After nearly seven years, we've rebranded DAME.
Or more accurately - we've finally figured out how to tell our story without losing the purpose of branding > to communicate.
The mission hasn't changed. Better period products. Healthier bodies. A lot less plastic. That's still what we get up for in the morning.
But the way we communicate it had to.
Sustainability isn't the hook it used to be
When we launched DAME in 2018, being a sustainable period brand was a real point of difference. People stopped, picked up the pack, asked questions. It was the headline.
Today it's the small print. Sustainability has gone from being a reason to buy something to a reason not to buy the wrong thing. It's a hygiene factor - expected, assumed, rarely mentioned.
Our existing customers - many of you reading this - stay with DAME because you trust our values. We don't take that for granted. But if we want to grow, and we do, we need to reach people whose first question isn't about the planet. It's about their body. What's the product made of? Is it comfortable? Will it actually work?
Sustainability still matters. We're still a B Corp. We're still obsessed with materials, supply chains, and getting plastic out of period care wherever we can. But it's not the first conversation anymore. It's the bedrock underneath the conversation.
The buyer who couldn't tell our products apart
The moment we knew the brand had to change wasn't in a boardroom. It was at a trade show last year, NOPEX, talking to a retail buyer about our range.
She looked across all the packs - pads, tampons, reusables, applicators - and said, more or less: “I can't tell the difference between any of these.”
I was a bit surprised. Each pack had a big product photo. Different functionality. Surely she could see they were different things?
But the more I looked, the more I realised she was right. Same stone background. Same green. Same layout. From three metres away they blurred into one. We weren't passing what retailers call the three-second, three-metre test. If someone can't work out what your product is in seconds, you've already lost them. Especially in a category where nobody wants to linger.
So we went away to fix it. Months of work. New system. Different colours for different products. Big clear icons. Easier to navigate at a glance. We were pleased with it. We were days from print.
Then I made one phone call that nearly cost us everything - and saved it.
The Big Fish meeting
On a whim, I popped in to see my old friends at Big Fish - the brand and design agency behind some of the boldest packaging in UK consumer goods. I wanted one final sense check from Tim Ansell, who I've known and respected for years.
For the first hour, Tim barely looked at the work. Instead he asked questions. Why does DAME exist? Why did you start it? What have you achieved? Where are you trying to go?
Only at the very end did he say: “Right. Show me the packaging.”
Within about thirty seconds, he'd taken a giant mental red pen to all of it. Too safe. Too generic. Looked like it had been designed by a man. Could sit on any pharmacy shelf. Nothing ownable. Would disappear in retail.
Honestly, it was brutal. Months of work. Days from print. Gone in the time it takes to drink a coffee.
But he was right, and I knew it instantly. We'd become so focused on making the products easier to understand that we'd quietly stripped out everything that made DAME feel like DAME. Clarity at the cost of character. A common mistake.
The café reframe
I left the meeting, found a nearby café, and ordered something stronger than coffee.
Then I tried to forget every decision we'd made. Instead of asking “how do we improve this?” I asked something else entirely: “if DAME didn't exist today, what would we build?”
That one reframe unlocked everything. The answer wasn't subtle. Huge product icons. Clear hierarchy. Bold colours per product. Distinctive. Unmistakable. Premium without trying too hard. Ethical without shouting. Confident.
I sent the concept to Tim the next day. His response was two words: “Much better.” Possibly the most reassuring two words I've had all year.
The community sense check
Of course, our opinion wasn't enough. Nor was Tim's.
Some of you reading this are in our WhatsApp community - people who've supported DAME for years, who know the brand inside out, who've been honest with us when we've got things wrong.
We showed you the new packs before anyone else. And you loved them. Not because they looked prettier - but because they felt easier. Easier to shop. Easier to understand. Still unmistakably DAME.
That was exactly the point. Thank you.
