We’re all better off together.
That’s a fact.

The brand

Poapoa is an ethical bodycare brand that partners with small producers from rural, emerging communities in West Africa to create natural, sustainable soaps and provide employment and growth opportunities.

Run by a young entrepreneur, he wanted to take his budding brand to the next level. Working closely with Milk Bottle design, we transformed Poapoa into the bold, colourful and engaging brand that it needed to be.

THE challenge

We put Poapoa under a microscope to understand who it is, how it’s perceived, and where there was room for improvement. Our analysis covered all aspects of brand identity and market landscape.

From there, we defined Poapoa’s personality: how it would look, sound, act and feel. We took something black & white and injected with life.

Personality

Central to Poapoa’s personality were its values. It wasn’t just another business trying to get rich, but a heart-lead social enterprise trying to solve real problems and improve people’s lives. We pinpointed five values alongside a defined mission and used these to guide our expressions.

BE BOLD

Our brand dissection revealed the need for a distinctive voice. Poapoa should fearlessly speak-up to champion themselves and their peers as standard bearers for capitalism 2.0. This would not only help them stand out from the crowd but would foster community within the ethical space.

Content

The new personality was applied across all offline and online collateral. We created and refined all product copy and label copy, the full website and additional marketing material including a sales booklet, a social media strategy and the Sustainable Scrapbook: a fortnightly newsletter to champion ethical innovations in tech, community and sustainability.

We also created robust Brand Guidelines so the founder and employees can continue to be Poapoa authentically.

Design Elements

Shea-butter base.

Much of the visual language centres around shea butter, or “women's gold”. This is a key component to both the livelihood of west African women and their communities, and Poapoa’s soap.

HAND CRAFTED TOGETHER.

The logo and colour smudges are inspired by finger smudges of paint or product. They represent the hand-crafted origin of the products while also remind of an equals sign (=) to signify the company’s roots and targets.

Vibrant, NATURAL COLOURS.

The colour system was developed to inject vibrancy into the brand while also reflecting it’s heart-lead values and the natural ingredients within products.