African hair brand
Business Design
Brand Strategy
User archetypes and Market segments
Portfolio Design and Architecture
Innovation Roadmap
Brand/ Client: Darling, Africa
Designed for: Godrej Consumer Products Pvt Ltd.
How can we help a commodity brand, operating in Africa's unorganized retail sector, develop more user-centric product innovations and brand communication strategies that resonate with diverse consumer needs, build brand loyalty, and drive long-term growth?
Objective
Godrej Consumer Products is one of the largest global players in the business of hair care and extension for people of African descent. With 'Darling' being one of its biggest brand of hair extension, the ask from the business were-
01 Reposition the brand from a commodity brand competing in the market solely at price-point to an aspirational brand that is the category leader and is known for its product offerings and innovation
02 Identify customer segments and cater to them through relevant offerings, increase penetration of entry-level products and enable successful adoption of innovative and niche product lines
03 Identify opportunities for innovation across product and packaging, retail ecosystem, services
04 Develop a comprehensive brand strategy that is a north-star for all innovations in the category, brand’s product portfolio, communication strategy, and brand design
Approach
Through in-depth user and market research undertaken in 6 countries, we established user needs, category dynamics, and unique competitive landscape for each. These were then mapped against the company's core capabilities and offerings to identify gaps and opportunities for the brand in terms of its product offerings and value proposition to each user archetype, communication, and service strategy.
A new user centric product portfolio and blueprint for all future innovations was created through a series of co-ideation and co-creation workshops with global stakeholders. The brand persona, identity and packaging was reimagined and launched with this new strategy in place.
My role
As a part of GCPL's global design team, my role in the project involved:
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Led and collaborated with local teams for consumer and market research
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Mapped user journeys, ecosystems and task flows
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Research analysis for identifying insights, gaps, opportunity areas
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Created frameworks for new brand strategy, portfolio architecture and innovation roadmap
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Conducted ideation and innovation workshops with global teams and get stakeholder alignment
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Created of design briefs and collaborated with brand designer and marketing teams for brand identity, packaging and communication strategy
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Led efforts on product innovation tracks
Key insights
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The current logo was well recognized by customers and had strong brand equity in the market. Additionally, a high influx of counterfeits made it critical to retain and reinforce the trust customers had in the brand by redesigning the identity to be evolutionary and not revolutionary.
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A low level of literacy amongst customers and a highly cluttered market with low visibility of products in the store made it critical that the packaging and communication were designed for visual literacy and easily understandable.
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With most customers being highly engaged on digital platforms including social media for inspiration, sharing, learning and shopping, the brand needs to become digital first. This included the new identity, typography, imagery and communication to be designed in a contemporary and digital-friendly fashion for a globalized audience.
25+ million products sold per year
25+ million products sold per year
6
countries for primary research
5
countries for primary research
114% sales growth post rebranding exercise
300+ Skus in each of the country
Outcome
The brand was repositioned from a ‘Commodity brand’ to a ‘Fashion brand’ and launched pan Africa phase wise from 2019. With 300+ SKUs being rebranded across 5 countries, Darling saw a 114% sales growth post 3 months of launch. The digital-first approach to marketing strategy and campaigns were based on the brand framework created during the project.
Darling's official website: https://www.darlingafrica.com/
Launch pictures of Darling Nigeria
copyright @ Godrej Consumer Products ltd.
*Communication video is made by Godrej marketing team
copyright @ Godrej Consumer Products ltd.
The Team:
Shrestha Kedia: Research and Strategy lead
Diya Sarker: Brand design lead
Darshan Gandhi: GCPL Design Lab head