Dexter Outdoors
Brand Strategy / Messaging / Brand Identity / Design Systems / Print Design / Packaging / Digital Design
Founded in 1818, Dexter-Russell is well known for quality knives, mostly in restaurant kitchens, butcher shops, and other commercial spaces. We helped to develop a refreshed brand position and marketing approach for Dexter Outdoors, to help grow the outdoor-focused consumer side of their business.
Overview
Our broad, coast-to-coast audience make-up posed a uniquely complex challenge with numerous US fishing regions, each targeting different fish species, and each with different brand and product preferences.
Founded in 1818, Dexter-Russell is the largest US manufacturer of professional cutlery and they wanted help reaching the growing angler market. They’d been successful in marketing to fishermen and women in certain regions, but aimed to develop a brand position that would help them build the outdoor-focused side of their business from coast to coast.
We established insights around the Dexter Outdoors brand and products, the different cutlery companies active in the segment, and current consumer perceptions. The audiences posed a uniquely complex challenge as there are numerous US fishing regions, each targeting different fish species, and each with different brand and product preferences.
We used focus groups and surveys to identify opportunities for brand and product differentiation. We led discovery calls and strategy sessions with company leadership, using the knowledge gained to create a strategic foundation for the brand that would set them apart.
We developed language, including the tagline “Respect the Catch™” to convey Dexters’ focus on making quality knives that benefit anglers by allowing them to maximize their hard-earned harvest.
We explored multiple brand identity directions and created core elements including logos, type systems, and color palettes, and applied them to proof-of-concept design examples. With our finalized direction, we created a thorough, easy to navigate brand guidebook for their internal marketing team, including a library of lifestyle imagery we had shot off the California coast.
We used focus groups and surveys to identify opportunities for brand and product differentiation. We led discovery calls and strategy sessions with company leadership, using the knowledge gained to create a strategic foundation for the brand that would set them apart.


“Less And More’s is as high or higher quality than that of any major global agency I’ve worked with in the past, but they are more accessible and nimble. They nicely balance creative, out of the box thinking with practicality. They truly felt like an extension of our team.”
— KARA SHAFFER
VP of Marketing / Dexter