CLIENT:
Kitukuu Interiors
PROJECT:
Brand Transformation – Rebranding
OUR ROLE:
Brand Strategy / Logo & Identity / Print Production
Kitukuu Interiors is a family owned funiture producer in Nairobi. We helped them differentiate themselves in the local custom furniture manufacturers in Nairobi.
Their biggest challenge was differentiating themselves from other local furniture producers as a producer of high quality custom furniture. Locally made furniture had a reputation for poor quality and use of low standards of building materials. Due to the Pandemic situation in early 2020 the demand for furniture had increased but in-store sales were bound to slow down. They needed to transition fully online.
From a discovery session, rebranding became the most apparent direction. They saw the need to fully transition to online retail where majority of their business came from in the past year and where clients would certainly adopt due to the pandemic. They felt they needed to get a name that better reflects their mission and values. They wanted a visual identity and communication that is bold and clear about their focus on quality and being a local African brand.
We worked with them to find a name that best captured both the history and the spirit behind their brand. Kitukuu can simultaneously mean ‘Something Great’ and ‘Grandchild’ in Kiswahili. Something great reflects the kinds of products they produce and Grandchild reflects the heritage of furniture making present in the founders’ ancestry, they being a grandchild of a furniture make. We developed a visual identity that was mean to be bold and simple. It needed to express confidence and creativity in the simplest way possible.
The rebranding process was enlightening for the founders getting to understand their brand and customers better, and for us learning more about the furniture business in Kenya. We did a four-week social media relaunch of the brand that saw a singificant increase in engagement and number of organic page likes and follows over the next 6 months. The rebrand was followed by an increase in the number of enquiries and much higher conversions to sale than before. That led to an increase in sales of over 200% over the next 12 months.
Through the rebrand, Kitukuu Interiors wanted to present themselves as a bold, youthful local brand. They also wanted to be known as an expert in furniture producing high quality products. Everything from the name and choice of colours to the communication would take this into account. We developed two disctinct stylescapes (Bauhaus and Timeless) as creative directions through which the brand would be able to be presented. After much deliberation, the Bauhaus style won.
Based on the impression the company wanted to portray to their audiences, the logo needed to be a hybrid of a word-mark and a simple symbol, emphasizing the name more than anything else. It needed to be striking and instantly recognizeable both online and offline.
We observed that their furniture design had a characteristic balance of curved and straight edges and corners, which is a marker of expert level craftsmanship in furniture making. We incorporated this and other factors into the final logo design.
The quality of a client’s experience is considered as important as the product itself in Kitukuu Interiors. Part of their service includes branded merchandise, discount vouchers and a note to clients. We developed their official stationery to match their brand’s impression.
As part of the rebranding package we developed a launch campaign to be run on their social media pages. For this we transition content for facebook and instagram.
As part of the rebranding package we developed a launch campaign to be run on their social media pages. The campaign included standard transition content to help their audience be part of and embrace the changes. To establish their web presence we developed a profile website that is connected seamlessly to their most active social media platform, instagram.
