Branding and creative roots still shine bright at Papugai.

Just under a decade ago, 100 percent of Papugai's business was in branding and creative services. Today, we are more known for our technological inventions and innovations around e-commerce and other web-driven solutions. Still, Papugai's brand development solutions and award-winning designs keeps a spotlight focused on it's creative side as well.

Most recently we have been engaged in a brand-development project for San Diego-based Candy Direct, the oldest and largest online candy retailer in the United States. At a glance, this would seem to be a textbook solution from start to finish, but there are nuances and subtleties that made this a very interesting undertaking for us.

First, this client had (has) a significant existing customer base who, for better or worse, was accustomed to the prior brand and process, both lacking greatly in professional style and engagement.

[To get a better idea of this, take a look at the before and after websites.]

One of the challenges in this project was to find a way to effectively embrace these legacy customers, while still engaging new and old customers in a professional and compelling fashion. One of the strategies for achieving this was to slowly and gradually phase out Candy Direct's prior cartoon personality in a fun and simply way. This will help tie the new brand to the old one and help to avoid brand confusion and encourage continued loyalty.

You can see from the before and after examples above, the Candy Direct brand development project has many facets beyond the brand mark and other visual components, including strategies for engagement , account management, usability, promotion, clubs, programs, and more. We hope that many of our readers will enjoy this site and their offerings!

Another interesting brand development undertaking was for Austin-based Zhi Tea. In addition to the brand mark and other visuals, Papugai also named this company and developed it's domain strategy. The packaging elements were fun and the client (a couple of very talented artists as wel) had many great ideas around packaging as well, including an eye-popping gift set with see-through lids and an elegant gift box with chrome latch.

The slogan the we developed for Zhi Tea, "It's The Journey" was derived from the brand story we also created. In summary, this story begins with a Chinese tea master who comes to America to seek his fortune, but before starting his tea company, he decides to take a long journey back to China and other tea-rich destinations throughout the world to gather unique and exciting recipes, techniques and processes from other tea masters, farmers and the people of those cultures. On the way to each of his destinations, he frequently met extraordinary people and tea artisans, in passing, who shared a wealth of information with him, but he was always cutting short these unplanned visits and he quickly pressed forward to reach his next planned destination. When he finally returned to America, the young tea master realized that it was not his destinations that brought him enlightenment, but the journey itself — and all the unplanned, culture-rich stops along the way. He understood that this was wisdom. "Zhi," in Mandarin Chinese, means "wisdom."

We encourage you to visit Zhi Tea, but be prepared to sit back and stay awhile. There is a lot to see and this is no ordinary offering.

For more information, please call at 425-283-0400 or send an email to info@papugai.com and we will respond to you right away!

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Branding and creative roots still shine bright at Papugai.