BOOMBAY

IDENTITY | BRANDING | packaging design | VISUAL & VERBAL LANGUAGE | communication pegs | KEY MESSAGING | WEBSITE DESIGN

Boombay is a mindfully made condiments brand that encapsulates the melange of cultures and flavours that is inspired by the city Mumbai formerly known as Bombay. When we partnered with Niharika Goenka, her larger goals were clear: To create a brand that improved human and planetary health - and that begins by changing the our consumption habits.

BRAND FOUNDATION

The first order of the day was to articulate and agree on a brand foundation. This was done with a series of discussions and a final working meeting where we finalised three key questions that helped clearly define the brand. Why, What and How.

Leaning hard into the name and the thinking behind it, along with the kind of products that were underway, we were sure we wanted to incorporate the visual asset of the starburst, or the ‘Boom’ of Boombay.

It represented so many truths of the brand:
The intensity of flavours .
The idea of when two contrasting elements come together, there’s a spark.
The fact that when added to a dish, it could really elevate it to another level.
The inventiveness of recipes.
The sheer joy when a food memory comes rushing back.
And lastly, the creativity associated with the culinary arts.

Identifying the consumer

Before any design work, we first identified the kinds of consumers we wanted to appeal to at the very core of the brand. This is different from identifying the ‘Target Market’. Here we are looking at the kind of mindsets that would resonate with our brand values and our product promise.

To do this, we first identify all the potential customer mindsets that exist through desk research, existing published papers and interviews, to then narrow it down to the 3-4 types we believe will be early adopters of our brand.

In this case, we concluded that our primary audience is a knowledge seeker - investigative and well-informed about sourcing and origin stories of ingredients and making. They have a higher baseline of education when it comes to food compared to the average consumer in the market, and take pride in their discovery of products, foods and recipes.

THE DESIGN INSPIRATION

As we delved deeper and deeper into understanding the product development process over the course of numerous lengthy discussions with Niharika and team, we found we were talking to a bunch of foodie-geeks, speaking the language of research that we instantly connected with. Not just do these folks care about the humans who grow their ingredients, and where, but also what the carbon footprint of it was, the soil quality, the genetics and the farming practices used to produce it. We immersed ourselves in wrapping our heads around the number of parameters they consider whilst choosing which suppliers to partner with, their quality, their impact on the planet, the economics and the ethics of it all. We found ourselves working with a brand that had soul. A team that cared about the details. And we had to do justice to it. On a tiny jar.

The idea is inspired by the intricate shape of an explosion. An electric clash of elements that spread far and wide. Similarly with graphs, we see a congregation of a plethora of distinct details that come together to express a larger picture. 

Through the device of visual graphs, we wanted to address the complexity of the brand by marrying a systematic and a creative approach. We craft integral data points into an explosive looking graph to highlight the elaborate essence of the brand without it being too overwhelming. We want people to feel that the more they look the more the see and the more they uncover. 

This was what the very first version of the idea was. You can see it was a lot more loyal to the inspiration - the pie chart. But we still needed validation of how it was being received, and interpreted. To do this, the Boombay team asked a sample size of our audience who also happened to be visiting for product tastings. We collected feedback on this first draft of design, and experimented with potential ways to solve for some of the feedback that was undesirable. Below is the extent of the different things we experimented with: Namely colour abundance, information hierarchies, amount of information, visual elements, and emphasis on the ‘boom’ which was paramount to our brand language.

THE FINAL PACKAGING DESIGN

THE SHIPPING PACKAGING

Since the brand primarily used glass containers and was primarily an e-commerce business, there were concerns on shipping safety. We wanted to be as eco-friendly as possible and limit the use of material (not to mention keep costs in check). Thus began a series of experiments over months.

The constraints were many:

1. Varied container sizes.

2. Unpredictable handling by delivery partners.

3. Adverse weather conditions.

4. Operational efficiency (Speed of packing the shipment).

5. Scalability, scalability scalability.

6. Unboxing (mess-free) experience for the customer.

7. Lastly, the cost of packaging needed to be reasonable and plastic free.

And thus began numerous experiments over a period of months. We & the Boombay team worked relentlessly with our (very patient and cooperative) packaging partners who helped prove some of the ideas we had.
After countless failed experiments, finally we arrived at something modular that worked for the varying container sizes, heights, was robust enough to travel pan-India. To us, small while it may be, this was a win.

THE VISUAL LANGUAGE

The Boombay brand language had evolved into a fun, vibrant, and information-rich mosaic that represented multiple aspects of its’ being. Given the origin of the name, there’s we embraced the patchwork nature of the city and unpredictability of the cultures that combine in Mumbai often leading to unexpected outcomes, represented by the ‘Boom’.

Given the nature of the business and the category, we incorporated these brand assets into the social media guidelines we created - allowing for UGC as well influencers, along with content pegs that are expected of a brand such as this one.