Apron Empowered
Service
Branding, Strategy, Packaging & Kiosk Design
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
The Brand
Developing the brand for New Zealand’s first vegan desserts company was very exciting right from the get-go!
Apron Empowered is the brainchild of founder Anish Aya, a vegetarian turned vegan. Now, you’re probably thinking that isn’t much of a difference, so did I at first. But when he filled me in on his story and his vision, it all made sense. Good vegan desserts are hard to come by so Apron Empowered has a need to cater for.
The Challenges
brand connection, branding consistency & brand Awareness
Since vegan desserts cater for a type of niche, we had to ensure that a wide variety of people and taste buds could relate and build an emotional connection with the brand. At this time of 2013, the vegan concept was still quite new for the New Zealand masses. So it was vital that the brand attracts a wide market, opens the dialogue about the vegan lifestyle and makes it a fun, educational and interactive experience.
Anish’s vision was to become the first name people think about when they think vegan. Showcasing your story in a way that captures attention and attracts your ideal opportunities is what we specialise in here at XX!
Our Solution
The Brand Foundation Build – brand vision, customer segmentation, UVP, brand persona & a detailed brand guideline
Our Brand Foundation Build defines your go-to-market strategy to ensure your branding represents you and your business to a tee; setting you up for the long run. Not only does it attract the right customer but also helps them identify you as a better match than your current competitors. In addition, it empowers you to stay away from a price battle with current and future competitors as you focus on adding maximum value to your customers.
XX Caution; simple & effective at work.
The key to success for this project was the attention to detail. We made sure the Apron Empowered brand personality was prominent in every aspect of their internal and external business. It was important to build a brand that not only connects with the right customers but also empowers and conditions internal teams to feel like they are the brand too. It helps them take pride in their work and the brand’s purpose. The Apron Empowered team mindset and attitude is instantly reflected by people and customers.
Our Brand Foundation Build package took Anish through a series of workshops that helped him sculpt and craft his vision into a reality. Together we articulated the brand vision and values to set the tone and voice for the team. To ensure all our future marketing efforts are targeted and efficient, we then identified exactly who our customers were in our Customer Segmentation workshop. Once we knew who to target and how to talk to them, we developed their Unique Value Proposition which helped the target audience understand exactly who the company is, what they offer and the passion behind the brand concept. To complete the brand development process we then ran a workshop with the entire Apron Empowered team to ensure the brand was understood and adopted wholeheartedly.
The outcome; a simplified illustrated version of the founder himself. His signature thick beard, a little tin-tin inspired quiff and his best mate, the apron. Which is what you will catch him wearing often as he’s always experimenting and developing new recipes. We designed a clean, quirky yet trustworthy brand that is now Apron Empowered, pioneering vegan desserts & snacks in New Zealand.
Our brand development process is tried, tested and refined to a simple yet effective way to articulate the founder’s vision while addressing the business goals. It’s our secret sauce that helps us build impactful, strategic brands for our Vision Partners.
Kiosk Design & Product Packaging
Once we had crossed all the t’s and dotted the i’s during the Brand Foundation Build, we had absolute clarity on how to apply the branding to the Apron Empowered product packaging and kiosk. The brand guidelines we developed dictated what to do and more importantly what not to do with the brand. Knowing exactly what brand colours, fonts, tone of voice and personality was required, developing the look and feel of the kiosk and packaging became a breeze and a lot of fun too! Working closely with Anish to bring his design ideas to life became an efficient and focused activity, which helped us produce the final design for the kiosk and packaging rather quickly.
The ultimate goal for us was to design both elements in such a way that they would compliment each other and form a cohesive brand experience for the customers. At the same time, we had to ensure that both the kiosk and packaging championed the brand equally and were able to embody the brand personality when customers interacted with them individually.
The highlight of developing the kiosk and packaging was working together with the Apron Empowered spatial design team to collate the right textures, materials and surfaces that complimented the brand persona. The overall outcome still puts a smile on Anish’s face as he often calls us to share stories about the customers complimenting the brand too. That’s a solid win-win-win for team XX!
The Products
Anish’s recipes not only tasted divine but also looked the part. He was very particular on making his creations look clean, simple yet quirky. Much like the brand feel and aesthetics. He cooked some of his popular desserts for us as a way to experience the brand. That was the key inspiration for the brand concept we developed for Apron Empowered. Reminder; these are all vegan desserts! YUMMMMM 😋
Through our Social Media Marketing workshop we coached team Apron Empowered on how to photograph the products in a way that showcases their true taste and beauty. Anish was very particular on this element of the brand. So we doubled down to ensure we understood his visual preference and articulated them in detail on the brand guideline document we provide as part of our Brand Foundation Build package.
The Result
A fun yet elegant brand that cherishes the joy, good healthy desserts can bring to the community. Not only is the brand a huge hit with the locals but it now has grown to multiple branches around the city of Auckland and their products are stocked in boutique stores around New Zealand.
“From the start, Amit instantly understood my vision for the business. His direction on branding and photography has been on point. We have attracted the exact customer and business partnerships we’ve always wanted. Amit’s organised data driven marketing campaigns helped us grow quicker than expected, which meant we needed his help more than ever.
I am very proud of our brand and our customer community built around it.”
~ Anish Aya, Founder
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