St. Cloud, MN
619 W St. Germain St., Suite 214
St Cloud, MN 56301
(320) 203-4840
Green Bay, WI
520 N Broadway, Suite 270
Green Bay WI, 54303
(920) 884-1496
Everyone loves a good referral, right? We're always particularly flattered when a client values our work and the results we're getting enough to pass on our name to others. And that's how Achieve Clean was introduced to our agency - through another client partnership. As a whole, our entire team can say this project was special and the brand is something we all are very, very proud to be connected to and support. The impact of this project goes beyond the numbers and ROI - it impacts the feels, too. Allow me to explain...
MEET ACHIEVE CLEAN
Achieve Clean is an entity of Achieve Services which serves adult with disabilities by providing them with employment opportunities in the state of Minnesota. Achieve Clean is an all-natural laundry detergent. The product was introduced to support the overarching program mission:
All proceeds from Achieve Clean laundry detergent go directly back into the program. As great of a cause and backstory the brand has, Achieve Clean simply wasn’t generating the right sales or awareness about its product in the cluttered marketplace of both household products and charitable stories.
With a forecasted government funding shortfall, the Achieve Services program and mission is at risk. Prior to a rebrand and corresponding marketing campaign, they were trying their best to increase leads to support the program, but knew they were falling short against industry trends and competition. With great welfare for the developmentally disabled in mind, Achieve Services was ready to go down new avenues for the Achieve Clean brand in order to give it the uplift it needed to stand its ground among the competition and continue to impact lives in countless ways.
Challenge: Cause & Product Mashup
Through traditional marketing approaches like media shout-outs on Kare11, Fox 9, sampling and product handouts, and word-of-mouth, Achieve Clean just wasn’t hitting the mark they had expected their sales or brand awareness to reach. Even though a solid support network of people loved and rooted for the detergent, it wasn't enough to bring in the number of sales needed for the movement to make sense. Their story was being told - but to only a small community. The Achieve Clean laundry detergent is a great product, but it just wasn't gaining traction within the marketplace. End of story.
Only, that's not the end of the story.
Achieve Clean as a brand focused very primarily on its cause. That’s not a bad thing ... but as a consumer, I personally would need to know more about the product to even get to the point of being interested in the cause. Right? The face of Achieve Clean’s - their logo - was very outdated and not unique or specialized to the brand and all that it stood for. It used clipart and standard type; it lacked the enthusiasm and distinctness ... the two things the organization brings to the shelf. We know consumers today are visual shoppers, we judge products quite heavily based on the label and packaging. Unless it's appealing, memorable, or compelling, it just won't be reached for.
With the home goods and cleaning industries being so competitive, Achieve Clean knew they needed to be in - if not ahead of-the flow with today’s market. Their competitors were fun, colorful, staying current with video and social media trends, and were consistently selling products and cultivating brand loyalty.
With the need for both brand identity and a website overhaul, Leighton Interactive took on the challenge. We could see the need for a fun, unique brand - one that truly connected with customers and buyer personas. We knew there was potential value for a powerful website with the same look and feel that Achieve needed. With branding, uniformity is best.
Solution: IMPACTFUL Branding & Mission
Brand identity doesn’t just mean making a new logo and releasing it into the wild, hoping for the best. It's a process that starts at ground level knowing the client, their audience, competitors, industry, buyer personas, product placement, goals, everything. Our very first step is to ask (and ask a lot) of questions of the client. Who are they? Why are they here? Why are they doing and going after? What is the ultimate goal? What are they doing to meet that goal and other success metrics? Is there a disconnect with the sales and marketing teams? Traditionally, what marketing worked, if any? How was it not working? And the most important question of all: who is the primary audience they are trying to reach and engage?
With our tried and true inbound marketing process, we researched Achieve Clean's industry, competitors, and did real interviews with real people to finalize their buyer personas. These personas were going to be the focus of everything that came next. These personas helped us identify who their audiences are, what products in the marketplace they prefer, what are they looking for in a household product, what they don't like or steer away from, etc. It's like a test group + focus group + wishlist session all in one.
Design, Content, & Moods
Keeping all the data in mind, we began to brainstorm what the mission, voice, and feel of the brand were.
This was a necessary step in our process to ensure we understand our clients' business the best we can, acting as an extension of their team. We reviewed concepts of language, wording, and tone. Does this sound like an online personality the Achieve Clean brand would embody? Does it sound familiar, warm, and friendly? Does it toe the line of playful and smart with compelling ad-based copy intended to sell? It was a delicate balance for our content team to not A) seem too silly B) promote Achieve Clean as an incredible product C) uphold and promote the brand mission and D) not replicate the many competitor brands of the same category.
Although content is neglected while preparing for brand identity visually-speaking, it is a very integral part of building a strong brand. You can't have a brand identity without a voice. Speaking of delicate balance, the dance between design and content and what comes first always is a waltz we perform at our agency. We're careful to not make bold statements about absolutes in terms of the website and brand on which comes first. Here, they both lead as dictated by the song, tempo, and crowd watching.
Once the brand’s voice, mission, target audience, and end goal, etc. is finalized, we can start prepping a mood board to suggest what kind of look and feel would make sense for the product. Thorough research is conducted on behalf of the industry and competitors while preparing for the visualization part of the brand.
We prepared a presentation with the new and improved brand voice and created three mood boards that suggested the appearance of the brand according to the persona research and industry trend. The mood boards were laid out with three individual distinct themes giving the Achieve Clean brand its distinct identity and consumer appeal.
After the three themes were presented to the client, we took their feedback, let it sink in, and started with the sketching phase. This is an important step where all those thoughts and feelings and research are brainstormed into as much creative possibility imaginable.
After thorough considerations, we took the strong sketches to the screen and made different iterations to see those creative possibilities come to life. These of course evolved a lot and took various skins before we landed on the final logo and color scheme our team thought best embodied the brand.
Final Logo Iterations
The final presentation consisted of Achieve Clean’s brand-new identity. This included the logo and its variations, Achieve Clean’s values, voice, tagline, impact and mission statements, Achieve Clean’s family of primary and secondary colors, the photography and icon styles that portray brand messaging, do’s and don'ts of the logo, logo usage and limitations, brand typography, and everything else related to the visual concepts. The goal of this presentation is to unify everyone who touches the brand in style, look, and intention.
Our end product is a unique logo which is visually fun and powerful; not to mention totally relatable to the persona as a strong brand consistent throughout its messaging, look, and assets. New logo, new life.
Next Steps for Achieve Clean Laundry Detergent
After a new brand identity is launched for any company, there's a mini celebration that occurs between that team and ours but it isn't heralded with any sort of finality. It's more of a launch party and preview of what comes next: the work. The product or service
That's the stage we're in for Achieve Clean, too. We're in the midst of designing and writing a website that tells the story of Achieve Services and how and why Achieve Clean laundry detergent exists. The site's look, feel, and functionality is ever-evolving and again, our team is just so dang honored to help any way we can. I worked on product labels for a new bottle design; a household product that will sit in (hopefully) thousands of homes across the country, a new staple. Our PR and Outreach team is busy connecting with influencers, exploring experiential and event marketing opportunities, and brainstorming countless ways to make laundry fun.
Achieve Clean. Really good detergent. Even better cause.
Those fine folks will even send you a free sample if you're so inclined. Just tell them where.
Didn't get a chance to watch the video? Check it out!
