Making the Brand: Delve

Branding a Bold New Era in the Cheese Snacking Category

When Schuman Cheese, a leader in the global cheese industry, looked to HBX to help launch Delve, we knew that it was an opportunity to usher in a bold new era in the cheese snacking category. From positioning and outlining strategy to developing the brand identity and packaging, each step played a role in launching and promoting Delve. These efforts further emphasized the innovative product’s unique qualities, providing a strong foundation for building the brand.

Developing the Brand Strategy

As a first-of-its-kind mascarpone-based cheese dip and spread, we identified an opportunity to position Delve as a brand crafted for foodies. With its rich, creamy texture from the mascarpone base and award-winning cheeses from the Schuman family, we knew the product had a unique appeal. Combined with innovative and indulgent flavors, it was clear that adventurous cuisine lovers who appreciate quality craftsmanship and artful culinary creations would be the perfect audience.

Foodies care about more than just what they’re eating – for them it’s about the entire experience. To better understand our target audience, we explored three specific foodie mind-sets: the Curious Adventurer, who seeks exotic offerings to enhance their usual meals; The Comfort Seeker, who finds comfort in indulgence and its power to bring joy and pleasure to everyday moments; and the Artisan, who desired quality and craftsmanship that they can create something new with.

Leaning on this understanding of the audience we were trying to target, we began to develop a brand personality that would appeal to the foodie crowd. Delve was positioned as friendly, joyful, witty, flavorful, knowledgeable, and a little snobby (but likable). This is a unique position among cheese brands – the competitive set showed that many higher-end cheese brands came across as traditional and stuffy, while we wanted Delve to feel new and modern yet still premium. The understanding that the brand needed to balance being upscale while still being friendly was something the team kept in mind when beginning to design.

Designing the Visual Identity

As we began our first round of designs for Delve, we knew that bright colors and an emphasis on flavor were going to be key components of our design to quickly communicate to consumers in store. The team experimented with a variety of visual styles to demonstrate this, like photography to emphasize natural ingredients, illustration to communicate friendliness and joy, script fonts to correspond with the creaminess of the product, windows on the lid to showcase the cheese, and minimalistic imagery to resonate with a young audience seeking modern design.

The client felt that the illustrative style, idea of the “lovable cheese snob”, and being able to see the product best communicated the unique nature and taste appeal while achieving the joyful, friendly positioning. With this feedback, we were able to hone in on these elements to create Delve’s vibrant and energetic visual brand identity.

This culminated in designs for 3 flavors: Garlic Herb Asiago, Basil Pesto Parm, and Whipped Feta. Each tub boasts its own bright color and custom illustrations. The logo itself rests front and center, featuring a smiling "e", sweeping flourishes that communicate creaminess, and a comfortable overlap of letters that feels friendly and fun. Following these main elements, the lid and label both feature an award-winning cheese badge, flavor name, and the brand tagline, “Expertly Crafted by Cheese Snobs!”. The label’s left side is dedicated to the brand story and social handles. These components ensure that consumers have additional brand touch points beyond the physical package.

Delve’s packaging draws consumers: the personality embedded throughout the copy keeps their attention. Writing across the packaging,  website, social, and advertising is meant to the carry the tone of a loveable expert. It’s witty but not goofy, proud but not insufferable, and snobby but in a humorous way. Copy became a very important brand elements that allowed Delve to stand out from traditional cheese brands that are stuffy and lack playfulness and enthusiasm.

Tone of voice was one way the team was able to better connect with foodies; photography was another. Delve tastes as delicious as it looks, so using real photography whenever possible is another technique used to highlight the quality of both the dip and the experience of eating it. We collaborated with a food photographer to create bespoke recipes for each flavor, complete with directions and images for each step. The recipes are housed on the Delve website, just one of many features that allows consumers to further engage with the product. The photography assets, as well as videos of the recipes, were also leveraged for social. This contributes to the idea that Delve is not just a food but rather an experience.=

Activating the Brand

Programmatic and Meta advertising campaigns leveraged the graphic and photography-focused imagery used across packaging, owned social, and the website. To optimize performance, two evergreen ad campaigns were developed—one emphasizing bold graphics and the other highlighting photography—each showcasing Delve’s key reasons to believe. A/B testing determined which approach resonated best, with insights applied to future creative iterations.

Additionally, Super Bowl and March Madness focused campaigns were launched to assess the impact of targeting key entertaining occasions, helping inform the brand’s approach to moment-driven marketing.

At launch, Delve had secured regional distribution in the club channel. To drive awareness and engagement, geo-targeted ads were deployed across Meta and programmatic platforms, targeting category purchasers and consumers likely to entertain. To drive conversions, additional ads ran on Instacart.

Strong initial sales in the club channel fueled regional retail expansion, positioning Delve for potential national distribution. As availability grew, the advertising campaign scaled accordingly to support the brand’s widening footprint.

Recognizing the success of campaigns tied to key entertaining occasions (such as the Super Bowl and March Madness), the brand refined its creative approach to align with these high-engagement moments. To further capitalize on this strategy, Pinterest was added to the marketing mix, enhancing engagement with consumers seeking inspiration for hosting and entertaining.

A strong brand is never static—it evolves alongside its audience and the cultural landscape. As Delve continues to expand its flavor offerings and retail presence, our team remains committed to crafting fresh, engaging campaigns that resonate with cheese-lovers. Whether through innovative advertising, timely content, or immersive social experiences, we’ll ensure Delve stays as bold and exciting as the foodie community it was created for.

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