Aera Rebranding

This work was completed when I was Creative Director at Prolitec

Product: Aera / Marketing & Product: Sandra Barvaux, Candice Hoback / Digital Marketing: Natasha Kocharov / Photographer: Scott Pitts Armstrong / Stylist: Callie Myers

Website team consisted of Brian Perry, Juan Moncada, Max Airborne & Candice Hoback
App team: Vectorworks

Problem:

As the first Creative Director at Aera that sold a new revolutionary scent diffuser online, with no retail presence, I had some immediate questions and opportunities to define my areas of focus. The first pressing question: Why would anyone buy a scent online, without the opportunity to first smell it? Let alone invest in a wifi-enabled, scent dispersion device? How could I design to inspire our customer that we are their answer to the idea that a scented space is just as important as the food we eat and the clothes we wear? Should I observe how everything is working to know where the design problems lie? 

Background:

In a startup environment, you don’t always have the luxury of time or resources to tackle the large looming issues. So instead you settle for smaller, instant gratification projects that can move the numbers in a positive direction. 

As the new Creative Director, I had a shortage of both time and resources (as you can imagine). So the first weeks on the job, I just rolled up my sleeves and said, “Let’s take the Shopify website template you’ve been using for a year, restructure it and add content that will not only inform our customers but give them a feeling of living this luxury, scented lifestyle.” 

Results:

Within one month, we had an entirely new website.

In 3 months we had re-skinned our product app with a new design. 

Within one year, our customer base grew by 300%. Online purchases increased from 300 to 2,400k a month. The number of app users grew by 200% and the number of social media followers 5 times.

But when you’re in a startup it always feels like one step forward, twenty steps back. In my case, there were many design choices that were made before I arrived that either: A. Needed a simple refresh (because of time and/or money constraints) or B: Required a new vision, based on my new direction for this brand. I learned very quickly where I could make the most impact. Even though I have a solid background in packaging design, I had to let go of the notion that it should be my major focus. And that’s ok. It forced me to move out of my comfort zone and made me grow as a leader to move on to the next challenge. 

Not only do I feel lucky I’ve had this experience, I’m overjoyed that I can truly say I can deliver a branded experience from a click of a button to the mailed product at your doorstep. It takes a million steps in between to tweak that experience just right, but it sure is exciting and rewarding when you see the five star ratings it’s earned.