We Have Just The Thing
When we were tasked with the rebranding of Coolstuff, we flipped the perspective to that of the customer. They don’t want a mountain of stuff, they want the one perfect thing. This sent us to Ollivander’s wand store for inspiration and off we went.
Client
Coolstuff
Industry
E-commerce
Services
Brand Strategy
Design
Communication
Photography
Overview
CoolStuff is an online store for… cool stuff. When we arrived at the office we found the founders, a married couple, on the floor of one of the conference rooms looking up at the ceiling trying to decide which galaxy lamp was the coolest. These people cared and curated their selection. But they marketed themselves as a “Mecca for stuff”. When we were tasked with the rebranding of Coolstuff, we flipped the perspective to that of the customer. They don’t want a mountain of stuff, they want the one perfect thing. This sent us to Ollivander’s wand store for inspiration and off we went.
The Challenge
Coolstuff is an e-tailer selling cool things sourced from around the world. With the old branding, centered around a "Mecca for stuff" you could get the impression that this was something of a drop shipping operation that just passed along mountains of cheap stuff. The truth, it turned out, was that this was an operation passionately run by a married couple. The first time we visited their offices, we found them laying down on a conference room floor trying to figure out which galaxy lamp was the coolest. They were truly passionate about curation. We needed to shift the perception of the brand to reflect this passionate curation, and flip the story from the glutton to that of the connoisseur. Another challenge was to make sure Coolstuffs identity shines through regardless of which of their thousands of products they want to display.
The Solution
While it may feel like a "Mecca for stuff" from the inside, the customer's perspective is quite different. They are not searching for an avalanche of stuff but one well-curated thing. The right thing, for the right person, for the right time, for the right place, for the right price, for the right moodm, for the right situation, for the right time of year, for the right time of day. Inspired by Oliwanders wand shop in Harry Potter, where he keeps a gigantic selection of wands in stock, so that you can find the exact right one for you, we are also singularly focused on finding you the exact thing you need. And so, the concept "We have just the thing" was born. We created a design toolkit that could be applied to any product while retaining the identity, and at the same time conveying playfulness and Coolstuff's unmistakable identity. We confirmed that we have made enough tough choices by making sure it all fit on a brand platform poster that can be seen and understood throughout the organization.
The Result
A brand new image of Coolstuff emerged, but not one that we had made up in our heads, but one that was actually there already, only obscured by looking from the wrong perspective. The brand went from cheap to fun and curated with a design toolkit that could be applied anywhere with the unmistakable presence of this passionate organization.
