Etat Pur
Translating pure brand-focus into a silky-smooth online experience
Building brands abroad is always a challenge for companies and organisations but it’s a task made much easier when connections are made with teams that know the local market, the digital terrain and that understand how to help you achieve your goals.
Etat Pur is a brand inspired by independent French skincare industry stalwart, NAOS, favoured worldwide for their focus on ecobiology. Unfortunately, not every perspective and platform translates as smoothly as the effectiveness and intent of their progressive skincare products. As a fresh and refreshing skincare offer to the Australian market, there was a desire to capture the essence of Etat Pur and present it to an online audience in a way that looked and felt instep with local market expectations and anticipated user experiences. In essence, the heart of this project was about brand building and assimilation.
Our involvement
You guys have been a pleasure to work with, as well as ensuring the project is (on track) being delivered, and all this has happened when there has been team changes both ends.”
Naomi Shorman, Marketing
Naomi Shorman, MarketingThe work – creating a smooth and attractive, brand-fit experience
Having understood the complexity of Etat Pur’s challenge it became clear that we needed to create a shorter-term solution to the localised online brand perception issue as well as setting the stage for the long-term vision. Once we had created a platform look and feel that was at once, true to the brand that also resonated with the Australian market, the ecommerce solution would need to be built. Initially though, it was important that we:
- Customising the website and hence the brand user experience
- Assimilating look and feel to integrate the brand with local audience expectations
- Addressing reach and a search issues that would hamper growth
- Prioritising brand over direct purchases until the suitable product recognition would support a sustainable sales trajectory
Being a digital agency with a reputation for designing and bringing to life solutions with global reach that also reach the wants and needs of individual users, we felt confident that Etat Pur, as a brand, would benefit from our work.
In brief – Growing the brand before selling the products
With a global market website that did not engage the Australian market, the NAOS-owned Etat Pur brand ran the risk of stagnating in a disengaged and indifferent online ecosphere unless something changed. As change management is indeed part and parcel of website conceptualisation, design and building, we were able to address stated needs concerning:
- Systematically explore the nexus between the existing brand, the Australian market and any and all opportunities to bring them together through the design and functionality of the digital platform.
- Prioritised establishing the brand. One of the ways employed to help focus efforts on brand was to switch off the shop function/payment portal in favour of a distribution pathway via which sales could be made to those already familiar and comfortable with the products.
- Commenced creating an ecommerce site (woocommerce) to satisfy the longer-term goal of accommodating volume sales through the platform once brand familiarity had been established and allowed to flourish.
As expected, our team, as always, paid due attention to information architecture to ensure that logical pathways led consumers to a clearer understanding of the essence and intent of the broader brand, its origins and intent.
Key outcomes – thoughtfully designed and built for growth in the Australian market
Knowing that a website is more than a platform from which to launch sales, information and actions, we needed to regard EtatPur.com.au as a direct reflection of brand values – something of substance and worth. Like our client, we understood that the opportunity to build and curate a presence in a new market needed to be properly executed, in line with the strategy, first time. As a result, we were able to ensure that the website:
- Properly introduced the Etat Pur brand to the market at its point of need and in a way that was welcomed by its users
- Proved searchable and accessibility in our client’s new target market
- Created a solution that prioritised brand growth but also enabled distribution and sales
The one thing that brings clients’ needs and desires closer to meeting the needs of their market as well as their own objectives, is the ability of their digital agency to listen, understand and convert that information and its meaning into growth-centric solutions. This project shows that while sales growth was not the immediate focus, the deft touch, experience, skill and understanding that brand growth demands is also well within our capabilities.
