Whole Foods
Evolving a Pioneer
Whole Foods Market was founded in 1980 based on the belief that where food comes from and how it’s grown, matters. With the opening of the first store, the founders started a movement — radically changing the way people thought about and shopped for food.
Today, with more than 350 stores and millions of customers, Whole Foods Market operates in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Building a flexible framework
Whole Foods Market asked Office to create a framework and tools to help the company more efficiently create cohesive and effective communications — in a way that's uniquely Whole Foods. We wanted to preserve the independent spirit and personality of each Whole Foods store — so rather than employing a cookie-cutter approach, we built flexibility and room for creative expression into the system.
We led visioning workshops and articulated Whole Foods' brand attributes. Aligned with those, we evolved the brand's visual system and developed comprehensive guidelines. This included updating the logo and creating a shorthand identifier, photography style, illustration style, fresh color palette, custom typography, pattern, packaging, signage and marketing concepts.
Office understood what we needed and created something entirely useful. They brought clarity, and they provided lots of inspiring examples that our team can build on, creating strong communications that will lead to even better customer experiences.
Engaging passionate customers
The Whole Foods team wanted to personally engage the millions of shoppers who are passionate about the Whole Foods experience and who believe that values mean as much as value. They engaged Office to help concept a customer loyalty program.
The process started with workshops to determine the vision, strategy and program offerings that are uniquely Whole Foods. We developed innovative program benefits (beyond discounts) to emotionally engage shoppers. We then developed the program's visual identity, messaging, card, app/website visual design and marketing.
