Procter & Gamble debuting brand Kiwi Botanicals were exploring a pathway for sonic branding and enlisted WLDR as sonic branding agency. Being so close to New Zealand, we were vigilant about conducting a culturally sensitive audit of the brand’s landscape, and set a wider field to include not just analyzing data from the beauty + wellness industries, but incorporating this into qualitative ethnographic research methods.

We found that there was a beige approach to music & sound in the skincare + wellness range, with borrowings from beauty & fashion - I.e generic electro synth pop + very little distinctiveness. Kiwi Botanicals’ brand pillars being warm & worldly & winking, wanting to “turn skincare into funcare” brought us to planning new approaches to where sound would live in the consumer journey touchpoints, including digital / physical spaces such as app driven tokens in the exclusive retail space, Wallmart. Pathways in designing a sonic alphabet comprised of capturing the sound of the Kiwi bird itself.

The end result was a sonic identity comprised of a brand theme, mnemonic, and a sonic alphabet encapsulating the brand’s identity being optimistic, radiant, wild + free, and quirky.