Using personality to drive brand differentiation

Over the past decade, Pinkoi has guided consumers to discover original designs in Asia. From its niche beginnings, the brand has flourished and become a leading lifestyle marketplace that spans six countries, featuring everything from food to clothing and homeware to electronics.

As Pinkoi grew, it gradually entered a more competitive market that would mean going head to head with e-commerce giants. In order to stand out among its new peers and appeal to a more international, diverse audience, Pinkoi needed a comprehensive visual and verbal identity. What's more, its team members needed to know how to apply its new identity in different markets to ensure brand cohesion. 

Giving a Voice to Pinkoi

Through close collaboration, Pinkoi and DDG developed a 'fair, candid, and quirky' tone of voice to embody Pinkoi's spirit and stand out in the highly competitive, often monotonous e-commerce environment. By adopting a witty, playful, and carefree communication style, Pinkoi can be known for its fresh perspective rather than someone who plays by the rules, ensuring it leaves a lasting impression on its audience. 

Using Scribbles to Make a Statement

With the communication strategy firmly in place, we were tasked with designing a fully fleshed-out visual identity to strengthen Pinkoi's brand image. To do so, we employed scribbles as our main visual elements as they symbolize the starting point of a creative process and echo Pinkoi’s quirky personality. When Pinkoi's promotional materials differ from market to market, the scribbles step in to maintain consistency, celebrating diversity through varying line lengths, brush strokes, and colors. They form a dynamic visual language, supported by comprehensive design principles, to embody Pinkoi's push for inclusivity while highlighting its creative, playful, and thoughtful approach to design.

Personifying Pinkoi with a Shape-Shifting Mascot

To reinforce Pinkoi's fun-loving personality and distinguish it from competitors, we introduced a mascot to act as the brand ambassador. By expanding the scribble concept, we created an adorable shape-shifting monster whose curious outlook encourages audiences in Asia to discover quality design. When the mascot's style or expression are adjusted, Pinkoi can convey a wide range of emotions for versatile application. 

Empowering Pinkoi to “Play by Book”

Lastly, relying on our deep understanding of Pinkoi’s company culture, we compiled a ‘playbook’ to introduce Pinkoi internally and explain how to represent the brand in various contexts to team members. The playbook emulates Pinkoi’s quirky attitude – rather than the typical corporate tone often used in brand guidebooks – leaving employees with a more concrete idea of Pinkoi’s personality and culture. 

“This collaboration with DDG helped Pinkoi rationalize our brand attributes and refine our visual and written approach into a globally applicable brand management concept. This will help Pinkoi maintain a consistent brand image around the world, in line with our international development requirements.”

— Tina Lo, COO at Pinkoi