Lenzing

Building the future of fiber

Transforming an international fiber business into a global brand with purpose

Challenge

Over the past 80 years, Austrian fiber producer Lenzing has evolved into a global technology leader. However, its growth resulted in a complicated and cluttered portfolio of product brands lacking relevance and differentiation. Additionally, rising competition from Asia and increasing retailer demand for sustainable practices begged the question—How could Lenzing best leverage its products and brand?

Insight

We conducted an extensive discovery process, involving 30 stakeholder interviews, 20 customer interviews, and quantitative surveys with 600 employees and over 4,000 consumers globally. Through our findings, we unlocked the brand’s power—Lenzing is more than just a manufacturer; it is a leader in leadership and innovation, quality and sustainability, with customers buying competitive advantage, expertise and partnerships.

Answer

We shifted Lenzing’s positioning, moving from fiber to solution, production to purpose, and, most importantly, from a B2B company to a B2Me brand. We simplified and repositioned the product brands as distinct sub-brands within a clear and logical hierarchy, leveraging Lenzing’s strong corporate masterbrand. This tells a unified story, connects the right brand to the right audience, and provides a strong trademark protection status that had been absent from Lenzing’s portfolio.

Lenzing’s brand purpose, "We look beyond fiber to the life it unlocks," means not just focusing on the core product but seeing the value provided as more than raw materials and going further into the value chain to make a difference. ‘Beyond fiber’ is the spirit by which Lenzing’s company and product brands are benefit-led and solutions-driven.

A bold, simplified brand architecture system elevates Lenzing and unleashes its potential as a corporate brand. The focused group of product brands is dedicated to the segments that Lenzing serves. Product brands are ownable and protectable and enable Lenzing to go-to-market with a promise of emotional and functional benefits they can deliver on.

The Thread of Life motif is a visual metaphor for the creative spirit underlying everything Lenzing does. This proprietary illustration style weaves its way throughout the visual identity in a variety of ways but always maintains a hand-drawn, human feeling. It is born from the new logo for Lenzing, replacing the old ribbon device with the thread motif.

The Lenzing visual identity underscores its goal to “look beyond fiber to the life it unlocks” by featuring the lives they touch every day with their products. The tone of voice and messaging shifted the focus from technical product communications to more emotive narratives that capture a personal story. The photography style boldly represents the end-user benefits of the product brands.

The innovative spirit of Lenzing runs through everything it does. It’s what keeps its people-driven, performance progressive, and products ground-breaking. We captured that spirit in the narrative and the Thread of Life illustration style that we created, amplifying their efforts.

TENCEL™ was rebranded to represent the value Lenzing brings to the textile segment as a whole, rather than stretched to serve many segments. The new TENCEL™ promises a sense of comfort, confidence and conscience. VEOCEL™ was then created, from its name to positioning, to serve the unmet needs in the nonwoven segment which our research identified. VEOCEL™ represents premium qualities through its promise of natural care and everyday functionality. Using the Thread of Life, these brands visually connect through Lenzing’s innovative spirit.