Commodity Brands Don't Need Reinvention. They Need Clarity.

Rebranding a commodity product deserves strategic thinking and on-point messaging to get to the heart of the brand.

The product hasn’t changed - rebranding really is a process of peeling off layers of corporate jargon, unclear messaging, and industry assumptions that have built up after years.

I had the opportunity to work on the refresh of the Excel Fresh Beef and Pork brand at Cargill, and a few key points stood out.

There are three problems we were solving for:
✔️ How do you create additional value for product in the box that's the same?
✔️ How do you speak to a modern audience without losing trust and heritage?
✔️ How do you translate operational excellence into something customers can feel?

In this case, it was B2B - which adds another layer. Virtually no consumers see this brand, but the industry does. Thousands of team members. Dozens of production plants. Retailers and operators around the world. The brand shows up in back rooms, on boxes, in the moments where consistency and reliability matter most.

The positioning ultimately came down to two words: “Genuinely Better.”

I was in the room when a copywriter said it after a long working session. Simple. Clear. Not marketing spin.

That’s commodity branding. Not inventing something new, but identifying what’s already true and making it memorable.

Then the opportunity is to bring that mantra to life throughout the organization. We engaged team members across the country and celebrated what they were already doing that was "Genuinely Better" and living out the brand.

A few takeaways for anyone working in undifferentiated categories:
✅ You’re not changing the product - you’re changing how people understand it
✅ Operational excellence, often times, is your brand
✅ Simplicity wins, especially in B2B
✅ Internal adoption matters as much as external perception

That brand is still on boxes today, years later. That’s the power of getting it right, even in a commodity category.