Smyths: Brand Identity

We were appointed to conduct a full brand communications audit for Smyths, the leading Irish toy retailer. This included a review of Smyths customer experience and a visual critique of their print, in-store and on-line communications. This also involved nationwide focus groups with parents and children, exit surveys with customers and key interviews with industry influences to gain an insight into the perception of Smyths.

In conjunction with this we visited Smyths stores and competitors, and carried out a visual audit of all marketing collateral to assess the alignment of Smyths brand communications with the actual experience in-store.

On completion of the brand audit and as a result of recommendations, we were retained to develop Smyths' communications.

The first step was to evolve their brand mark into a more playful expression of the established blocks mark. It was very important to retain the idea of the blocks but modernising them in contemporary way to reflect consumer expectations. We recreated the blocks from a more dynamic angle and each letterform was drawn to visually fit with the new shapes.

The roll-out of the new brand identity has begun in all new Smyths stores. Internal signage and POS applications are the next phase of the project to be developed shortly.