Ickle Bubba: developing a brand strategy and identity ready for the future

Ickle Bubba have a goal.

They want to be a leading global baby brand with great products for all people, on all budgets. They needed help in connecting with the parents-to-be who really ‘got’ them.

Ickle Bubba had only been in business for 7 years when we got together to discuss their brand. In a crowded marketplace, having grown quickly by creating stylish, quality products at accessible prices, they’d never had the chance to work on telling the story of who they are. We started what became a rebrand project by setting out who they are, what they stand for, and who they exist to help in their brand strategy.

If you paralleled brand in human terms, it would be the core values you hold about yourself that shape how you act, behave and talk. If you don’t really know what those are then you would find it difficult to be you.

“Brand is the starting point of any decision a business makes. When you truly know what your brand is, its strengths and what it offers your customer, it’s easy to validate your decisions - the brand becomes your strategic compass.”

— Emma, Marketing Director

A journey of development

Ickle Bubba’s brand wasn’t developed enough to support its next stage of growth. The brand didn’t have a defined identity to build cohesive campaigns or fully communicate who they were to its customers.

This isn’t uncommon in start-ups. They initially need to purely focus on growth and sales but owner Fran and Marketing Director Emma quickly identified this needed more support, investing in their brand so they could continue to see the success they had experienced over the last year or so.

Emma knew that brand was fundamental to the success of the business. Not only in how they deliver campaigns but also in shaping the culture and how their customers perceive them. In such a crowded industry, Ickle Bubba needed to be clear on what they stood for and make sure their audience knew that too.

“The rebrand was needed to support the growth of the business, not only in the UK but also globally. Fliss understood exactly what we wanted to deliver and even in our initial conversation we were drawing out ideas and concepting how the new brand would take shape. She gave us the building blocks to engineer a cohesive, well-thought-out brand.”

Being Ickle Bubba

We began the branding process by doing extensive research around customer brand perception, internal brand perception, who their customer really is, and an analysis of their competitors. We looked at brand aesthetics, and gap analysis to ensure they were operating in the best space and got to the core of why the business exists. We didn’t just do this in the UK, we explored it globally to sense check how they are perceived in each market the brand operates in.

The customer analysis was invaluable in helping the business to really understand their audiences’ wants, needs and concerns, and to make sure the brand really was pitching at the right people.

“It became the foundation for how we rebuilt the brand and the time and effort we took to do this is starting to reap rewards now. We are now seeing consistency across all of our channels, and it is starting to filter into our products too.”

We defined their brand pillars which set out the key themes that thread through everything the brand does - from product development, to communication. The strategy outlines how the brand operates at a global level: the culture of the business, and how to communicate with their customers.

Growing up

With a solid vision for the future and their brand strategy in place, we embarked on translating that into Ickle Bubba’s personality. It wasn’t just a case of putting some slick visuals with it all. We had to communicate what they stand for in a visual way, while being appealing to their target audience.

I supported the internal team implementing the brand, working closely with them to develop a strong photography style, set out how the brand appears on product, on their digital channels and how the visual language works with their messaging throughout their brand comms so they could be flexible and recognisable.

“We now have a consistent and identifiable brand and are also building a strong persona that helps us identify opportunities and ways of working. We are exploring who we are in this new brand and our tone of voice and values are starting to sound like the brand that was already in existence, but we hadn’t quite brought to life.

Not only are we taking the extensive knowledge we have in the business and using this to support our customers through their journey, we are also translating our brand values through our internal culture, and working on projects that are meaningful to our employees. We don’t just see our brand as a commercial aid, we see it as an opportunity to be a positive force in society.”

The brand in action

The new brand has repositioned Ickle Bubba in their market and the consistency in the brand execution and powerful palette has really helped them to stand out.

“We have doubled sales on certain products in fallow months, which suggests the newly branded campaigns we are running have an impact on consumer buying behaviour without the need for a promotion. This is a direct reflection of the power of our creative campaign execution and clear brand messaging that originated from the rebranding exercise.”