WHAT’S IN A NAME?
When crowdsourcing the name of your brand – something central to the success of your business – it’s easy to get off on the wrong foot. Such was the case with a startup that approached us about building their vegan chocolate spread brand.
Their crowdsourced brand name – SOW YUM! – was immediately a concern. A combination of “sow”, which suggested sowing seeds, and “yum!”, on the surface seemed like a clever play on words, equivalent to “so yummy!”. But “sow” also describes an adult female swine…not exactly fitting for a vegan brand! We recommended exploring other options.
After a vigorous process, we landed on the name, Good Galaxy.
THE BIRTH OF A HERO
With a food science background, the owner of the brand had a unique perspective on how foods are made. As a parent to young children, he also knew that these foods, which are often high in sugar and low in nutrition, could (and should) be much better quality. So, he set out to create a more healthful alternative to his kids’ favorite spread, Nutella.
The line of vegan chocolate spreads that he created, which consisted of hazelnut, chocolate, and peanut varieties, was a powerhouse of flavor and nutrition, with 7g of plant protein, 7g prebiotic fiber, and only 7g of sugar per serving; a game changer for the spreads space.
The brand needed to appeal to kids (and parents buying for kids). Fortunately, the name, Good Galaxy, lended itself to some creative options. We decided on a comic book/superhero theme, and created our hero, GG Girl!
Far away, in a distant galaxy, lives a group of gentle, wise, and incredibly fit beings – master food makers – collectively known as the GOOD GALAXY council. Having discovered the secret to nutritious and sustainable plant-based foods, the council sought delegates from every corner of the galaxy to spread the word to their planet’s inhabitants. A young human girl from the small town of Greenville was chosen to represent the Good Galaxy council on Earth. They call her…GG Girl. Special foods like these chocolate spreads are the source of her powers, and by sharing them, everyone can be super!
THE ART OF VISUAL STORYTELLING
Like with any brand, having a differentiating narrative that entertains, informs, and connects emotionally with the target audience is critical. For a young, energetic audience, the comic book superhero approach was a natural fit, but we also had to connect with parents, often moms, who would actually be purchasing the product. This led us to select a female as our first hero (we have plans to add a diverse range of heroes to represent future product lines in the “Good Galaxy universe”). With the rise in popularity of female heroes, both super and real-life, from Wonder Woman and Ms. Marvel to RBG and Tarana Burke, we felt that a strong woman who everyone could get behind was just what the brand needed.
The key was to tie the story to the product in a fun and engaging way, so we developed a brand story for Good Galaxy, and a full, comic book-style backstory for GG Girl. Check out the full origin story.
DYNAMIC PACKAGING
Now that we had a story, a logo with a superhero emblem, and a hero to build around, the next step was to bring the overall brand style to life. We used the labels for the packaging as our canvas, developing a distinct comic book style, complete with dot pattern gradient, comic book style fonts, and stylized speech bubbles to bring attention to important nutritional claims. We also added ingredient illustrations to highlight the different flavors of these wonderful chocolate spreads
To add to the dynamic feel at the shelf, we also used printing techniques to create a spot metallic green effect to enhance key parts of the design – GG Girl’s mask, gloves, emblem, and the VEGAN CHOCOLATE SPREAD banner. Each flavor was given a color, which gave them a clear identity within the the line.
MERGING WORLDS
A big decision was how to approach imagery. While the comic book fantasy world we created was fun, we wanted to make sure not to lose connection to reality. This was a great functional product with real-world benefits, and that still had to come through. We worked with Chris Malacarne Photography to develop a completely new, distinct image style that balanced real-life, high-end, sometimes wacky, photography with dynamic, graphical comic book-style elements and illustrations.
BRINGING THE STORY TO LIFE ON THE WEB
A brand’s website is where all of the elements of the brand and story come together; branding, content, imagery, colors, and style. We included typical pages such as a dynamic home page, informative FAQ page, and a easy-to-use contact page, but we also created an “origin story” page where we told the comic book-style backstory of GG Girl, a “shop now” page with links to the company’s products on Amazon, and a Fun & Fitness blog-style page with fitness ideas, coloring pages for kids, recipes featuring the product, and other useful information.
RESULTS
Good Galaxy is a fantastic startup brand that’s now optimized for success. We developed a unique and dynamic brand and provided all of the tools to get to market. The brand is also poised for future growth with an intentional path to other product lines, comic book heroes, and even actual comic books! We’ll provide updates on more tangible results as the brand gets established.
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