Brand Challenge Established in 1992, WTP- The Furniture Company has earned itself a reputation of authenticity and ingenuity and evolved from, first being an antique store to now being a lifestyle store meeting the needs of both contemporary and classic furniture buyers. The brand sought to create a new sub-brand with its contemporary line of furniture and launch its first overseas store in Bangalore, India.
The brand challenge was to enter the new market by creating a distinctive brand idea and identity for the brand to grow into. The company would first launch in Bangalore and then further its presence in more cities, besides creating an ecommerce channel in the near future.
Brand Solution
The brand name MIMI Homes was created. The name was born by using the name of the owner- Mimi. It was authentic, geographically neutral, short and easily remembered.
Identity Counsel conducted a market audit that revealed a largely unorganized and fragmented furniture industry with a moderate competitive environment, though the consumers were increasing getting more brand conscious in their furniture needs.
The research undertaken uncovered an understanding of the changing Indian home and consumer, the gaps of service, range and quality, changes in buying behaviour and role of furniture to the consumer. Management interviews were conducted to understand the vision and values of the brand followed by an internal workshop that helped shape the desired personality of the brand. After defining the core attributes, the promise was developed in providing contemporary furniture that was an effortless expression of self. Homes being emotional spaces the idea was to bring together two key factors of ‘look’ and ‘feel’.
With a vision to transform daily home environments into extraordinary unique and positive experience, the brand theme of ‘The Look That Makes You Feel’ was developed.
The product architecture based on styles was also developed with three collection brands: RIO, Hamptons and Downtown.
The identity of the brand was then created keeping the attributes, position and personality of the brand. The symbol combined the letters M and I. The logotype was a sans serif type denoting a contemporary feel combined with elegance and simplicity. To add a contrasting balance to the logotype the word ‘homes’ was made smaller and also worked as a descriptor to the brands offering. Black was chosen to denote neutrality, sophistication and elegance.
A brand book followed with application templates and a workshop was conducted internally to share the brands ideology and identity with the employees. The brand was launched on the 10th of September 2018 to an overwhelming response with the sales exceeding expectations and the word of mouth drawing very positive responses.
Identity Counsel Brand Group Singapore continues to manage the brands communication post launch.
“Mohit Gopaldas and Gayatri Gopaldas and the team at IC have been invaluable partners in our first ever regional expansion. As a business, one doesn’t attribute enough credit to the role of the brand story, to this regard, IC was able to create and execute a brand strategy that was not only thoughtful and clear, but adapted to a completely different culture of brand adaptation. Their tireless efforts came to light as they were constantly tweaking logos, stories and more complicated branding details, to express our story accurately. I would wholeheartedly recommend their services, branding is not as straight-forward as one thinks, but doing it well, like IC has done for us, had made all the difference in my arena of competition.”
Mimi – Founder, MIMI Homes