New Design, Same Old Secret
We were tasked with rebranding Sweden's most sold professional hair care brand with a completely new graphic identity, new packaging, a more compelling way of telling the story, and new communication. It turned out the story was already in there, all we had to do was tell it.
Client
XL
Industry
Haircare
Services
Brand Strategy
Design
Communication
Photography
Overview
We were tasked with rebranding Sweden's most sold professional hair care brand with a completely new graphic identity, new packaging, a more compelling way of telling the story, and new communication. It turned out the story was already in there, all we had to do was tell it.
The Challenge
When LYKO acquired the Grazette factory along with the haircare brands they owned, XL Concept, Sweden's most sold professional haircare brand became part of the LYKO family. XL was developed in 1990 to deliver professional hair products without the hype and associated price hike. More people could now experience a professional product's lasting results without paying a professional-level price. The product was delivered in larger bottles to achieve a better value and was named XL. The brand has since gone through several re-designs but is feeling dated and not on par with the quality of the product. With a large loyal customer base, we needed to update the brand while also retaining the existing customer base. We also needed to establish a brand hierarchy relationship between Grazette and XL.
The Solution
We embarked on a comprehensive brand identity overhaul for XL, beginning with a new logo, color palette, typography, and visual elements. The name is a challenge of its own as it is a difficult name to create a premium feel around. Yet, we need to keep the name, and for this reason, a comprehensive re-design of the logo became a central part of the work. We wanted to create a logo that you read as a premium shape rather than the word XL. The packaging also needed to feel clean and "technical", yet with a premium feel. We also needed to tell the story of why we can sell this premium product at a sub-premium price. We clarified the relationship between the product XL and the factory Grazette with the line "Proudly manufatured by the Grazette factory on the Swedish west coast". Given this new relationship we could now also show why the product is such great value for money and establish credibility by simply stating the fact that these are "Haircare products straight from the factory". Now the rest of the concept unfolded as logical conclusions with models sneaking around factory enviromnents trying to uncover the secret mystery of why these products are such a great value, and the launch campaign "Brand new design, same old secret".
The Result
The XL products where rolled out in the professional hair salons as before, but now also in LYKO offline- and online stores to uniformly great results.
