Brand communication strategies are a decisive element in building a brand. These strategies provide an ideal space for brands to connect with their audience and showcase their personality, interests, principles, and values with considerable freedom.
Designing communication strategies offers the opportunity to give brands a voice. It also serves as a favorable medium to explore the soul of each project with the sensitivity of a creative studio committed to artisanal craftsmanship—something that defines us at Buenaventura.
When thinking about communication strategies from a design perspective, our minds often go straight to graphic formats. However, the strategies we craft in our studio transcend this specific area. We remain open to using any medium we consider suitable for delivering the message.
We conceive each communication action as a journey to uncover the essence, a core aspect of our philosophy. Therefore, it is not merely about producing visually appealing pieces but about developing a communication system where the idea—the essence, the concept—takes precedence over its material form. In other words, content fuels form. As such, the medium for communicating the idea might be purely graphic, audiovisual, or even an artistic intervention. And always, of course, in harmony with the brand.
The Fuenquesada Paradigm
Fuenquesada has been producing extra virgin olive oil since 1850. We have collaborated with them regularly since 2019, when we designed their current visual identity. For their last two harvests, we have carried out distinct communication actions that demonstrate the significance these strategies can achieve for a brand.
The Harvester’s Canvas, the action we developed for the 2023 harvest, is a unique case. The concept behind it draws analogies between the artisanal production of Fuenquesada’s extra virgin olive oil and artistic creation.
In this instance, the process itself was the goal: an artistic intervention conducted alongside artist Fátima Moreno in the olive grove where Fuenquesada’s extra virgin olive oil is produced. The intervention consisted of creating a mural using the harvesting cloth—used to collect the olives—as the canvas, hence the name.
The artistic intervention was captured in an audiovisual piece. But we went further. From the large canvas, 2,000 fragments were produced, each paired with one of the 2,000 500ml bottles packaged in canisters. The artistic action culminated in a limited series of unique works of art.
Fuenquesada 24
For the communication strategy on the 2024 harvest, we wanted to continue linking the brand to the world of art. However, after the artistic intervention of the previous harvest, we sought a fresh perspective.
The leitmotif of the new communication action revolves around the concept that each annual harvest follows a cyclical process, yet when it happens, it feels as though it is happening for the first time. This idea led us to think of the Renaissance, an artistic movement that took place centuries ago but whose principles continue to inspire art across all eras.
We asked ourselves how an artist from the Italian Early Renaissance, the Quattrocento, might evoke the world of the olive grove. To explore this, we turned to a tool that is shaping the early decades of the 21st century: artificial intelligence.
Using this technology, we produced a series of graphic pieces titled The Renaissance of the Olive Tree, a celebration of the miracle represented by each annual harvest.
A Brand Is Everything
After years of analyzing and systematizing creative ideas applied to branding, we’ve internalized the understanding that a brand is everything. This means that a brand isn’t limited to visual design or, even less so, just a logo. Today, brands are conceived as comprehensive experiences encompassing the perceptions and emotions that people associate with a product, service, or company.
In this context, a relationship is forged between the identity a brand seeks to project and the perception the audience has of it—a relationship that is highly subjective and can vary significantly from one person to another.
What you do, how you do it, and how you communicate it determines this relationship. That’s why, at Buenaventura, we place such importance on the communication actions we design. We understand their potential for conveying a brand’s message to its audience. We don’t approach them as isolated pieces with an expiration date whose sole purpose is to promote a product or service. Instead, we see them as a window for the brand to express itself.
The Brand as a Living Entity
Since the advent of the digital age, brands can no longer remain static, almost stone-like, and untouchable. Constant interaction with audiences through social media and the need for an ongoing presence in these platforms—generating endless streams of content—has compelled brands to transform into dynamic organisms in continuous evolution. They must adapt to social, cultural, and technological changes.
Audiences—consumers and clients—have even become co-creators of the brand through comments, reviews, and user-generated content on social media.
Thus, communication actions are an incredibly useful means for brands to update themselves or convey a message related to an issue of interest or concern, as well as to promote their products or services.
The value of designing and developing these strategic communication actions is clear to us.
Strategic brand communication actions are not only a fertile ground for exploration and creativity but also an incredibly useful and effective tool for brands to express themselves with a freedom that may not be possible through other channels.
Ana Moliz
Art Director. Buenaventura.
