Background

A career guidance business approached us to brand and launch their marketing activity. Career ‘counselling’ is an established activity in schools, and our client, who has served the schools market for years, decided to market to parents directly.

Discovery

After a quick study of the business and the competitive landscape, we set out to mine our client’s views on the business to discover its essence. All counsellors attempt to use psychographic tools to match young adults to careers they would do best at. But our client’s ideology set her apart. It was a belief in a career as the key to a life of fulfilment, and not just a materially successful life. We need to be happy with what we do as much as we need to be economically content or socially validated.

In tandem, we started interviewing parents with kids in the target age group, 13-18. The ‘progressives’ or ‘actualizers’ are receptive to valuing fulfilment, but the ‘fat belly’ of the market leans towards the tangible, lower order goals for their children, such as conventional career advancement, or clarity of purpose. However all groups were inclined to believe that their children have unique, inherent strengths.

Insight

This truth unites the client’s ideology, and both groups of parents. The insight offered was that happiness in what we do doesn’t conflict with career success, but on the contrary, makes it likelier. Conversely the ‘right’ career could come unstuck if it didn’t accord with the person’s idea of worth, engagement and meaning.

Identity

We named it ‘inomi’ (spoken as “I know me”). This name, along with the visual identity, carries the brand’s belief in the uniqueness of individual strengths, and the power of being aware of them. It’s “you at your true best”—“true” modifies the common claim of discovering areas of excellence, pointing inwards to a power that other brands have missed out.

Communications

The brochure continues the visual language, reinforcing the visual assets built by the identity. Compelling keywords show how method and belief unite to underline the idea that happiness is material to success. The website, emailer and a neighbourhood poster follow the same treatment.

www.inomi.in