BASECREATIVE

Brand creation and interior decorations for a fusion eatery

Client

Aloha

Project Type

Brand Management
Marketing Communications
Packaging Design
Branded Environment

Industry

Food & Beverage
Consumer Goods
Retail

Background

Aloha is a unique restaurant that proposes light eating for the busy life. Being one of the first fast food restaurants in Hong Kong that’s inspired by Islanders’ cuisine, the fusion eatery approached Base Creative to create branding and guide its brand into the market.

Challenge

Set in the dynamic Taikoo district in Hong Kong, Aloha is designed to target busy office workers who are comfortable with existing, cheaper restaurant selections and don’t normally have time to look for healthier food alternatives. Our challenge lies in communicating with the minds of these consumers – how to stand out from the sea of fast food restaurants and promote the values of tastier, yet healthier food?

Our task was to create the Aloha brand so that it could be positioned as a healthy fast food alternative and could compete for relevance and share in the stagnant market.

Business Strategy

Undertaking research into the market – interviewing potential customers and looking at the competitors, as well as other similar restaurants, we saw there is a huge gap in the market, in which there is a huge demand for healthy, feel-good fast food but too few options are being offered.

Business Insight

Inspired by this insight, we focused on bringing a unique moment of Hawaiian freshness and playfulness to a busy district. This informed all the consumer touchpoints – from the interior design, uniforms and menus to the packaging.

Aloha’s brand identity needs to reflect its products and propositions and be recognizable enough to stand out in the marketplace and consumers’ minds.

We looked to different visual representations of a fish and cultural totems that are associated with the Islanders' healthy lifestyle for inspiration. Adopting a bold Hawaiian-style script, we created a playful and lively logo that is instantly recognizable for the brand’s products.

Conducting market research and stakeholder interviews, we pulled out keywords that best represent the Brand DNA of Aloha.

The brand is summarized simply in 3 words “Fish You Wish” – which also became the single truth that ties together the brand positioning, slogan, and underlying personality of the brand.

Inspired by “Fish You Wish”, we wanted to create a brand personality that is friendly yet good-humoured at the same time so that customers can experience the brand differently.

We crafted the brand values as fun-loving, sophisticated cool, creative and sociable. Although Aloha is a fast food restaurant, it is presented in an authentic way and is not restricted in conventional settings.

As we wanted to create a moment of freshness, we began to sketch out what the eatery would look like. After all, the interior is the primary emotional touchpoint within which the customer experiences the brand.

We designed the storefront with an impression of children’s graffiti and a touch of Hawaiian playfulness. Fun taglines were also spread across the walls to encourage photo taking.