Açaí Maicá is a new brand of açaí, a traditional food staple in the Amazon region. Over the last decades, it spread through the World. In this highly competitive market, the founders of Açaí Maicá approached me to devise and implement a branding strategy and design their visual system.
Roles in the project
• Branding strategist
• Namer
• UX Designer
• Visual Designer
Project deliverables
• Brand Strategy: brand essence and values, competidor analysis, target audience segmentation, marketing positioning and unique value proposition.
• Namer: brand name, legal protection, registration assistance.
• UX Designer: benchmarking, costumer journey, test planing.
• Visual Designer: custom logotype, design system, packaging system, stationary, social media assets.
Problems
One challenge was the less than desired deadline until the brand launch. The main challenge, though, was to stand out in this crowded market. Açaí is commonly sold at ice cream parlors, where it competes with gelados and popsicles, as well as supermarket chains, where bigger brands dominate.
Solutions
The majority of their competitors convey the same "healthy-foods-for-gym-folks" message. Taking advantage of the ongoing artisanal and independent brands in the Beverage and Food Sector, we decided to go for a different path.
Starting with the name Maicá, which is one of the most important lakes and part of the city of Santarém, where their farms are, we decided to highlight and promote the Amazon region and it’s culture. The logotype combines a custom script inspired by the boats of Pará with a modern fresh monospaced font. The visual language uses colors to code the premium products and overall goes for brighter tones to appear fresher, more welcoming and further set them apart from the overall market sameness.
Lessons learned
When under time constraints, strategy is the biggest asset. It allowed us not to waste any time and to stay true to the projects goals. By talking a lot with the client to lay a solid ground, we’re able to identify what makes Açaí Maicá unique and how we could stand out in the BFS, in a way that is a natural translation of the brand essence and enables future growth.
