Apollo CBD+ Dog Treats
UI/UX, Branding, Marketing
Overview: Apollo CBD+ is an exercise to establish a cohesive brand identity accompanied by a strategic social media marketing campaign and a landing page all backed by user research and aligned with our Key Value Proposition.
Timeframe: 10 weeks
Client: School Project
Collaborators: Greta Rose Heller
Roles: research, visual design, branding, packaging design, illustration, web design, social media marketing, A/B Testing
Tools: Figma, Adobe Suite: Indesign, Photoshop, Procreate, Webflow
Challenge
CBD is a popular alternative remedy that has limited data supporting its benefits for pets. It has nonetheless become a growing market for customers looking for affordable preventative care for their beloved family dogs.
We sought to develop a product and brand that effectively resonates with both an existing customer base that values and trusts the advantages of CBD for their dog, as well as a potential customer base that may have limited familiarity or initial reservations about its use.
Solution
The primary objective of this project is to establish a cohesive brand identity for Apollo CBD+ dog treats, accompanied by a strategic social media marketing campaign and a captivating landing page that aligns seamlessly with our Key Value Proposition.
At the heart of our brand lies a commitment to transparency in our scientific approach, coupled with an aesthetically pleasing design that captivates the senses and evokes an emotional connection with our target audience.
Research
The target audience for this product is Millennial and Gen-X pet parents who want a product that aligns with their values, has ingredient and brand transparency, and is aesthetically appealing.
Demographics
We are gearing the Apollo CBD+ line primarily toward millennials (ages 25-44) who already rank highly among current CBD users and also represent a sizable percentage of dog lovers. Millennials are now accounting for more than 43% growth as pet owners in the past years.
As a secondary audience, we also hope to convince Gen-X with our scientifically backed product that Apollo CBD+ is an investment in their pet’s health.
This age bracket is motivated to find supplements for their dogs as preventative medicine to avoid more serious and costly problems like hip surgery. Veterinary and pet nutritionists commonly advise dog owners to choose dog dietary supplements to maintain their dog’s overall health.
Our target demographic ranges from humble Google researchers to those who seek out scientifically peer-reviewed publications. They also actively seek out local pet stores that exhibit perceived shared values. It is important for our brand to establish strong connections with local pet stores across the nation to tap into this market.
Competitor Analysis
We compared landing pages of multiple companies that consist of both direct and indirect competitors to find patterns and commonalities in how they displayed their information.
By applying Jakob’s Law of UX, we gained valuable insight as to what our customer base is already familiar with and expects while shopping for and researching their dog’s food and supplements.
Scientifically Backed Ingredients
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company conducted a study and discovered that 84% of pet owners are worried about the ingredients in their pets' food. Before purchasing pet food, more than four out of five pet owners are likely to read the ingredient list.
It was of utmost importance to us that all the decisions we made were firmly grounded in scientific research and substantiated by known supplement efficacy. By ensuring the scientific validity of our brand, we aimed to enhance its credibility and instill trust among our target audience.
Glucosamine is an agent used to alleviate pain and joint damage caused by hip dysplasia, or injury, and choline is a necessary component of the phospholipid cell membrane. It supports and maintains canine brain, nervous, and liver functions.
Pumpkin is a high source of unsaturated fatty acids and contains iron, magnesium, salenium, calcium, vitamins A, B, C, E and zinc. These vitamins and minerals aid in canine digestive and urinary function as well as skin health and healing and as an antioxident.
Probiotics are prescribed for maintaining a desirable intestinal microbial balance. They help break down food, absorb nutrients and vitamins, fight off potential pathogens, and strengthen immunity
Brand Identity
During this project, I had the pleasure of collaborating with Greta Heller, a highly talented and enjoyable team member. Our initial focus was conducting extensive research and competitor analysis to ensure the development of a unique Key Value Proposition (KVP) for our CBD dog treat brand that embodied thoughtfulness and trustworthiness.
We meticulously incorporated this research into our decision-making process for brand colors, typography, tone of voice, and other visual strategies. Together, we successfully crafted a metastory and stylescape that effectively conveyed the desired overall look and feel of our brand.
KVP and Metastory
Apollo CBD+ provides scientifically backed and personalized treats that improve the quality and longevity of your dog’s life.
Apollo CBD+ is the only line of dog treats that not only uses CBD but also probiotics for gut health, choline and glucosamine for your pet’s aging joints/brains, and pumpkin for digestive and urinary health. All of our products are human-grade, Non-GMO and organic. You can rest assured that Apollo CBD+ is your partner in keeping your pet healthy, vital and happy for years to come.
Our chosen typefaces communicate trust by using harmonious proportions, steady shapes, and stable balance.
The brand colors represent the various flavors within our catered treat line as well as reflect the high energy of our Apollo mascot.
The imagery represents the adventure dog, active lifestyle persona, whole natural foods, and scientifically supported images of CBD and hemp.
Packaging
For our packaging design, Greta art directed the visual concept which I executed in an illustrative piece featuring Apollo, our adventure dog and brand mascot, in order to greatly enhance the storytelling aspect of the brand.
Greta developed a set of icons that further reinforced our brand's trustworthiness through science-backed information. We featured these icons directly on the front of our design in order to further communicate that we are a brand that values transparency. Each one of our brand colors codes the bag based on the ingredients of the treats and what health benefits it contains.
Our tested users were drawn to the illustrated design over photography claiming the hand-touched feel made the brand seem more personable, trustworthy, and honest.
Marketing
In order to properly market our product, we conducted a deep dive study into our user demographic and where they tend to shop both online and in person.
We found that many of users heavily supplement their news intake and product research on social media. They want to know the feel and personality of a brand and how it aligns with their own values.
The largest social media crossover for both our primary and secondary audiences was Instagram which became the focus of these campaigns.
Our users also are just as likely to purchase their pet’s food directly in a local store as they are online.
Print Advertisement
We developed a series of in-store poster ads that reflect the benefits of our brand using engaging and emotionally appealing imagery and elements of our metastory of brand transparency. These layouts are easily adaptable as web banner ads.
Social Media Marketing
We devised a comprehensive social media strategy aimed at enhancing our demographic's trust.
Our first campaign involved partnering with the National Parks to promote dog-friendly national parks and committing a portion of our proceeds to support their initiatives.
We made this choice recognizing that our users are more likely to invest in products aligned with their values.
Furthermore, we devised a user-generated content hashtag campaign that organically amplified our brand's reach through user participation at minimal to no cost to the company.
Lastly, we developed an emotionally impactful reel that effectively resonated with our key demographic and leveraged the Instagram algorithm to maximize audience reach outside of the brand’s immediate followers.
Landing Page
We set out to create a landing page that made shopping for our product convenient and the information around it transparent. This was achieved through research informed brainstorming, multiple fidelity wireframing, successful application of our branding and metastory, and through user A/B testing.
Web Components and Accessibility
Wireframing
Greta and I developed a series of wireframing in our landing page discovery starting first with a paper prototype planning out the overall sections of the site and moving through higher fidelities until we came up with two test worthy solutions that solved for specific areas of our user’s needs.
In this early stage, we used Post-it notes to determine site groupings, hierarchy, and our basic content strategy. This allowed us to get our ideas out quickly and focus on what was most important to communicate in our landing page.
We used red annotations to annotate our low-fidelity wireframe to further clarify our strategy to key stakeholders. It also was a way for us to emphasize that the decisions we made were in alignment with Apollo CBD+’s core brand values and based on competitor analysis.
We applied the creative direction established by our stylescape to our wireframe creating components and icons while building a design system along the way. This solution solved for our science and research focused users by including all our product facts readily available on the page.
This second high-fidelity version used the same methods as the previous one but focused more heavily on the aesthetics of the branding and packaging. Although the science and research are included, they are no longer the star.
A/B Testing
To determine the optimal direction for our website, we conducted A/B testing by creating separate landing pages in Webflow. Greta's landing page emphasized factual information and employed a science-driven approach in its copy, imagery, and layout, catering to the information-focused consumer.
In contrast, my layout placed a greater emphasis on the product's aesthetic appeal and further deepened the connection to the adventure dog metastory.
Following a focus group consisting of approximately 18 users, we discovered that the aesthetically focused design successfully appealed to the emotional nature of our target demographic, surpassing the information-focused approach.
Armed with this valuable insight, we further developed our primary focus on captivating product imagery, with scientific content playing a supportive role.
Landing Page Walkthrough
Takeaways
This project exemplifies effective communication and collaboration within a group setting. Throughout the process, we actively listened to one another, respectfully evaluated and endorsed each other's ideas, and ultimately arrived at a collective solution. This approach enabled us to create a comprehensive and well-considered outcome.
In addition to showcasing our strong teamwork, Apollo CBD+ provided us with the chance to conduct thorough research and develop a distinctive key value proposition and brand identity. Furthermore, we meticulously crafted a stylescape and meta-story featuring the adventure dog, enhancing the brand's tone of voice and visual cohesiveness.