Înmiresmat
Branding, Communication & Marketing Strategy, Social Media Management
This is one of my favourite branding projects I’ve done so far. I felt lucky to have such amazing clients that let me fully take charge of the concept behind it. But even if I did so, the brand represented their vision perfectly. I will let their feedback speak: “We couldn’t translate our vision better than you. It is like you entered inside our brains and picked everything right there and put it on paper”.
The clients came at me with an already opened business; they had a lavender field and had already experimented with some products, tried communicating their brand (they already chose a name and had a logo designed) by themselves and started to realise that they won’t be able to grow if they want to do everything in only two people. This is where I jumped in.
The Brand Audit
The first thing I did was a brand audit. We discussed what they would like to achieve in the future with their business (I love to tell them first to dream big), and then we outlined some business objectives that we could fulfil in the short and medium term.
The most important thing was that they wanted to develop a cosmetics line. And it was sure to me that the current brand couldn’t support it (due to the multiple and diverse products they were selling there: lavender, flower arrangements, tea, syrups, candles, and soap, to name a few). So the new cosmetics line needed to grow on an entirely new playground.
So from there, I started the branding process for the new cosmetics brand - a 100% natural products, handmade and family brand. From scratch to skin, considering that most plants used in the products are from their garden. Also, every product is created by hand and even packed by the two sisters that co-founded this business.
The Branding
For the brand concept, I thought about what defines the products. And I tried to seek the three main words that could describe the new brand:
Natural
This part refers to their core value of having products that are 100% natural and free from any bad for the skin ingredients but also to their garden and lavender field where they are cultivating their plants.
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Traditional
The traditional word comes from the fact that their garden is situated right in the village of their grandparents, being inspired by their ancestor’s way of taking care of their skin and health by using only plants and healthy ingredients before the mass-market industrialisation of additives and concerns.
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Modern
The modern word is here because I knew this brand would undertake a new positioning process, from low-end to upper-medium. And having experience with the other brand, I knew this new one needed to be clean, minimalistic in feel, and reflect the delicacy of the product’s formula and ingredients.
The naming came naturally to me. I unified the three core values stated before and added in also the natural perfume of the products, the lavender being the most pregnant one. After smelling them for the first time, they stuck with me for a long time. And then, I knew.
Inmiresmat. This is it. In Romanian, it means “pleasantly smelling”, and it can also be categorised as an archaic way of saying it, underlining the traditional value. And for the tagline, I came up with the Romanian translation of “delicate care” to express the product’s USP.
For the visual identity, I worked with Alexandra Avram, my colleague from BEAM (the advertising studio I am associated with). We managed to translate the core values into something visual that we considered the most appropriate to reflect traditions, delicacy and an upper-medium product.
We designed a logotype and a pattern and did the packaging design in which we combined white with folio and colours accents that represent the product's main ingredient (purple for lavender, yellow for honey, green for mint, and so on).
I continued overseeing the process of seeing this brand come to life regarding packaging.
The Communication & Social Media
The next step was doing the marketing strategy (here, I am referring to pricing the products, researching sales points, and so on) and the communication one.
I also helped with the implementation of their website.
In terms of communication, one vital aspect to me was how I could explain the brand concept through photographs and videos. After creating a moodboard, I teamed up with the talented photographer Andrei Budescu, who I was sure could help me achieve what I was looking for.
Here you can see the process this brand undertook. From the beginning to the launch of the new brand. I wanted you to be able to see the before and after of the project. I know it was a long presentation here, but I think it’s important to see what a branding process can be and also some parts of the areas that I can help you with.
The before
The process
The after
For this project I worked with:
-Design: Alexandra Avram
-Photo: Andrei Budescu