FMCG brand agency

What we do

An FMCG brand agency builds brands for fast-moving consumer goods, such as food and drink, that have to win a choice made in seconds at the shelf. Often that shelf also holds a private label designed to look like them. At IW Agency, we work on strategy, brand systems and packaging for these brands. The foundation is the same as in our work as a brand agency, but grocery retail sets its own demands.

Food and beverage brand strategy

Strategy decides why someone picks your brand when a cheaper alternative sits right beside it. We define positioning and the brand platform from the category, the shoppers and the pressure from private labels. You get a basis that both product development and marketing can make decisions on.

Brand architecture for FMCG portfolios

A food or beverage company rarely has just one brand. It has many SKUs, several sub-brands and new variants every year. We build the brand architecture that decides what carries what. Each new product then gets an obvious place. It doesn't start a new debate. In a range sold across several markets, the same architecture has to hold when names, languages and assortments differ from country to country.

Packaging design

In grocery retail, the pack is often the only advertising a shopper sees at the moment of purchase. We design packaging and design systems that people recognise from across the aisle and as a thumbnail in an online store. You get a system for the whole range rather than a single pack, built to absorb new flavours, local languages and mandatory labelling.

Heritage brand renewal

For many food brands, heritage is both the strongest asset and the biggest risk. We separate the codes shoppers would miss from what has simply aged. The goal is a brand people buy today, not one that only lives in memory.

Selected work

Arla, the farmer-owned dairy cooperative, has been a client since 2007. The work covers Arla's product portfolio and brand. A portfolio that broad poses a double challenge. Every product has to be clear on its own and still strengthen the whole. That is where architecture and packaging design meet in the same decision, product by product.

Kungsörnen is a Swedish brand of flour, pasta and baking staples, and one of the country's most iconic food brands. The task was to renew it. We built the renewed brand on warmth, quality and joy, and on an observation about how people actually cook: good enough is perfectly fine. The foundation became an attitude shoppers recognise themselves in. A competitor can match a product attribute. It cannot easily match that.

Ballerina is a classic Swedish biscuit, and the task was to breathe new life into it. The result was a brand with renewed relevance, built on what had already made Ballerina a classic.

In all three cases, the change starts from something the brand already owns. That is how we see renewal in food: heritage is raw material. See more of our work.

How we work

We work in six steps, from the category to rollout in store:

1. Understand the category and the shelf. We start where the purchase happens: in store, online and in the shopper's habits. Which codes belong to the category, and which belong to your brand?

2. Find what is only yours. We identify the distinctive brand assets shoppers already link to you. These are colours, shapes and symbols a private label cannot borrow without it showing.

3. Define the strategy. Positioning and brand platform, with a clear answer to why your brand is worth its price.

4. Build the system. The portfolio architecture and the design system that get new variants right from the start, in every market where the range is sold.

5. Design the packaging. We test the design on shelf, next to competitors, and as a small image on a phone. That second test matters more every year, as we explain in our piece on packaging for e-commerce and AI shopping agents.

6. Roll out and maintain. Guidelines and print-ready artwork for the whole range. After that the work continues with launches, new flavours and the next renewal.

Why IW

IW Agency was founded in 1992 as Identity Works and took its current name in May 2025. It is the same company under a new name.

Long client relationships are our clearest proof. Arla has been a client since 2007. In FMCG, that kind of continuity matters. A portfolio never stands still, and every new variant is easier to get right when the people designing it know why the last ten looked the way they did.

Our grocery work spans dairy, flour, biscuits, snacks, soft drinks, chocolate milk and beer. It ranges from Champis, a Swedish soft drink classic, to Lucky Bait, a beer brand in Sweden's regulated alcohol market. There, all alcohol is sold through the state retailer Systembolaget, so the pack has to do work that advertising would do elsewhere.

We are about 50 people across Strategy, Design, Comms, Digital and Innovation. From our office in Stockholm, we work with clients across Sweden, the Nordics and internationally.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to hire an FMCG brand agency?

Price follows scope. New packaging for one product line and a new architecture for a whole portfolio are different orders of magnitude. Four factors weigh most: the number of brands and SKUs, the need for insight and research, the number of markets and languages, and rollout, where every SKU needs its own artwork. Ask for a proposal that separates strategy, design and rollout. That way you can see what drives the cost.

How long does a packaging redesign or rebrand take?

Time depends on the number of SKUs, how many people need to sign off and whether the strategy has to be redone first. A packaging update within an existing strategy moves faster than a new positioning with a new architecture. Plan backwards from launch. Suppliers, printers and retailers' range reviews often set the real deadline, and multi-market launches add translation and local regulatory checks.

How does a food brand compete with private labels?

By making what can be copied matter less, and what cannot be copied clearer. Colour and shape can be imitated. A feeling of its own, a point of view and assets shoppers already link to the brand are much harder to copy. When private labels grew by imitating Swedish biscuit classics, Göteborgskex, a Swedish biscuit maker, needed to regain clarity and trust. OLW, a Swedish snacks brand, risked losing some of its emotional edge as private labels multiplied. We have written more on how to compete with private labels.

How do you renew a heritage brand without it turning into nostalgia?

Heritage should give people a reason to buy today. A brand linked only to the past has stopped being part of everyday life. Pucko, a Swedish chocolate milk since the 1950s, had drifted from everyday drink to nostalgia. Renewal there means placing the product in today's moments and keeping the codes that make it unmistakable. Read about the early signs that a brand is losing relevance.

Does IW work with beverage brands and international markets?

Yes. Champis, Pucko and Lucky Bait are beverage brands. Lurpak is a Danish butter brand built on 120 years of craft heritage and sold well beyond Denmark. There, the task was to help the brand evolve and become future-ready. An international brand needs systems that hold across languages, regulations and retail formats without the expression wearing thin.

Get in touch

Is your brand facing a renewal, a new portfolio or new packaging? Tell us where you are today and where you want to go. Write to hello@iwagency.com or call +46 8 506 360 00.