Power of Rebrand
How to go from mass market to premium segment with rebrand.
Time is going, things and people’s choices are changing, especially in our decade of information noise, when everywhere someone is selling something to us. If you want, as a business, stay in this race for consumer attention, you have to change with them too. Things that have already worked someday doesn’t have to work today in changed conditions.
Business should always speak to the right audience on their language, use right metaphors and visual language. These aspects are crucial in brand creation. Because brand is not just another product on the shelf or new website domen, it is a complex system of associations, emotions, opinions and characteristics about service or product in the mind of consumer. Thereby, you always need to have your finger on the pulse of your industry and have a deep understanding in what your customers are looking for, create and maintain your brand look in their eyes.
So, if you are already have a few decades running your business, rebranding could definitely help you with evolving your brand authority and expansion on new markets. Great example of successful rebranding is Finnish cosmetic brand Lumene, which they did in early 2016.
Lumene was established in 1970, taking it’s name from Finland’s lake Lummenne. From their beginning they were focused more on mass market, as at their price as quality. Their main competitors were Nivea, Olay, Garnier and brand similar to them. They all had similar brand look and quality, nothing special but good products for their price. In 2016 Lumene changed their global marketing director on Cecile Shrimpton. She has fantastic career in big cosmetics companies as a chief marketing officer, she is absolutely amazing at communications and her presence is a fresh breath at Lumene office, for sure.
Their rebranding stands on new product positioning (ingredients, formulas, story), visual communication (logotype, package design, brand graphics and online presence) and message (main focus on Finnish nature and science). Lumene’s rebrand not only helps them to change visual direction but it’s more closer to their second born as a brand. They are hitting worldwide market again with absolutely new products (Don’t worry! All classical skincare lines aren’t gone forever, they are exist only with new name called “klassikko”) and brand image.
In their rebrand Lumene wanted to put the emphasis on Finland nature, stay organic but with adding proven working chemical elements, that helps your skin shine brighter.
But you can ask, what makes them differ from others organic brands then? And Lumene has the answer on this question. In their formulas they are using plants from Finland nature such as cloudberry, cotton grass, arctic spring water and many more. All these elements growing in Nordic country with strong climate, pure fresh air and with not so much sun in the year. They understand problems of dry skin without big amount of sun and because of it they developed unique approach, which allows to use and improve forces of northern nature in their products.
Besides changing direction in ingredients list and manufacturing, great changes undergone brand design. Here you can see the evolution of Lumene logotype.
On the left side you can see their brand name written in thin and regular font. Simplicity is a good idea but without any story behind it, it could be fraught for your brand. Even today, when great amount of fashion brands go to strongest minimalism, they understand both sides of this decision. They go to the wider audience, but with it, they are lacking in individualism. Someone who is not really into graphic design barely could see the big difference between all of them. Lumene has the same situation. Lack of interesting story in promotional materials (as you remember it were just faces of perfect models, nude color palette and that’s it) and in package design (most of their products were too into mass market: layouts, typography choice, even the colors looked really cheap) brought them into situation when they started losing their positions in the stores.
New logo has lots of positive moments. First of all now you can see the story behind it, logo perfectly represents Finnish history and nature. Letter “E” changed its form, now it looks more like Scandinavian symbol only by adding continuous horizontal line in the middle. Letter “M” builds connection between its form and the form of mountains, little circle above it represents the sun, which relates us to the brand name Lumene — shine. Typography also have some changes in line thickness, more bold letters seems together more stronger than in the previous lighter option. Combination of bold letters and think circle above the letter “M” looks altogether holistically and keeps logo balance.
Packages for all product lines also changed. Now they are looking more modern, minimal and clean. Simple typography, natural colors and lots of white place easily improve products into more premium segment, which was one of the biggest goals for the whole rebrand. Information on the package easy to read because of its placement, fonts and size, it’s not screaming at you to sell you something, all layouts perfectly serve the material and highlight the product on the shelf.
Main goal of Lumene’s rebrand was change their positioning into more premium segment to attract high paying clients, show northern beauty and effectiveness of Finnish ingredients. They perfectly did it with changing whole design and advertisement. They add more light into photos and luminance into design, while minimalism greatly underline the simplicity and premium look.
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