Mcaffeine
Imagine if someone made an energy drink for your skin and hair. That was the pitch from MCaffeine, India’s first caffeine infused personal care brand - And they had us interested from the get go. Not only were they the most charged team we have ever come across, here was a group extremely nice human beings on a mission - Create a challenger brand in a market crowded with large multinationals and deep pockets. The brief was clear,
create an empowering lifestyle brand for Indian youth that would act as a clarion call for challenging the norms of conventional beauty and the importance of fairness as a virtue in the category. But it’s not all activism and no play, what we set out to create was a brand that would be an instant image enhancer and confidence booster among upwardly mobile Indian youth.
At a basic level our job was to design the brand visual language,
variant design packaging and social presence.
From a cultural point of view our task was to make a dent
in the psyche of the active Indian youth.
Brand Strategy
Our engagement began with the usual lengthy brand archetype and brand positioning discussions, followed by weeks of diplomatic disagreements on how we should approach the challenge of pitching it just right. Brainstorms, workshops, and three planning briefs later we arrived at the core design idea of ‘powered by caffeine’ to match the brand hashtag #iamcaffeine. The challenge was to now make the two ideas meet in a seamless manner.
After nearly two months of sketches, initials thoughts and full package designs and aided by the consumer insight of the active party animal lifestyle, we decided to make the howling wolf our hero icon. But we were still stumbling at a very basic level, we couldn’t get people to not call it Mac Caffeine. This was actually a gift in disguise, because that’s what led us to create a type logo that tied with the ‘powered by caffeine’ idea.
Brand Identity
We created a type logo execution that was inspired by the mathematical system of reading exponentials. For example, 28 is read as 2 to the power of 8.
Likewise, when I use this shampoo, ’M to the power of Caffeine.
We used back of pack copy, a relatively ignored space
to give consumers that boost of much-needed confidence.
Social media picked up on it and showered us with plenty of love.
MCaffeine is still India’s most active caffeine infused
personal care brand. Within 6 months of launch, the brand
picked up USD 300,000 in funding.
office
4th Floor, Shram Dham, 19 Road, Khar West, Mumbai 400052
B11, 67 B Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019