Founded in 1988, Gloria Jeans became the leader of kids and teenagers fashion apparel in Russia. They’ve grown rapidly, including during recessionary times, and have been active in global markets since 2003.

Key members of our team have a new-media background so we knew exactly how to launch the first version of the fashion website. We also emphasised transferring our knowledge to our client, believing it is crucial for brands to be able to manage their on-going dialogue and interaction with their audiences independently.

The first step was a concise planning stage, focusing on information architecture. We helped scale the team’s needs in a way that allowed a quick launch but also created a platform that could continually develop at the live-state once it’s on the Web.

We created a design that is consistent with the heritage of the brand but also seeks to take advantage of the opportunities the web platform provides to innovate and delight. The look & feel of the site is consistent, but it is designed to change seasonally to complement the changes of the “fast fashion” merchandise and to engage the brand’s many fans.

Finally, for the often dreaded development stage, we partnered with open source wizards Linnovate. The benefits of the open source platform, Drupal, enabled the creation of a highly scalable site with a powerful content management system at a fraction of the time and cost of similar endeavours taking the propriety software route. We’re excited to see where they take it.

.

Our teams helped pharmaceutical manufacturer, Veropharm, create a new category of super premium plasters for the design conscious (and injured) consumer. As major brands compete for market share using price promotion or product innovation, Veropharm realised that a sensitive design aesthetic was missing from the market. The premium designs enabled Veropharm to maintain a 40% premium over international
brands while not canibalising on their standard private label products.

‘When we listened to customers, they said they wanted a product that would use the best of today’s technology to help heal their skin quickly, but that they also wanted a design that would be sensitive to their high-street fashion sense as well’ reports Herman Inozemtsev, Veropharm’s Vice President of marketing.

The plasters are now on sale and customer reaction has been outstanding. The package designs won a Silver Award at the Pentawards 2007. Pentawards is a global competition bringing the biggest names in design to compete over new package design concepts.

+ See more images in the case study

We’ve revamped the new brand for Russia’s largest mobile telecom provider. MTS has over 70 million subscribers in Russia and neighbouring countries. Aaron Shields, one of the partners here at Brandinstinct says ‘Together, we have created an image that mirrors Russia itself. The brand is full of paradoxes that push together traditional ideas against modern ones. It’s about all the details in life and also taking in the unity of the big picture. It’s about life and living, with the edge of realism. We’re looking forward to re-introducing this brand to the country over time. There is a lot of detail to get out in communications over the next six months or so.’
+ Read the rest of this entry

We designed a new co-branded credit card for Russia’s MBRD bank. The corporate bank recognised the tremendous opportunity in the retail banking sector so MBRD needed a card that appealed to retail customers without annihilating their strong corporate banking base.

‘MBRD came to us because of our deep experience in the Russian Market and our brand redevelopment for Russia’s leading mobile operator MTS, the card partner. Once the positioning of the card was identified, we jumped into designing a card that would immediately get noticed,’ says Andrew Morris, a key member of the design team.

‘The card was designed for the premium market. While it needed to convey security and convenience, we also wanted it to celebrate life and the joys a little retail therapy can bring to those suffering Jet Set Fatigue.’We then embarked on creating advertising and promotions concepts for the March 2006 launch. The national campaign saw a marriage of two distinct brand positionings that celebrated a rediscovered optimism in the Russian psyche.

Brandinstinct has been working with Pharmacy Chain 36,6 over the past 4 years. 36,6 embarked on an ambitious expansion programme and introduced a wide range of own-label product brands in its shops.‘While private label is often rightly derided as cheap imitation, 36,6 is a horse of a different colour altogether. 36,6 appeal across customer segments with their wide stable of brands and therefore needed design solutions to that allows them to continue winning market share while maintaining a slightly premium positioning.

Rather than opting for copying the market leaders, our focus was to really build the 36,6 brand overall the long term, eschewing quick wins for sustainability,’ says Andrew Morris a key member of the Brandinstinct team.‘The main challenge for us was to develop a packaging system that would help build the growing brand and one that would be flexible enough to incorporate other brand signals and a myriad of copycat products. The chain is planning to release over 100 products this year,’ continues Andrew. Brandinstinct has worked as the agency of record for the retail chemist and designed and launched over 30 brands for 36,6 to date.

+ See more images in the case study