Client: The Little Botanical
Project: Brand Strategy
Output: The Little Botanical Brand Book
Time frame: 3 months
The Little Botanical are an inspirational houseplant and homewares brand based in West Sussex, and I was lucky enough to work with them for nearly 2 years in 2020. During that time, one of the key projects I worked on was the development of their brand strategy. Read on to discover the steps taken to complete this work.
Step 1 – Discovery
There were two stages of discovery. The first stage was a collaborative workshop with the wider team to understand their thoughts about the brand. I asked questions like:
- What is the brand story?
- Why was the brand created?
- What is your mission or purpose?
- If you wanted people to know one thing about TLB, what would it be?
- What attributes do you want customers and prospects to associate with your brand?
Following this, I ran a smaller session with the co-founders (Greg and Morag) to hear their views on brand, including their aspirations and goals. We discussed the TLB point of difference and what sets them aside from the competition. We also talked about the story behind the brand and where they see themselves in the short, medium and long term.
The output from these sessions were key to creating the brand. Some of the key points of difference were their horticultural heritage, being borne out of a family business that is over 100 years old. They also talked about removing the complexity from plant shopping and providing consumers with a home styling solution that was available at the click of a button. Positioning themselves as an authority in the houseplant space and interior style, was also important.
Step 2 – Create
The creation of the brand bible involved four pillars:
Inspiration – Offering consumers stylish houseplant and homeware options. Giving them ideas, inspiration and creative ways to incorporate greenery into their living space.
Credibility – A voice of authority in the homewares space, providing forward thinking, contemporary horticultural styling solutions.
Accessibility – Giving consumers access to a wide range of pre-styled houseplants (and related homewares) in the quickest and simplest way.
Sustainability – Operating as a sustainably conscious brand, which aspires to achieve horticultural sustainability.
In addition to this, their vision, mission and purpose was defined as follows:
Vision – To be recognised as an authority and thought leader in the UK horticultural homewares market.
Mission – To provide UK consumers with quick, easy access to horticultural home styling solutions; inspiring them to incorporate greenery into their everyday lives. To spread the word about the benefits of indoor greenery and support consumers in their plant journey.
Purpose – Inspiring and enabling stylish, houseplant-led interior design, whilst promoting the benefits of a sustainable lifestyle.
You can read the complete TLB Brand Book here.
Step 3 – Activate
The activation stage included presenting to the Co-Founders and the wider team to ensure the business fully understood the brand strategy including the vision, mission, purpose and values. Adjustments were made to existing customer facing content to reflect the newly defined brand and the brand bible was shared with retailers, agencies and third parties too.
