Client
Services Provided
- Campaign Development
- Product Design
- Product Development
- Product Identity
- Product Marketing
- Product Strategy
- Research - Insight
Project Images
What They Said...
“Players asking what we did to the bat, because it’s HOT.”
“Big fan of the brand consistency across the line.”
“Tech looking and very clean, very impressive and cool visuals.”
“Bat looks like a leader, sounds like a leader, performs like a leader.”
“The POP of the bat is crucial to performance. These bats are distinctively loud.”
“Louisville is the dominate leader in bat performance.”
“The texture on the bat is cool, no one else has those kinds of cool details.”
RANDOMLY SELECTED PLAYERS AND COACHES
The Situation
Since 1886, the best in the game of baseball from Ty Cobb to Derek Jeter brought a Louisville Slugger to the plate. The preeminent baseball brand for over 130 years was recognized as the undisputed market leader in wooden baseball bats.
The Opportunity
Then the game evolved. The best players in the world had to play wood while the college, high school, and youth players could play in aluminum bats. First aluminum was introduced and then High-Tech space age materials such as Carbon Fiber and Kevlar. The market followed the technology and the Louisville Slugger brand’s heritage and focus in wood could be turned against them. The challenge was to leverage their authenticity yet at the same time contemporize the brand to compete with the numerous influx of new entrants in the market.
As iconic as the wood bats were Louisville Slugger lacked an identity in metal bats. They
had approached design through an annual design reinvention to bring newness to the line but
never delivered an iconic design ID.
The Thread
Iconic brands have an iconic and undisputable “look and feel” to their product. They needed a systematic and powerful way of designing their line to make an overall brand statement.
The THREAD, built from Louisville Slugger’s new brand positioning, was just this, “Build a Franchise” with a ownable design language and color pallete that would distinguish it as the leader in baseball.
The Results
A redefined three-tier approach with unique technical typography, naming, colors and finishes along with a fresh new Brand Identifier. Louisville Slugger now leads the category in innovative finishes and textures,
through the creation of a technical design matrix that exploits the bats internal Space Age materials to the consumer.
We strategically designed the product to promote the “brand first” identity. Louisville Slugger brand oval is synonymous with baseball greatness. The product was designed asymmetrically with a larger brand identity on one side while using the brand oval on the opposite plain.
The ‘Franchise’ naming convention speaks to player bat preference from an insider POV and eliminated the inefficient practice of new individually named product introduction each year.
The design language, color palette, technical descriptors and product naming became the core to all brand communications and the product identity “Authentic Equipment since 1886” embedded as a constant reminder of their rightful place at the top of the game.
