Brand Strategy

The first step was to work with Salty & Sweet to form a deep understanding of what the business wanted to become, and who deal audience is. To figure our these key pieces of information I lead their team through brand strategy.

Purpose, Vision, Mission, Goals

It’s important to understand that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. For this reason I worked with Salty & Sweet to define their purpose, vision, mission, and business goals.

These meeting lasted hours and consisted of each stakeholder commenting what purpose, vision, and mission meant to them. I took this information and wrote concise copy that accurately reflected their thoughts about the business.

Purpose: We exist to be a safe place for families & friends to enjoy unique hand made salty & sweet treats: such as pretzels, ice cream, candy, and popcorn!

Vision: To create a one-of-a-kind family focused treat shop that the kid in all of us would enjoy.

Mission: We thoughtfully and uniquely hand make treats of the salty and sweet variety that the kid in all of us would enjoy.

Successful brands are well-known and successful because they behave like people, and people have personality. Therefore, I worked with the Salty & Sweet team to define their personality.

Personality helps brands like Salty & Sweet to be consistent when interacting with their audience.

During the brand personality session of brand strategy, each Salty & Sweet stakeholder commented how they define their values, culture, attributes, behavior, voice, look, and feel. From there it was my job to condense those comments down to a single adjective. After a while we had many adjectives in each column - from there we worked to narrow down each column to a single adjective that defined each piece of Salty & Sweet's personality.

Then I went a step further and placed those adjective on a scale to get a clear picture of the work that needs to be done to take on the personality Salty & Sweet articulated.

It’s important to understand that these personality traits are what guide how your brand behaves, how it sounds, how it looks, and how it aims to make people feel. These attributes inform everything from design to communication moving forward.

Target Audience & Research

In the early phases of brand strategy I helped Salty & Sweet to define itself. Next I had to work to understand who the current customers are, and who their ideal customers are.

I needed this information so that I could research the ideal customer to gain understanding of their needs, and to understand if their perception of Salty & Sweet is the same as how Salty & Sweet perceives itself.

We determined that Salty & Sweet needs to get involved in audiences that appeal to the 25-40 year old female demographic.

We also determined that Salty & Sweet wants to target young mothers between the age of 25-40 years old. Mothers are often the primary decision makers when it comes to treating their family to an amazing treat - and all young mothers likely have a common problem Salty & Sweet can solve and appeal to.

Once I knew who the ideal audience and customers were, I sought out to find people who matched the description to conduct research via observations, interviews, and surveys.

Now that I know why the brand exists, what its' personality is, who their ideal customers are (and their needs), I can use this information to inform all brand behavior in a way that is consistent with the brand, and appealing to the customer.

Identity Design

The next step was to bring all brand touchpoints in line with the brand - and that started with designing the logo.

But why the redesign? During my brand audit I found that the existing logo did not resonate well with their ideal audience or ideal customer, and the existing logo did not abide by the way Salty & Sweet defined themselves, i.e. it was not excited, fun, or welcoming; and it did not convey high quality.

To resolve these issues I worked with my design team to redesign the Salty & Sweet logo along with other identifying marks for many different use cases - with the main focus of designing a logo that aligns with the brand personality.

Logo

I worked with my design team to design a logo that properly represents Salty & Sweet by strictly adhering to brand personality elements. That meant designing a logo that conveyed high quality, and gave off an exciting, fun, and welcoming appeal. We also optimized the logo for use on dark & light backgrounds.

Logotype

This is the official Salty & Sweet logotype. It’s built from two hand-drawn vintage display fonts that give a feel of vintage, classic, and nostalgia.

Tagline

“Makin’ Boerne a little sweeter!” is used as the company motto to reinforce the purpose, vision, and mission of Salty & Sweet.

We also created lockups to serve as the primary visual form in which Salty & Sweet can present their brand to the public to help build recognition of their brand’s logo & logotype.

I worked with my design team to define all brand colors and typography. This not only helps my team and I to maintain a high level of consistency with the Salty & Sweet brand, but it also helps the Salty & Sweet team to stay consistent in my absence.

I provided identity guidelines to the Salty & Sweet team so they can stay true to their look even if I’m not the one working on their brand.

I worked with my team to produce high-end photo and video to display the culture and food of Salty & Sweet for the purpose of sharing this content on social media. I leveraged my skill, creativity, and knowledge of strategy to build a community around the Salty & Sweet brand.