The Client
IconByDesign is an Australian direct-to-consumer furniture brand with a rare provenance story: fifth-generation craftsmanship, vertically integrated supply chain control, and a pre-order model that challenges the disposable furniture culture that dominates the category.
Despite genuine differentiation — heritage most competitors could never replicate, direct relationships with manufacturing partners, and a distinctive Australian coastal-inspired brand identity — IconByDesign was struggling to translate its authentic strengths into a coherent brand position in an increasingly crowded market.
Enter a new Marketing Director, who asked a simple question, "What is the brand strategy?"
The Challenge
Between 2019 and 2025, IconByDesign had produced three separate brand guideline documents — each by different teams, at different stages of growth. Each was competent in isolation. Together, they told three different stories.
The brand voice had shifted three times. The colour palette had moved from confident navy to minimal neutrals without documented rationale. Typography had changed. Pricing language had drifted from "affordable" to "exceptional value" to "great value (never say cheap or affordable)." The brand's anti-disposable manifesto had stayed consistent — but everything built around it had evolved in conflicting directions.
The leadership team and CEO knew the brand had authentic assets. They also knew those assets weren't translating into a premium, differentiated position against competitors.
Our Approach
We started with a forensic comparative audit of all three brand guideline documents — mapping every element of strategy, identity, and application to identify where the brand had evolved intentionally versus where it had drifted unconsciously.
Strategic Challenge Conversations with the SLT tested hypotheses drawn from the audit — not open-ended discovery, but directed, evidence-led sessions designed to force strategic clarity.
A structured workshop programme then systematically resolved every conflict using SBP's Brand Strategy Framework: each contested elements evaluated against business evidence, customer data, and competitive positioning before a decision was made.
What We Delivered
For each element of the brand strategy, we developed a number of distinct strategic concepts — each with a defined brand promise, ambition, and positioning — giving leadership genuine strategic options grounded in evidence, not creative preference.
A single, definitive brand strategy document replacing all three previous versions, with every conflict resolved, every brand element documented with rationale, and clear governance for future brand decisions.
The Outcome
For the first time in six years, IconByDesign had one brand strategy, not an unarticulated series of thoughts. The leadership team had a clear strategic direction grounded in the brand's authentic differentiators — the craftsmanship heritage, and conscientious sustainability credentials — articulated in a way that justified a premium position. Every team member, every agency partner, and every customer touchpoint could now work from the same playbook
"There was as much value in the process as there was in the final outcome.
We were able for the first time, to understand the critical brand issues and align on them in the strategic challenge workshops and come to a consensus quickly."
Jo Bennett, Marketing Director
