Zima

Founded in 2010, Zima is a specialty oil shop focusing on producing pure organic oils and extracts. In 2018, they approached Roo studio with a need to differentiate their brand from their numerous competitors, provide it with a more strategic identity and to grow. Together with Zima, we spent countless hours discussing their business and needs while providing branding consultation and researching along the way.

After gaining insight about their business and their audience, we proceeded to come up with an effective brand strategy and identity. Our strategy was rooted in key insights about the market of natural oils and their audience.

The origins of organic oils and their numerous medical, therapeutic and culinary applications date back to antiquity in Iranian history, and are tightly linked to the use of herbal and traditional medicine. As a result, it is commonplace for most Iranian families to purchase and use these oils.

This unique history has led to an ever-present demand in the market for cold pressed organic oils both for therapeutic as well as culinary uses, naturally leading to an abundance of organic oil shops throughout the country.

We assessed the market for OPPORTUITIES. We concluded that competitors have almost exclusively maintained their traditional set up and have not benefitted from modern day advantages of branding. Although the market of essential oils in Iran is saturated, many brands do little to focus on increasing their brand value. Being hair and skincare products, organic oils ultimately have health benefits, and have medical applications for a person’s most visible assets of beauty such as the hair, skin and face.However, products are mostly handed over to the consumers in plastic bottles with hand written labels.

The BRAND IDENTITY, packaging and ultimately the image neither convey health nor beauty. Although the quality may be good, the packaging does not reflect this. At the same time the consumer who has trusted the producer and bought its product, is not shown the same amount of respect due to the low-grade packaging and unhygienic conditions that surround product handling.

We looked at the audience for insight. Zima’s audience range from young children and teenagers, who use its products to combat acne, to young women using it for healthier hair and skin, to the elderly who turn to its essential oils hoping to find relief from pain. Essential oils and extracts are designed to be applied to the most visible parts of one’s body, the hair and skin, and are consumed for optimal health. These are important components in a person’s outer beauty and inner health. However, there is also an issue of trust and authenticity when it comes to these businesses for the audience.

• How can one trust whether the oil is actually natural?
• How can the audience trust that it is of outmost quality?
• And more over, how does the brand strategy and identity respond to these concerns?

Roo Studio came up with a brand strategy that leveraged the weaknesses in the market and turned them into opportunities for Zima. We decided to give back to the audience who has placed their trust in us and has given us the privilege to treat their hair and skin issues.

WE FOCUSED ON CREATING TRUST AND CREDIBILITY THROUGH OUR BRAND IMAGE.

Zima’s dedication to its audience’s health is achieved thorough rigorous testing and R&D, however it was essential for the brand identity to reflect this too. Zima takes your health seriously, so we needed to create a brand identity that is serious, credible and trustworthy. To reflect this seriousness and to convey the brand’s therapeutic claims, the brand needed to gain the right positioning as a therapeutic and medical beauty brand. Zima provides its customers with personal consultation on what products to use. Therefore, building trust was an essential component in its identity.

Zima extracts a small quantity of oil from a large amount of valuable and beneficial organic products, such as nuts and seeds. A huge quantity of these is used to produce only a few oil drops. Conceptually, we came to view the drops as precious, representing the pure essence of a highly beneficial ingredient.

Each drop has such unique valuable properties that we saw akin to diamonds, a drop can cause your hair to grow, another can restore firmness to your skin. Each drop represents the most precious part of something, which has been extracted to embody its essence.

WE WANTED TO CONVEY THIS FEELING TO OUR AUDIENCE TOO.

Striving towards a clean look somewhat similar to a medical brand, we decided on a SIMPLE LOGOTYPE AND LOGO that would be legible and easily recognizable, in order to also create and build brand awareness within a wide range of audiences, who would interact with the brand. The oil drop, as well as the textures pertaining to Earth and organic forms shaped the basis of our design system.

We developed all brand assets and communication material playing delicately with these main elements to maintain a spotless, credible image across touch points. The drop alongside the dropper became the forming element of the letter “I” in the brand’s new logo.

We complimented this with a color palette that further reinforced the brand image; a dark green that revoked seriousness, a nude color that revoked both the skin and the brand name Zima, which means Earth, and copper which at once conveyed feelings of ancient Iran and at the same time reminded one of the color of oil drops.