Mallo, Brand Identity
The Situation
The Bazaar Group is a market-leading manufacturer and e-commerce retailer re-energising the European casual seating category.
We were appointed as brand partners following a competitive process, focussing on how a new retail brand could support European expansion.
We started our work by listening to the founders, leadership and marketing teams. Wider consultation with team members from across the business helped inform the process, kickstarting a programme of engagement that ensured company-wide buy-in prior to launch. Detailed primary customer research, desktop assessments of the current brands’ performance and product testing helped further immerse our team into The Bazaar Group’s sumptuously soft world.
The Change
The Group's passion for designing furniture that delivered next-level comfort shone through. It was matched by a boundless desire to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Everything they did aimed to make customers smile.
The term 'Feel Good Furniture' was born, which underpinned the Group’s new strategic statements and narrative, which set a course for a confident new identity system.
‘Mallo’ was then created, a bold, evocative new retail name which tested exceptionally well across Europe. The name’s onomatopoeic softness was amplified further through an original, hand-drawn wordmark crammed full of feel-good comfort.
The name was also created to support a new brand hierarchy, with existing ranges Veeva and icon being sold under the Mallo retail brand.
The great chemistry and energy between the Bert and Bazaar Group team made the creation process enjoyable, energetic and highly productive. Together we built a highly distinctive narrative, tone-of-voice and design system with enough flex to work across myriad touchpoints. The narrative was transcreated into both German and French, making Mallo unmissable whatever the channel, message or language.
"The workshops they managed, and the depth in which they went to find uncover our existing brand DNA, in order to bring it out into the open and bring voice to something we couldn’t, was a pleasure to be a part of."
We then created art direction for the e-commerce platforms, built social templates, devised internal and external launch plans and delivered core collateral to support the brand’s launch in Germany and France.
The Growth
Over the past year, we’ve been privileged to work with The Bazaar Group's exceptional leadership and brand teams to create a new strategy and narrative that allows them to better express everything they do. With art and strategic direction from Bert, the German (Mallohome.de) and French (Mallohome.fr) e-commerce sites were successfully launched.
The strength of our work on Mallo has since led to further projects, from brand strategy to the advancement of further brands across the Group portfolio.
“The attention to detail was exceptional.
The team at Bert made great efforts to understand where we were as a business and how we wanted to position ourselves for the future to achieve our business aims.
I would highly recommend Bert for new brand creation or clarity and advice on their current brand portfolio.”
Graeme Chapman, Head of Brand & Creative at Bazaar Group.
