ARI unveils new brand identity
The new Thread of Joy is an integral component of ARI’s new visual identity
Following over 18 months of strategic development, ARI has unveiled its new strategic brand framework, including a contemporary new brand identity and brand expression, Joy On Your Way.
According to a press release, "The new ARI brand creates a further point of difference for the pioneering travel retailer. It demonstrates a unique brand proposition that has not been seen before in the industry, harnessing the power of human connection across all aspects of the business."
ARI is recommitting to its vision of being the world’s favorite airport retailer and partner of choice. "Building on a unique heritage spanning over 75 years, ARI is now evolving its proposition for future success and underpinning its ambitious growth plans with these solid strategic foundations. It is much more than simply a logo change."
The revitalized brand marries ARI’s strategic ambitions, vision, mission and Customer Value Proposition. It delivers clarity, cohesion and consistency across all brand activities and aligns internal and external perceptions of the brand. It also provides ARI teams with a clear charter of what the brand – and by extension, the business – stands for.
A crucial element in building this new brand framework involved distilling and defining ARI’s unique brand characteristics, values and behaviors. With ARI’s People Values as its bedrock, the new brand framework was developed to define and align ARI’s brand values and behaviors, which collectively deliver on the business’s vision of being the world’s favorite airport retailer and partner of choice.
Through extensive stakeholder and customer research, with collaboration and support across the business, ARI worked on deciphering the “secret sauce” and uniqueness that makes it the company that people want to do business with, which it turns out, was "joy."
"Joy is a fundamental, universal feeling that transcends cultures and borders. Joy is spread through human connection, from unexpected surprises to bringing a smile to someone’s face. Joy is a feeling associated with travel, exploration and retail. And joy is what ARI is committed to delivering."
The new Thread of Joy is an integral component of ARI’s new visual identity. It was commissioned to represent all the strands of joy woven across the world through travel and human connection, combining to form an energetic, dynamic and lively Thread that runs throughout the brand.
ARI's new logo "has been carefully crafted to create a subtle sense of movement, while the new primary color palette, which includes a new core red, features a contemporary gradient to add vibrancy and energy."
And for the first time, ARI is aligning its B2B and B2C brand worlds, delivering a thread of consistency across the business that elevates the experience for customers, partners and colleagues.
How ARI will deliver joy is two-fold. Firstly, ARI’s existing and evolving Customer Value Proposition (CVP), launched in 2020, provides the strategic framework for delivering joy. The CVP aims to deliver joy by removing barriers and enhancing the retail experience through innovative global initiatives.
Secondly, ARI has the people, the culture and the expertise to deliver this new brand expression and make joy a reality across all aspects of the business. As part of this new brand launch and cementing its commitment to delivering joy, ARI has appointed Paula Pryor as Chief Joy Ambassador to the business.
“As travel retailers we have such an important and unique role to play in the passenger journey by creating moments of joy," said Pryor. "Airports are uniquely home to all spectrums of human emotion, but at ARI we don’t just observe – we are active orchestrators of joy for passengers. I am so excited to work with our amazing teams to bring Joy On Your Way to life across the business, with a clearly defined roadmap to achieve our company vision.”
In this new and unique role, embodying the new brand expression of Joy On Your Way, Paula is tasked with keeping ARI’s barometer of joy full and ensuring that joy is lived across all aspects of the business – from the day-to-day working environment through to training in delivering best-in-class customer service. This means that everyone within ARI is an orchestrator of joy and is equipped to deliver joy to customers, colleagues and partners.
“I am delighted to unveil the results of many months of extensive work in developing ARI’s new brand identity and brand expression”, said Laura Toner, ARI’s Global Head of Marketing. “We’re breathing a new energy into our business as well as into the industry. Our brand is now one of our strongest assets. It’s charmingly confident, relatably human and powerfully emotive – exactly what we are as a business. As well as embodying this through our corporate brand, this is also expressed through our new consumer-facing brand identity, meaning as a business we are fully aligned in our brand communication. In-store and digitally, we have a new creative experience for our customers with vibrant and engaging branding. It’s clear and simple, highlighting all that is great about ARI and the travel retail experience, from great value and savings to travel retail exclusives. We’re excited to really elevate our offering and welcome customers into this new brand world.”
Anthony Kenny, Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy CEO, added, “Our relationship with our customers and our partners is not simply transactional; it is emotional. We understand their needs and their challenges, and our Customer Value Proposition was created to address these needs and challenges; it is our formula for joy. And of course, it is our people who deliver on our CVP and make Joy On Your Way a reality. We have pioneered travel retail for over 75 years – we’re now elevating our industry once again by showing the importance of human connection in all that we do.”
“This marks a gear change for our business,” said ARI Chief Executive Officer, Ray Hernan. “Not only are we identifying our unique proposition, brand values and behaviors, we’re embracing and celebrating them. It provides a distinctive proposition and a further point of difference from our competitors; it makes us the business that people want to work with, and we have the track record to prove it. We’re serious about joy, and we’re serious about driving growth.”
