Dinshaws: Ice cream brand Dinshaw's gets a brand makeover

New Delhi: Dinshaw's, the ice cream brand based in Nagpur, has undergone a complete brand makeover. Starting mid-March, consumers and trade will see the brand's new identity roll out across retail signages, parlour fronts and digital platforms. This will be supported by new packaging for their entire ice cream portfolio, followed by a similar refresh in a few months, across their dairy, bakery and namkeen portfolios too. Taking the legacy of this 90-year-old brand forward, Zervin Rana, Director at Dinshaw's Dairy Foods, while extremely confident in the product quality and innovation at the back end, did acknowledge that the presentation and equity of the brand needed some serious help. It was with this intent and ambition, that he roped in Malvika Mehra, a brand professional and former chief creative officer at leading agencies as Dinshaw's Creative Head, Marketing. The heartbeat of Dinshaw's remains-the signature red, inspired by its legacy. But legacies must evolve. In a statement, the company said, "We unboxed the logo, allowing it to breathe freely across the packaging. At the heart of this transformation lies a powerful detail: a single drop of milk embedded within the 'D' - a quiet yet bold promise of purity, authenticity, and the wholesome abundance that defines Dinshaw's".Over the last year and a half, the duo has worked closely with internal stakeholders as well as agency partners, re-examining all aspects of the brand, across product formulation, brand strategy, design and communication. Be it repositioning the brand, crafting a brand-new visual identity and packaging, inculcating culture shifts within the organisation as well as rolling out new brand communication. Malvika Mehra, Creative Head, Marketing, Dinshaw's, said, "It's tricky revamping a logo that's lived in people's memory for 93 years. The original logo was the signature of the founder, Mr Dinshaw Rana himself. My brief to NH1 Design was simple, without losing the authenticity and legacy of the original, make our new logo relevant for 2025 and beyond. Given today's over-cluttered digital landscape, zero attention spans and limited space, I also saw merit in owning the 'D' of Dinshaw's which could potentially become an abbreviated version of our identity on social media and beyond. I am thrilled with what the final results are. It's heartening to see our new identity pan out beautifully across touchpoints like shop fronts, staff uniforms, factory signages and of course on our spanking new packaging."On crafting Dinshaw's new brand identity, Neha Tulsian, Founder and Executive Creative Director, NH1 Design, said, "Dinshaw's has lived in people's memories for over nine decades-not just as an ice cream, but as a part of childhoods, celebrations, and simple moments of indulgence. Our challenge was to honour this deep emotional equity while shaping a visual identity that feels as rich and irresistible as the product itself.Commenting about the packaging revamp, Zervin Rana said, "Our earlier ice cream portfolio was admittedly crowded with too many sub-brands within a complicated architecture, cut via many parameters - pricing, target audience, health, ingredients, formats etc. Besides, the problem of limited display space in the freezer and limited budgets to push all sub-brands was an issue too. Hence, we first simplified the portfolio and brand architecture in ice creams before getting into a packaging design revamp". Mehra added, "Unlike the brief of 'evolution' for the logo revamp, we wanted a complete departure and 'revolution' was the approach to the new packaging design for Dinshaw's. We wanted a clean, impactful design that does justice to our rich ingredient story. The new packaging has given us what we were missing, a distinct, totally unique and 'ownable' design system with the 'D' beautifully incorporated across all of Dinshaw's ice cream packs. Furthermore, whilst the design cues for each of the 4 categories - ice creams, milk and dairy products, namkeen and bakery are true to the category codes, there is now a design synergy across all of Dinshaw's packaging".On designing the packaging, Tulsian added, "The 'D' is no longer just a monogram; it has been elevated into a super-graphic that extends across the entire portfolio. After all, packaging is where brands truly live. By making the 'D' the focal point, we've created an intuitive brand signature - one that imprints Dinshaw's promise of indulgence and quality into the consumer's mind at a single glance.This is more than a redesign - it's a distinct and immediate visual language that evokes taste, memory, and desire. Because a heritage brand doesn't just stay relevant. It stays iconic".Creative Director, Anushree Kapoor at NH1 Design, commented, "We were thrilled to imagine the possibility of our family of the striking, unmissable, dynamic 'D's, standing tall, in the middle of a busy ice cream freezer with countless choices. People, it's 'D' for Dinshaw's!"Dinshaw's Dairy Foods was established in 1932. 50% of their business comes from the ice cream category, followed closely by dairy and milk products, with a fractional share coming from the bakery and namkeen categories. This brand is based in Nagpur and has a presence across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.