Helping a pool and spa specialty business make a splash in their new market
My role was to helped Insnrg build a strong foundation for success as a new business with top-notch branding and design strategy: Insnrg offers the best quality swimming pool and spa equipment using innovative designs and the latest technology.
THE CHALLENGE
While the founders of Insnrg have a combined 120 years of experience in design and manufacturing, the company itself is new and in need of professional branding and marketing strategies to enter the marketplace. They desired a strong corporate image that would flow through all of their marketing and communication materials and relate to their targeted audience. Prior to working with me, they struggled with creativity and found it difficult to execute cohesive, professional branding. They needed help creating a plan and strategy that would be high quality from the start and attract the right customers.
ROLES
Design & Creative Strategist
PROCESS
Brand Design
Design Strategy
B2B Materials
Preference Tests
PROJECT
Complete Brand Development & Launch Materials
I produced a unique brand identity that both elevated and separated Insnrg from their competitors. This is often a challenging feat, as the swimming pool industry is a saturated market that often uses similar and predictable colour schemes and images. I worked with Insnrg to portray a premium product that is both family friendly and fun, and achieved their goal of combining these aspects of their brand.
Personality
Premium
Personal
Committed
Fun
Tone of Voice
Professional
Friendly
Sense of Humour
The Process
I did an in-depth brand discovery to understand business goals and designed custom strategies that cater to their business goals and users.
With the insight I gathered, I presented two style boards: a conservative, professional style, and also an unconventional yet approachable that stood out from the sea of other pool-related companies. All elements on the style boards (colours, texture, font, imageries) were compiled with strategic intentions/reason. Insnrg loved both concepts but ultimately chose the unconventional style board to represent their brand and differentiate them from the competition.
In an effort to support their premium “look”, the overall chosen style is minimalistic, clean, and easy to understand. The final version of the logo, based on an in-depth interview with the client and the market, features an emerald and orange colour palette that evokes energy, efficiency, and fun. The curve in the “IN” symbol represents a synergistic cycle of water.
Colour Palette
The color palette were deliberately chosen to differentiate from the often overused industry colours. The emerald colour represent efficiency, and orange to represent leisure and fun.
Definition of Synergy
“The combined power of a group of things when they are working together that is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately.”
Catalogue, sales brochures and instruction manuals were designed, printed, then developed into a sales pack ready for launch and distribution.
Content was written in a way that was clear and easily understood by the target audience. We scaled back the technical wording and jargon, and spent more energy focusing on the features and benefits pool owners will enjoy with their family for years to come.
Packaging materials were designed on high quality cardboard using orange and black ink to comply with printing regulations. The original design with white ink looked good but we proceeded with black text for durability purposes.
These packaging will be displayed in pool retail shops. Keeping in mind that retail industries have just a few fleeting moments to capture the attention of a retail consumer, we allowed time to thoroughly research the best-performing taglines that would appeal to Insnrg’s target audience. To help us gather useful data, I performed preference tests via usability hub on specific taglines to help determine which were most effective. These taglines were sent to various groups of recipients, and provided results of the most popular taglines along with the supplemental feedback from the recipients.
Images of happy children and families enjoying their pools and spas were used to portray fun and excitement. I want prospective pool owners to be able to relate and imagine the improvement in their quality of life by owning a pool.
The final design resulted in marketing material that is clear, clean, and portrays a professional image, while standing out from competitors. Insnrg’s brand design is used across all business marketing material, including the website, brochure, catalogues, manual, signage, packaging, and uniforms.
“Business owners are successful because they know their industry and markets. But very often, the fact they know their market so well leads to a company image that mimics their competition. Tania sought to find the “soul” of our company, then develop an image and style guide that represented who we believe we are and how we feel about ourselves and our stakeholders. The end result was fantastic, and the whole process clarified how we thought about ourselves and our stakeholders.”
PETER
Director of Insnrg
“Her designs are innovative and sometimes challenging, but always done with an end goal in mind. You may end up with something you didn’t expect! The process in developing the new brand image was thought-provoking, challenging, and in the end, highlighted some interesting ideas. Your detail in this area changed some aspects of our company and made us think in different directions. This was a great exercise to complete.”
DUNCAN
CEO of Insnrg