It had been two years since Bagnet's last customer survey and brand audit, so the team started early 2024 with a goal to check in with our audience. We began with writing a demographics and trends survey that was distributed to our customers and followers. The Creative Director and I worked together to create a list of questions, and I finessed the language to be more entertaining and encourage a boost in our response rate.
We collected more than 900 responses from the survey, and the data we collected proved invaluable. Most importantly, we learned that Bagnet's audience was aging with us. Our products, branding, and voice just weren't resonating with Gen Z consumers in the fashion space.
To begin to address that problem, we first needed to look inwardly at the messaging we've been sending to consumers. Bagnet as a brand is informed mostly by our email styles, and then social and web channels follow suit, so our focus was primarily on email.
As a new part of the team, I had the privilege of being able to look at our materials through an unbiased lens, as I wasn't a part of the creation of them. Evidenced by the sample of established transactional emails below, we were lacking a strong brand identity, as well as the "wow" factor that younger generations are looking for in brands today.
In an effort to change that, the CEO, Creative Director and I each completed a creative exercise in which we researched small brands and evaluated what they were doing right and/or wrong.
Brands like The Last Crumb, ban.do, and Plantgem have similarities to Bagnet, but are more successful in areas in which we struggle. I evaluated their brand story, voice, aesthetic, audience, and qualities like exclusivity or inclusivity. For each brand, I pulled key takeaways and considerations that our team could make for Bagnet.
I also evaluated a brand similar to Bagnet that was unsuccessful in their execution. Millennialcore brand Rae Dunn is also women-founded and in the women's retail space, but provides an interesting case study in the differences of branding for Gen-Z and Millennial women. Bagnet, trying to appeal to younger and younger audiences, would have to be careful not to make the same mistakes.
After a group review of the brand exercise and our key takeaways, the CEO set us on a path toward a new Bagnet brand profile, including a refined voice. The Creative Director defined the tone, personality, and values of our voice persona (envisioned as a PC version of Karen Walker á la Will & Grace) and I used that profile to develop ad copy, starting with FAQs about Bagnet for our website.
Once we had the voice nailed down, we moved on to the visuals, beginning with elements that would add the spice and character to our branding. The direction would ultimately be the decision of the Creative Director, with input from the CEO, but to help start the conversation, I created the below element guides. With examples from our current branding, as well as the small brands that our CEO favored in terms of style and visuals, this allowed us to pick and choose what was and was not working.
The Creative Director then worked on developing two directions for our marketing email "looks" that we would eventually present to the CEO to choose from. But first, I was asked to review each look and give feedback on the overall design decisions, as well as how successful it was in conveying our new brand persona. Most importantly, as I would be the one designing daily marketing emails, I looked for sustainability of style and how well the pillars of these looks could translate to multiple iterations and situations I might come across in practice.
The Creative Director made changes based on this feedback, and we presented the updated looks to the CEO.
The CEO ultimately landed on a combination of the two looks, that we referred to as “Look 3”. Once that decision was made, the real work began! I started with creating an updated guide to our new brand elements, for documentation and posterity. Then, I used that guide to put together a total of 9 email layout templates that could be mixed and matched to fit any content - whether it was storytelling, product features or sales.
I utilized Adobe CC Libraries to take these templates a step further. Considering each content block as it's own component, I saved them in a format that was easily editable, knowing that our atomic design systems would prove all visuals consistent in the end result. Colors, text styles, and even our new brand elements of polaroid frames and tape were saved in the library to easily access when needed.
"When executing the new brand styles, Liz was able to expertly use all the various design tools to create systems and libraries of assets that not only cut down on production time, but also allowed herself to create stunning visuals in unique and creative ways." -Rebecca Jones, Creative Director
That diligence in organization and classification proved essential in quickly and efficiently churning out new email designs - especially important in designing all of our transactional and "flow" emails. Below you can see the templates in action as part of our welcome series, our transactional order process, and miscellaneous customer flows.
A greater emphasis on our founder and CEO Kelley, as well as branded copywriting for even the dullest of updates ensures that the Bagnet brand experience is consistent through every part of the customer journey.
These updates carried through not only email, but our SMS messaging, social channels, and website, too.
"Liz was a crucial part of our brand development and enhancement project. Her unique perspectives and vivid communication styles enabled us to push our CEO out of her proverbial box, which allowed us to evolve the brand in a direction that we otherwise wouldn’t have moved in." -Rebecca Jones, Creative Director
First email of our automated "welcome series" flow.
Second email of our automated "welcome series" flow.
Third email of our automated "welcome series" flow.
Fourth email of our automated "welcome series" flow.
Team
Client: Bagnet
Founder and CEO: Kelley Daring
Director of Purchasing & Planning: Christina Lafferty
Customer Care Expert: Cami Macias
Creative Director: Rebecca Jones
Senior Graphic Designer, Copywriter: Liz White