BEL Rebranding

The branding of a kidswear fashion concept for Stockmann PL aimed at aligning its image with a premium, modern, and joyfully cool experience.

Brand Development / Research / Concept Design / Fashion Collection Design

My Role

Head Designer, Idea & Concept.
Customer Research, Competitive & SWOT Analysis, Concept Design, Visual Design, Fashion Design, Iterative Product Development, Protosampling, Collection Presentations.

Credits to my team:
Eeva Siirama, Anna Lindth, Katja Sääkslahti, Piia Saario, and Jannika Aalto

Stockmann department store is a Finnish retail icon known for its high-quality products and exceptional customer service. Its image is synonymous with elegance, sophistication, and reliability. The store's mission is to provide customers with a curated selection of luxury goods and everyday essentials, all under one roof. Their values emphasize excellence, integrity, and innovation in everything they do. Customers perceive Stockmann as a trusted destination for premium shopping experiences, offering a wide range of products catering to diverse needs and preferences.

I successfully led the design and development of a new kidswear brand for Stockmann’s private labels. Project covered everything from brand strategy to brand name, logos, labels and visual direction, as well as the design and structure of the fashion collections.

The Challenge

In the vast landscape of fashion, evolution is inevitable, and for Stockmann's tween girls' kidswear brand, change was not only necessary but imperative. Established in 1994, the brand had weathered the tides of time, yet its image, name, logo, and design had become relics of the past, failing to resonate with the increasingly style-conscious tween demographic. The challenge was clear: to rejuvenate the brand, making it appealing, trendy, and cool for young girls while retaining the timeless sophistication that Stockmann's clientele valued.

The competition, both within Stockmann's brand offerings and the broader market, had intensified. The outdated brand image hindered sales and dampened enthusiasm among store personnel. Recognizing the need for a fresh perspective, I embarked on a journey to breathe new life into the brand, aligning it with the evolving tastes of tween girls and their discerning parents.

As I embarked on this journey of transformation, I remained mindful of Stockmann's commitment to delivering quality and style to its customers. Through meticulous planning, creative innovation, and collaborative effort, I aimed to redefine the tween girls' kidswear landscape, revitalizing the brand and securing a place in the hearts and wardrobes of young fashionistas and their families.

The Discovery

In both concept and UX design, the process shares numerous similarities. It starts with comprehensive research, including deep dive into competitive and SWOT analysis, empathizing and defining the root problem, refine the target customers, brainstorming ideas and creating mood boards to visualize the concept. Subsequently, business objectives are established, and insights and feedback from past projects are reviewed.

Strategy & Business Goals

Tasked with ambitious business goals by our company leadership, our mission was clear: to redefine the brand's identity and capture the hearts of the next generation of fashion-forward tweens. Embarking on the journey to re-launch our tween girls' kidswear brand was not just about refreshing a label; it was about embracing a vision of renewed vitality and resonance with our youthful demographic.

As the creative steward of this transformative journey, I orchestrated the visual components of our strategies, steering the creative direction of our brand towards a brighter, more resonant future. From conceptualization to execution, every step was meticulously crafted to breathe new life into our tween girls' kidswear brand, ensuring its enduring appeal in the dynamic landscape of youth fashion.

Crafting a strategic roadmap for this revitalization endeavor required careful consideration and meticulous planning:

Market Research: I delved deep into market research, endeavoring to unravel the intricate tapestry of preferences, lifestyles, and purchasing behaviors that define the target audience—the younger demographic. Armed with invaluable insights, I set the stage for our rebranding efforts.

Defining Brand Identity: Central to the strategy was the reimagining of the brand's identity to resonate with younger consumers. This comprehensive overhaul included revamping the brand name, logo, color palette, typography, and overall visual elements, infusing the brand with a contemporary and fashionable allure.

Product Evolution: With a finger on the pulse of current trends and the pulse of our youthful audience, I embarked on a journey of product transformation. My aim was clear: to introduce fresh designs, styles, and silhouettes that resonate with the discerning fashion sensibilities of tweens, while upholding the timeless hallmarks of quality and craftsmanship.

Visual Merchandising: Prioritizing impactful visual merchandising strategies within physical stores to create engaging and immersive shopping experiences, drawing customers in and encouraging exploration of the brand's offerings.

Traditional Marketing Channels: Emphasizing traditional marketing channels such as print advertisements, television commercials, and in-store promotions to raise brand awareness and attract customers to physical retail locations.

Iterative Excellence: In our relentless pursuit of perfection, with the team we embraced a culture of feedback and adaptation. Through avenues such as surveys, and in-store meetings, we gleaned invaluable insights from our target audience, which served as compass points guiding our course correction and refinement.

The Discovery - User Personas

Central to the rebranding efforts was the goal of crafting a collection that would captivate both tween girls and their parents, striking the delicate balance between youthful allure and timeless elegance. Understanding that parents often foot the bill while tweens wield significant influence in clothing choices, we aimed to create an offering that satisfied both parties.

In order to better understand the customer base, I conducted extensive research specifically targeting our desired demographic. Using a segmentation method similar to creating personas, I developed detailed profiles of our audience, prioritizing their preferences and needs in my design process. These defined personas provided our international team and stakeholders with a deeper understanding of our customers' desires and motivations, allowing us to refine our strategic targeting efforts effectively.

Setting the Stage: Crafting a Brand Identity

Before delving into the realm of design, however, there was a crucial preliminary step: the creation of a brand name and logo. We embarked on the quest to birth a name that epitomized the essence of the brand, ensuring it was available and unencumbered by competition. Only once this foundational task was complete could we proceed with designing the garments for the fashion collection, armed with a fresh identity and renewed purpose.

Visual Design

I created visual design concept around BEL, reflecting the brands new modern, sophisticated, yeat trendy and joyful imago. I created Style Guides and overall Visual Brand Identity for BEL to keep things consistent and achieve the desired aesthetic of the brand across the board.

I also created the labeling instructions by providing Label Guidelines that helped bring clarity and consistency with working with label instructions for vendors and team.

Iterative Prototyping Process

After the initial design brainstorming sessions with the team, I moved forward to trend analysis and market research, sketching and continuous prototyping. Each product undergoes testing and refinement during every stage until it reaches the minimum viable product phase (MVP), prepared for production.

 Throughout each phase, designs are validated with stakeholders to confirm alignment and progress. This iterative process extends to testing and collecting feedback from launched collections and products, with ongoing development cycles.
 As the head designer, I concurrently oversaw three distinct development cycles: one in the ideation phase, another in development, and one already launched.

Research: Trend Analysis

Iterative collection design process starts with in-depth trend analysis, market research and competitive analysis about rising trends. Research phase includes inspiration trips to London, Paris, and New York.

Finally, I gathered all the insights together to form a solid concept for the whole season, and crafted mood boards for all 7 collection drops. Each drop presents a mini-collection with it’s own theme, color cards and trend focus.

Ideate; sketching process

Following initial brainstorming sessions and validation of trend themes by the Head of Design, the process transitions to the sketching and iterative prototyping phase. Similar to the methodology in UX design, the process commences with rapid hand-drawn sketches, followed by the selection of key looks for each collection, and ultimately culminating in the creation of detailed instruction sheets for each style.

Collaborative teamwork plays a pivotal role, particularly in the early stages, as the designer passes on the initial sketches to the pattern maker (garment technician), who then transforms design concepts and CAD drawings into tangible 3D garments. This collaborative approach mirrors the developer handover process in UX design.

Testing

Throughout the development cycle, prototypes underwent rigorous testing multiple times. Due to company confidentiality policies, testing primarily occurred with fitting dolls. Key areas of testing included:

Usability: Ensuring the fit matched the intended design.
Functionality: Assessing if all elements served their purpose effectively.
3D silhouette: Verifying that the garment moved and shaped as intended.
Overall coherence: Determining if items could be mixed and matched to create cohesive looks.
Inspirational appeal: Evaluating if the product aligned with current trends and evoked delight.
The initial prototype focused on addressing critical usability errors. Subsequent iterations addressed issues from previous rounds and tested for less severe issues. Through iterative refinement based on testing feedback, we arrived at the final design.

Development Handoff & The Final Product

I compiled the assets and prepared the deliverables for development, ensuring that the files remained organized throughout the process. This way, any team member collaborating with me could easily access the files and pick up where I left off.

I adhered to the timelines and completed the branding in time for the fall 2014 launch date. The process of establishing the brand and crafting the collection spanned a little over a year, which is typically the duration for developing a collection without the additional brand development aspect.

Results

The branding phase was a pivotal moment in the journey, marked by significant growth and positive feedback. With the fall-winter 2014 collection, we experienced a remarkable turnaround, culminating in a re-launch that saw a remarkable 37% increase in sales within the first two months. This success was not incidental but the result of meticulous research, analysis, and iterations, where we adeptly balanced the allure of the old with the freshness of the new.

The new brand identity received widespread praise, particularly for its name, colors, key looks, and clear vision, which resonated with our audience and fostered a sense of connection. The introduction of comprehensive style guides brought coherence to our brand marketing efforts, offering customers a clearer understanding of the brand ethos and forging stronger bonds with our audience.

In my role, I spearheaded the creation of a robust portfolio of key items, strategically curated to meet market demand and customer preferences. These items flew off the shelves within days, underscoring the success of the rebranding efforts. Additionally, I introduced new strategic wardrobe classics that not only boosted sales but also laid the foundation for sustained growth across seasons.

Testimonials from My Team

Discover what my team members have said about the journey in branding a tween girls' wear brand for Stockmann Private Labels. Hear firsthand testimonials from my dedicated team members who contributed to crafting a fresh, modern, and joyfully cool experience for Stockmann's kidswear fashion concept.

"It’s rare that you come across standout talent like Elina. I was particularly impressed by Elina’s ability to create and launch a new brand BEL for pre-teen girls, and succeed with tangible results and great branding, commercializing just the right trends for that target group. I still miss her charming persona to work with. Any employee would be lucky to have Elina as a designer!"

/Anna Benami, Senior Fashion Designer, Stockmann
"I have co-worked with Elina for several years and can sincerely recommend her. She has very wide knowledge in fashion; Excellent forecasting skills, and "Nose" for spotting just the right things for coming seasons. As a co-worker Elina is very dependable, detail-oriented, knows how to prioritize, flexible, thorough and easy to work with. To summarize, she is ambitious professional with wide range of skills."

/Eeva Siirama, Brand Manager,Stockmann
"Elina is one of the most talented designer I’ve worked together. Brands sold extremely well and over target every month during the whole time. Elina is strong brand developer with successful ideas. She analysis customers and trends well. Elina is very hard and ambitious worker. She’s innovative, trend oriented and interested and active in social media. I sincerely recommend her!

/Anna Lindh, Garment Technician, Stockmann