Taking organics into the bedroom
Client: Tuliqi Organic Homewares
By any measure, Mary Quin is a remarkable woman. She now heads Callaghan Innovation, and in the past has headed multi-million dollar divisions of both Xerox and Kodak. A few years ago, while based in Anchorage, Alaska, she approached us to create a brand for a retail chain of natural and organic products for body and home.
Our task was to create a brand from the name ‘Tuliqi’ that Mary had developed, including the brand story, brand proposition, logo and full visual language to bring the name to life.
The Brief
Mary came with a name in mind: Tuliqi (pronounced ‘tooly-key’). She created the name from the Polynesian word ‘tuli’ and the Inupiaq eskimo word ‘tuliq’, which refer in both cultures to several species of migratory birds which, like Mary, travel thousands of miles every year from the New Zealand to the Alaskan tundra.
The Tuliqi retail experience would touch that longing to rekindle the natural ties, to re-connect with linens for bed and bath, personal care products and sleepwear, all emphasising natural and organic content.
Our task was to create a brand from the name, including the brand story, brand proposition, logo and full visual language to bring the name to life.
The Solution
Our analysis of the market environment found that there was a real opportunity in presenting a respite from the relentless stress of drowning in civilisation. Our first step was distilling the brand essence to:
Tuliqi. Selected by nature. Found by us. Chosen by you.
We then developed a series of storytelling themes:
- Touched by nature
- Natural selection
- Clever nature
- Natural cycles
- Harnessing nature
And established a clear hierarchy of theme importance which translated through to visual execution.
Next step was to define the visual drivers for Tuliqi’s personality, physical attributes, culture, relationships and customer empathy, followed closely by the tone of voice, which expressed itself in a series of phrases:
- Only nature could express a billion years in the simplest of shapes.
- To find our place, we must first know our place
- Natural order makes its demands quietly, relentlessly and with time and consequence on its side.
Finally, we tackled the visual implementation of the brand DNA we had uncovered.
