Lagos – Umutu Coffee Company is bringing the concept of a coffee house to Nigeria and looked to Mexican design agency Anagrama to create branding that would appeal to the burgeoning Nigerian middle class.
Anagrama was given the unique brief to create a brand identity for a concept that is common in many Western parts of the world, but less so in Africa. The company wanted the brand to feel local as opposed to foreign.
‘Umutu is the country’s first Starbucks-like coffee house chain, a brand that aims to inspire the birth of a social coffee culture in which young people and professionals can hang out,’ Lucía Elizondo, Anagrama producer, tells LS:N Global. ‘It [has] the right balance between local familiarity and international distinction, which is what the country’s growing middle class is looking for.’
Anagrama used monochromatic colours and placed a monogram throughout to ‘reassure the consumer of the brand’s permanence, as well as its comfortable and energising friendship’.
If you are looking to appeal to New Emerging Affluents, Anagrama’s Stamped Goods approach is the ideal inspiration.