This article appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of Pulse Crop News.

Right around the time that Alberta’s pulse producers were beginning their growing season, Alberta Pulse Growers’ staff began growing a few things of their own: namely, the organization’s new brand and website. And after months of work and collaboration with AdFarm, a Calgary-based ad agency hired to help with the project, Alberta Pulse Growers is almost ready to unveil its efforts.

Brand

The branding component of this project was an important first step toward determining how we, as an organization, want to be viewed by growers, consumers, and key stakeholders. AdFarm worked closely with the Alberta Pulse Growers Board, Communications Committee, and staff to refine our logo, visual identity, and brand identity.

New logo

After much deliberation and debate, Alberta Pulse Growers will have an updated logo that reflects what we do in a more contemporary way. The new logo will also be more versatile: for producer communications, the logo will include the word “Growers,” but the “Growers” will be dropped from the logo for communications to consumers. The Commission felt that including “Growers” in producer communications was vital to show the work APG does on behalf of producers, but for consumer communications, including “Growers” was not necessary, as most communications to consumers focus on pulses as a food product, not on the growers themselves. This change will make it easier for both producers and consumers to recognize the work APG does.

New visual identity

Another way we’re making it easier for producers and consumers to recognize the work we do is through our new visual identity guidelines. Previously, none of APG’s marketing materials shared a consistent look, making it difficult for people to recognize our work. Now, all of APG’s marketing materials – including the website, publications, tradeshow booths, brochures, advertisements, and presentations – will all have a similar look and feel, with consistent colours, fonts, and images, which will help us reach producers and consumers more easily with our messages.

Refined brand identity

Alberta Pulse Growers’ brand is more than a logo or matching colour schemes; our brand also encompasses our purpose, our values, and our commitments to the people we serve. The intrinsic qualities that make up who we are as an organization have now been put to paper in our refined brand identity. We haven’t changed who we are or what we do; rather, we’ve fine-tuned it so that staff, Commissioners, Advisors, partners, and growers all receive the same message about what Alberta Pulse Growers stands for and represents.

Website

Redeveloping the Alberta Pulse Growers’ website went hand-in-hand with refining our brand and updating our visual identity. The new website encompasses easier navigation, enhanced producer information, and improved consumer focus to ensure the people who come to our website are able to find what they need quickly and easily.

Easier navigation

Whether you’re a producer or a consumer, finding the information you need will be easier on APG’s updated website. The new site will be divided into two sections: one for consumers, and one for producers. This division will make it easier to provide each group with the information most relevant to them. For consumers, recipes and health information are front and centre; for producers, agronomy information for each crop type is easy to find on the new site.

The new website also makes it easy to access producer information from the consumer section, and vice versa. An enhanced search function and sensible site layout make the updated website much quicker to navigate and easier to use both for growers and consumers.

Enhanced production information

The updated website will also include a more comprehensive pulse agronomy section for producers. APG’s previous website didn’t have a lot of information about how to grow pulses, and the new website remedies that through easy-to-navigate pages that describe pulse crop production from start to finish.

Much like the hard-copy pulse manual many are familiar with, APG’s new website will cover production information for each of the pulse crops commonly grown in Alberta. This information will be useful both for new pulse growers and long-time growers.

Improved consumer focus

In order to get consumers to eat pulses – driving up demand for the pulses you grow – APG provides easy, delicious recipes on printed recipe sheets and through the website. The new website puts those recipes front and centre, right on the home page in an eye-catching way. On the previous website, finding recipes could be challenging, and sharing those recipes on social media and in advertising was difficult, as most of the recipes were featured in recipe sheets. Now, each recipe has its own page on the site, making them easier to find and share.

The health information provided to consumers has also been enhanced. The old website offered some technical sheets designed for healthcare professionals to explain how pulses help with various diseases and conditions; the updated website offers the same information but in less technical terms. And because this information is easier to find on the website, people searching for that information on the internet are more likely to be driven to APG’s site.

These enhancements to Alberta Pulse Growers’ brand and website will help the Commission reach both producers and consumers more effectively. For a first look at our new brand and website, join APG at our upcoming Annual General Meeting on January 30 at Northlands in Edmonton.