In the highly competitive world of online commerce, a strong brand is essential if an internet retailer is to stand out from the crowd. With this in mind, specialist online retailer Little Trekkers believed that after three years in business it needed to re-brand.
‘The starting point was our move to new premises in January 2005,’ explains Stephanie Butterworth, managing director of Little Trekkers, which she launched with partner Matthew Jones in 2002 and now has a staff of eight. ‘We had launched the business from home three years earlier and our relocation to new warehouse and showroom premises provided a useful point at which to consider how to move the business forward.’
The company – which is based near Sheffield and specialises in children’s outdoor and active lifestyle clothing - had two aims: to re-brand Little Trekkers, and to develop its own children’s clothing range.
'When we looked at our existing marketing materials the Little Trekkers logo was used inconsistently. Then, having decided to re-brand I did a lot of research on brand identity and came to the conclusion neither our logo or marketing materials were consistent with the fun, friendly, funky image we wanted,' Butterworth says.
Developing its own range under a new brand would allow the business to improve margins and sell through third party retail outlets without creating confusion around the core Little Trekkers brand.
'By developing our own clothing we knew we could improve margins,' she adds. 'But to do this without causing any problems with the owners of the brands we already sold, we wanted to develop this product range under a separate, stand alone brand.' It was a route that would also allow Little Trekkers to sell its own product ranges via third party retail outlets.
Butterworth was eager to make use of the design and financial support the Designing Demand programme offered.
'Up until that point we’d got by. We’d invested little in design – our original logo cost us £60 - although we did have some in-house expertise which meant we could do some interesting creative things with it ourselves.'
The Designing Demand programme partnered Little Trekkers with Design Associate Lesley Page, an design manager herself, who was appointed to help Little Tekkers decide what sort of design it needed. She worked closely with Butterworth and her team to help Little Trekkers analyse its position in the marketplace, understand the potential role design could play in achieving its goals, and clarify the scope of the project.
'The starting point was Little Trekkers’ belief it needed a fresh identity,' Page explains. 'From our initial meeting, however, it was clear that the route to achieving that would not come from simply investing in a new corporate identity.'
Little Trekkers had already been involved in preliminary discussions with a product designer and drawn up plans for a range of UV-protective swimwear. Page, however, says she was not convinced about either the designs or the prospective product range. So she approached clothing designers Glacier Blue for their advice and a second opinion. A subsequent meeting between Butterworth and Glacier Blue director Sarah Renton led to the design company being appointed to develop what was to become Spotty Otter’s first launch product range.
'To begin with it was a bit muddled, and I wasn’t convinced there was a gap in the market for more UV swimwear,' Renton recalls. 'But through detailed discussion their thinking evolved, and given the time frame they wanted to work to it was agreed that I would develop a launch range of autumn/winter outdoor wear with UV sun wear a focus for a summer range to follow.'
What was encouraging was the company’s willingness to invest in the design process, she adds: 'Despite not being very experienced, they didn’t cut corners where often others inexperienced in dealing with designs and managing the design process might.'
One of the first tasks was to develop a brand positioning statement – wording that would encapsulate the Spotty Otter brand’s unique appeal and provide the designers with a clear direction for the desired look and feel of the brand and the products that would encapsulate it. The words ‘funky and functional’ were chosen to encapsulate the brand and identify the gap in the children’s outdoor clothing market it aimed to fill.
With Renton on board, attention then switched to just how to develop a brand identity for the product range. Glacier Blue had previously worked with branding specialists The Engine Room and introduced them to Butterworth.
'Through preliminary work with Lesley we put together a design brief for the re-branding and had already seen a number of design companies, but selection had been a difficult process,' Butterworth says.
The branding project had previously got off to a false start, however. 'The initial company we selected were great at the pitch but when we met the designers we didn’t feel they understood us or our aspirations,” she explains. “A smaller design company like The Engine Room suited our needs far better and it was great that the people who came to pitch where the people who would work on the project.'
