Meet OffLimits, the vegan and gluten-free cereal model with its personal world of enjoyable and playful mascots. Earlier than creating her personal branded breakfast firm, founder Emily Miller studied world pattern forecasting and wrote BREAKFAST: The Cookbook, that includes genuine home-cooked breakfast dishes from all all over the world.
Now, Emily’s model OffLimits focuses on re-writing the breakfast narrative by means of inclusive mascots that symbolize a brand new era of cereal eaters.
Trying to construct your personal model in a longtime business? Emily shares some inventive branding suggestions that will help you craft a compelling model id for your enterprise.
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4 steps to constructing a profitable model id
- Think big
- Ask the tough questions
- Bring together like-minded creatives
- Have confidence in your vision
1. Assume large

When constructing a model, it’s necessary to assume long run and picture the way you need it to feel and appear at its peak. Emily needed the OffLimits model to revolve round a world of mascots and focus much less on the precise product. “It was by no means nearly beginning a cereal model, it actually began with the mascots and pouring my very own feelings into their excessive personalities,” Emily says.
The character-focused strategy led Emily to design an entire branded world the place the mascots might reside and play. She knew she might ultimately increase her enterprise by means of the mascots and storytelling, and add cereal flavors together with it.
2. Ask the robust questions
It’s necessary to contemplate your competitors and spotlight your differentiation factors when creating your model. Evaluating your self to older, extra established manufacturers will be intimidating, nevertheless it’s key to creating a brand you’ll be happy with for years to come back.

3. Carry collectively like-minded creatives
To deliver her model imaginative and prescient to life, Emily introduced collectively a gaggle of creatives with completely different areas of experience. “OffLimits is an instance of what occurs when creatives are introduced into the [brand] dialog from day one and unite to construct one thing that’s extra than simply transactional,” Emily says.
For instance, one crew of creatives handles the mascot design, whereas one other makes use of these belongings to make animations for the corporate’s web site. “We created a very cool course of between a bunch of various inventive individuals,” Emily says.
4. Have faith in your imaginative and prescient
Emily didn’t let the established cereal corporations deter her from launching her out-of-the field model. “For millennials and Gen Z, we actually are stuffed with feelings that we’re not afraid to speak about, and there wanted to be a brand new model within the house that wasn’t afraid to deal with something,” Emily says.
It’s necessary from day one to again your personal imaginative and prescient and imagine within the story you’re making an attempt to promote. “Embrace being inventive and peculiar. Take an strategy of, ‘In case you don’t prefer it, we don’t care,’” Emily says.
In case you inform a narrative you imagine in that brings collectively inventive minds, your viewers will need to turn into part of your branded world—and purchase your merchandise..
Tune in to the complete episode of Shopify Masters to listen to how Emily’s inventive methods and community-first strategy allowed her to construct an inclusive model that’s disrupting the cereal industry.