Emphasis is a sub-brand of famous Hong Kong jewellery company Chow Sang Sang. Emphasis is redefining what daily-wear jewellery means. They embrace self-expression, sophistication and style through jewellery choices that are outside the confines of tradition. Emphasis wanted to expand outside of the Hong Kong jewellery market, something other local jewellery companies from Hong Kong have rarely pursued in the past. The international jewellery market is more lucrative but also more competitive, and so Emphasis needed to ensure their brand was sturdy enough before expanding.
Brand Audit
Before beginning our usual brand strategy process, we suggested doing a brand audit to gain a better understanding of Emphasis's current market position and the direction they wanted to move in. Our brand audit revealed that currently, the brand's visual communication structure was fragmented and without a defined system. The lack of a systemised visual communication structure was causing issues for their internal design teams which are under pressure to create new visual content frequently. As such, the brand was struggling to maintain a cohesive and recognisable visual style across its different market teams.
Brand Strategy
Following the brand audit, we worked through a series of strategy workshops to internally align all the different consumer market teams on the brand values as well as to uncover the new direction of the brand. These workshops helped us understand precisely what direction the brand hoped to move in as well as the main pain points they were experiencing. This strategy workshop process helped us create executable solutions to their current problems.
Our solution was to create a clearer visual communication system to help with brand consistency and recognition. The new visual communication system would need to be both familiar and flexible. We also decided to reorganise the brand's roadmap and structure. The Emphasis brand is divided into three style pillars: Sleek & Modern, Feminine Elegance and Playful & Versatile. Their product collections are subsequently grouped under these style pillars. We consulted Emphasis on how to visually communicate this hierarchy to help customers understand their brand, product offering and categorisation. We decided to bring the three style pillars to the forefront of the brand structure and position the style pillars as digital wayfinding for consumers to help them navigate the Emphasis website more easily.
Each of the style pillars represents different moods and emotions. We wanted to understand the nature of these moods and how people emotionally connect with the jewellery they purchase. We then considered how these emotions could be reflected in the materials, colours and tones of the new visual language. Next, we built an extensive texture and materials library associated with each style pillar. The moods and emotions evoked from these materials helped make each style pillar distinctive and visually categorise the different product collections.
Sleek & Modern conveys a sense of strength, coolness and edginess. We selected materials and textures such as granite, marble, volcanic sand or close-ups of architectural sculptures and used mostly black, white, grey and blue tones of colour. Feminine Elegance reflects softness, warmth and flow. We selected materials such as sandstone, brass, sand and pink salt, and used warm tones of colour such as natural white, tan and pink. Playful & Versatile conveys a sense of vibrancy, liveliness and transformation. We selected materials such as crystal, light refractions, ocean waves and silk and used a range of bright and vibrant colour tones such as green, blue and purple.
We also dove deeper and developed a style guide for their brand photography based on the three style pillars. We developed a visual hierarchy for model selection, posing, styling, lighting and editing. The new brand photography guide brings the brand's focus back to its mission, redefining everyday fine jewellery. The new brand photography showcases the product in a more natural, real-life setting to better connect with its consumers. This gives consumers the chance to emotionally connect with the brand and its products and also provides consumers with practical self-styling suggestions and an easy way to envision how the brand can fit into their everyday style.
The new visual communication structure brings all of these elements together and uses a specific design system to keep all designs consistent regardless of their content. The new design system uses a combination of material texture, close-ups and typography.
Solution
Overall, the final solution we provided for Emphasis was a set of extensive, detailed guidelines that worked together to produce a visual communication system that explicitly conveys the three different style pillars of the brand without the consumer having to read anything. These guidelines also help the brand stay consistent with its core message globally, even as they expand into new consumer markets. The new visual communication structure is flexible, which allows for market-specific localisation across different consumer touchpoints without losing the core brand message.
Since the implementation of the new visual communication system, Emphasis's overall global brand has become more visually consistent. Emphasis has also seen a 27% increase in its Instagram following.
