of voice. The new voice is confident, warm and simple to reflect the three Foodhall brand pillars of quality, value and convenience, and we applied it to every touchpoint.
“Whippet understood our aspirations for Dobbies Foodhall immediately, and they knew exactly what to do to get us there. We loved all the creative, and their strategic knowledge was invaluable. A pleasure to work with, as always!”
Senior Marketing Manager
The project covered
Proposition | Positioning | Rebranding | TOV | Comms hierarchy
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