VITABRID C12 SKIN CARE: BRAND
THE BACKGROUND: Vitabrid came to us as a brand without a voice. In their home country of South Korea, their science-driven skin care products’ results are known well enough to speak for themselves. In the US, where they asked us to rethink – and relaunch – their e-commerce and social media presences, we first had to decide how they should speak.
THE GOAL: Invent a brand voice for Vitabrid that allows their scientific edge to shine through to customers, instead of getting lost in jargon.
THE PROCESS:
We went to Vitabrid and asked them to start by answering a very simple question: who are we talking to, and what are we trying to tell them? Through conversations with the client, we honed in on a target audience of women in their 30s, and a key message stressing the importance of receiving adequate Vitamin C.
We then worked with the client to help them get a handle on who would be saying this. From day one, they were clear in their conviction that Vitabrid’s key benefit is its science-driven formula – which led naturally to a core brand personality of a scientist.
Although scientists understand complexity, good ones can distill complicated topics into clear takeaways. Because many of Vitabrid’s products are unfamiliar forms of skin care, like their powdered Vitamin C, we thought it was important to avoid jargon and speak to product benefits in simple, elegant language.
To evolve this scientist persona from an archetype into a brand, we came up with two different personas that encapsulated how this scientist would express themselves. The first of these, “The Beauty of Simplicity,” would have Vitabrid present themselves as a refined academic, and the second, “Silicon Valley Skincare,” took a more youthful, tech-driven approach. We presented these to the client and asked them what resonated – and what didn’t.
Ultimately, the client identified more with the “Silicon Valley Skincare” approach – so we then set about turning this persona into a brand voice.
THE WORK:
From these persona explorations, we created informal guides for Vitabrid’s verbal and visual tone.
The key verbal deliverable for this brand work was the following exercise illustrating to the client how we would use their new persona to deliver their highly technical key selling points in a digestible, straightforward – but not straitlaced – way.
Art Direction: Jenny Kim