B&Q
Renovation and extension
B&Q
Renovation and extension
If there’s one place we’ve all spent more time in over the last couple of years, it’s our homes. For many, they’ve been a haven through uncertainty and where we spent most of our time – with family, entertaining, relaxing and working all under one roof.
But homes can also be a source of frustration. Cluttered, knackered, unsuitable for home working. Or just the wrong colour. Faced with our four walls 24/7, a lot of us decided that we were ready for a little home improvement. It was at this time that we started working with B&Q again.
They’re one of the UK’s most iconic, enduring and successful brands. A permanent fixture of every proud homeowner’s bank holiday weekend. But like our homes, their brand was feeling a little unloved and unfit for purpose. It was time for a refresh.
When you think about it – your home has a huge impact on your happiness. It’s where you begin and end every day. Where you share time with people most important to you and the one place you can be your true self. In short, it’s where the best of life happens.
So it’s safe to say, that by improving your home, you can improve almost every aspect of your life. The new direction of the brand was built out of this belief. Because B&Q is about so much more than just fixing a problem – and by tapping into this idea, we were able to create a more emotive connection between the brand, its customers, colleagues and the wider world.
One of the first things that springs to mind with B&Q is their colour. When you visit a store or even pass one, it’s unmissable – that brilliant hit of orange. But the rest of the brand was failing to take advantage of their most distinctive asset. So we introduced an ‘orange world’ for B&Q, using floods of the colour across digital and printed comms to stand out and immediately connect people to the brand in any channel. We evolved the rest of their colour palette to back this up and create an overwhelmingly more vibrant and positive feel for the brand.
By extending their range of imagery we’ve given the brand more flexibility and the creative tools to tell richer stories about home improvement. It goes beyond helping to complete a task or simply aiding customer choice with functional, informative imagery. There is also a clear need for the brand to show people creative possibilities – stretching into more inspirational territory of lifestyle imagery and customer success stories.
A new animation style also helps add creativity, playfulness and warmth to the brand. It gives them a wider range of assets to connect with customers across areas like video and social media – and the ability to act fast and create relevant content as seasons, weather and or trends change.
We’ve pushed the tone of voice into a much more emotive space too, bringing the benefits of home improvement to life in a positive and relatable way. It gives B&Q more capability to show they understand their customers’ world and the problems they face – highlighting how home improvement can create positive change and help people enjoy life to its fullest.
There’s now more room for more humour in the brand, using everyday insights about people’s experience in their homes to connect in a more empathetic way. A bolder, more expressive use of type helps to add impact, personality and flexibility into communications – interacting with imagery and bringing out the tone of voice at its best.
We’ve been working closely with B&Q to help with the roll out of the new brand and running a tone of voice workshop to get them writing more creatively across the company.
The development we’ve created is about giving B&Q the tools to create a much more aspirational and emotive feel for the brand. It moves them away from being seen as functional DIY – a place to fix problems. Instead, it helps them start to communicate a more inspirational message around change – that “you can do it”, anyone can improve their life when they improve their home.
