Eat Real Re-branding
About the project
Eat Real, an organization supporting students, school districts, and communities on their real food journeys, provides a certification and advisory program emphasizing real, nourishing, responsible, and delicious food.
The organization has enhanced access to healthier, sustainable food for 600,000+ children at over 800 schools. Schools serving real food contribute to breaking cycles of poverty, fostering food sovereignty, and imparting lessons on climate action. At school, children can access the nourishment they need to grow, learn, and thrive.
Seeking to align its outward-facing expression with its growth and scalability goals, Eat Real enlisted IDEO's assistance. The aim is to evolve the brand identity, establish key foundational assets, and create sample applications for easy sharing with stakeholders.
What we heard
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With such compelling work and demonstrated success, they should raise 3x more easily than what they're raising... Nora is an extremely charismatic, compelling, compassionate leader, but burning out your leader is not sustainable for the organization.
Donor
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I find their messaging extremely confusing to explain to potential donors. I think they're trying to be a little bit of everything... They need to be clear on what they're doing, pick one thing. It can be muddied by jargon that isn't easy to communicate to others outside the space.
Donor
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Donors want to see where every dollar is going and how its making an impact. People want to know how much of their donation will do to what...Seeing numbers are easy snippets for donors to digest - it’s important.
Staff
Research
Eat Real’s previous aesthetic
Research: Interviewing and creative tensions activity
The brand aimed to resonate with stakeholders, including philanthropists supporting systemic change and food program leaders looking to adopt Eat Real’s programming in their schools. As the sole Design Researcher, I led the research process, internally engaging with Eat Real's marketing staff to understand the organization's mission, direction, and desired messaging.
I interviewed seven philanthropists and three food program leaders closely associated with Eat Real, uncovering their belief in the organization's systemic impact. They sought more detailed data presentation and alignment of language and visuals with the organization's ambitious goals.
The influential voice of Eat Real's CEO, Nora LaTorre, was a significant factor in supporting the organization's mission. While her rhetoric garnered attention, the website and brand story lacked the same energy, making it unsustainable to rely solely on her voice. The goal was to empower the brand to stand alone and accurately reflect its achievements.
Takeaways
Eat Real’s voice is synonymous with Nora’s voice
Nora is a “charismatic, compelling” CEO - but her voice can only travel so far. As Eat Real continues to grow, it will be critical to have a clear TOV and compelling messaging with sticky talking points
“We have a good brand voice, but maybe its just Nora’s voice.” — Staff
Data is big donor’s love language
Compelling storytelling is instrumental in raising money. But when it comes to major donors, they want to see numbers that demonstrate why Eat Real will make the greatest impact with their money.
“If you're talking to a donor who is spending a million, they only want data. They want the raw data. Show me what you are actually succeeding in doing. They see this as an investment.” -Donor
There is a resounding call for simplification and clarity
The brands and organizations that are most effective at driving loyalty and communicating impact have simple, super memorable missions.
“If you say 7 billion meals, largest fast food.. It's a great sound bite., You need to tighten it… currently there’s a lack of clarity and progress.” -Donor
Focusing too much on certification can make the scope or Eat Real’s work seem narrow
Certification is an important aspect of what Eat Real, but shouldn’t be its main focus..
“I explain the impact first before I get to the certification (narrative).
I think it can appear smaller in people’s minds...” -Donor
By focusing simultaneously on several areas Eat Real impacts, its mission can seem convoluted
Kids’ health is a powerful, relatable hook — so this is what you should lead with. Eat Real’s impact on climate change and on farmers’ wellbeing are of course important, but should be secondary when it comes to your mission.
“We have a great homepage. Pic of kid holding vegetables is very warm, and people understand its helping kids nourishment - but does it speak about the org and its mission? What types of content should we show?” -Staff
Eat Real’s focus is kids, but its audience is adults
While the brand should evoke the joy of kids, it needs to resonate with sophisticated donors
“Too often things associated with children are only playful and fun and lack the gravitas, but to have a nurturing brand that's approachable, it’s serious about its internet in its work. The end user isn't the child anyways, it's about foundations and donors, its more adult run than it is for a child.” —Donor
Final Design
In our final design, we crafted the visual identity, verbal identity, and brand foundation. Stakeholders expressed a desire for the brand to be rigorous, welcoming, and elevated when targeted at donors, and joyful and visionary when directed towards schools and children. We developed concise messaging, including taglines and refined core messaging, along with a logo and wesbite that encapsulates its generous and nourishing ideology.