Following the success of the premium breakfast delivery app Milkman in Israel, founders Omer and Jonny wanted to bring their ‘healthy brekkie at the touch of a button’ service to the UK.

We worked with the team in Israel to understand their offering “breakfast you want to jump out of bed for”, and their target market “families and professionals who want to provide the best for the breakfast table but don’t have the time to scan artisan markets to source ingredients”

Our challenge was to position the brand in the premium category while adding warmth and fun – speaking to busy foodies who crave variety, convenience and a top-notch breakfast every day.

Lost in translation…

The transition from a premium service in Israel to a premium artisan brand in Europe wasn’t straightforward. In Israel, playful design is the stuff of children’s brands, and brand values of loyalty, comfort and wholesomeness are articulated through the product rather than the ‘symbol’ or logo.

Designs which tested well with a European target audience were completely lost on an Israeli market test, who didn’t understand the playfulness, and wanted to see the product more.

How culture relates to branding is a fascinating subject and one covered at length in Torelli’s Globalization, Culture and Branding, but even understanding the fundamental difference between how brands leverage cultural values cross-culturally to build lasting and scalable brand equity, didn’t at all prepare us to answer the question: “why does everyone in Israel not get the new design, while everyone in the UK absolutely loves it?”

Why don’t Israelis get ‘playful branding’?

We posed the question to Ido Bercovier, an award-winning artist from Tel Aviv. Ido doesn’t paint in the lines (so to speak), his art is controversial, and his vibe typical of the Tel Aviv artist scene.

The problem, he explained, wasn’t that Israelis didn’t get quirky, it’s a difference in the history of Europe and Israel. Europe has a long history of romanticism. Israel has been around a short while, we don’t want stories, we want action – we want practicality. Branding in Israel is functional, and even though founders of Iconic brands (like WeWork)  have their roots in Israel, when communicating to an Israeli market, the brand story is secondary or completely nonexistent.

But also, it’s about connection, Israelis are more connected and get out more. There’s a sense of community.

Branding creates a relationship between a consumer, a product and an idea so it’s completely logical that in cultures where there is a strong sense of community, the need to build a relationship with the brands you buy isn’t as strong.

Europeans need the story, we have more time for building a relationship with the brands we consume and the difference is the value we place in romanticism over practicality, and ‘perceived brand value’ through the connection we feel with brands.

Anthropologically, understanding this fundamental difference was fascinating and presented a new challenge – launching the brand in the UK meant we couldn’t use any of it’s existing ‘brand values’, the existing product needed a brand story, a look and feel and name that would give us story-loving Europeans the brand connection we crave.

Step 1 Name

The first challenge was to name the brand – Milkman wasn’t premium enough for the UK market, where the milk-round isn’t anything exciting or new.

After rounds of names, playing with various articulations of words that said ‘morning’ and ‘happy’, Loafly was chosen as the favourite – an ownable brand name which combined the main product offering ‘loaf’ with ‘lovely’ – we love how satisfying it is to say, like the feeling of that first bite of the perfect breakfast sarnie.

Step 2 Design

Then we set about exploring colors, fonts and tones:

Before settling on a warm colour palette that injected a bit of fun and energy to the typography, with the ‘O’ bringing energy and warmth, while creating a market-relevant, ownable wordmark that can be used on its own as the brand icon.

The final font  was slimmed down from the earlier, chunkier versions for a sleeker, more premium look and feel.

3) Launch

Loafly’s visual ID was rolled across social @loaflyuk, the Loafly app and the new website Loafly.co.uk, where we explored more ways to apply the new identity through playful assets and illustrations. An illustrated ‘burst’ of breakfast ingredients in the hero panel creates a sense of energy and excitement, as if all those great goodies are just waiting to jump out the bag and onto your table. A rounded sans serif and thicker, bolder headline font complements the section panels adding colour and fun without looking too childish.

Loafly rolled out the design onto their new delivery bags…. Ready to land a breakfast of champions on lucky Loafly doorsteps.

Hurray! No more soggy cereal and stale old bread.

This case study was written back in 2019, pre Naked ape Brands evolution. For more recent case studies, check out our work page.