Hotheads Hair Extensions, a salon professional brand held by Beauty Industry Group, felt their brand identity was unrelatable and lacked the diversity that exists within their customer base. The overall look of brand collateral was outdated, as was the communication hierarchy. The Hotheads website did not include ecommerce, which was a high priority for their rebranding efforts.
To differentiate from competitor hair extension brands (including some sister brands within the same organization), Hotheads wanted to move away from the stereotypical black, white, and pink palettes often used when marketing B2B beauty products to salon professionals. The goal was to provide a more attainable feel paired with an everyday lived-in look. Campaign collateral aimed to showcase that the shift in branding and messaging was intentional while also communicating what makes the brand different in this refresh. This would, in turn, re-engage passive audiences with “new” news while also reaching a new audience motivated by trends, brand relations and education.
Hotheads Hair Extensions chose The Evoke Agency due to our expansive experience creating unique brand identities within the professional beauty industry. The Evoke Agency set out to specifically increase web traffic to the improved eCommerce site, as well as earn a large number of impressions and clicks from owned and earned campaign collateral.
After extensive competitive, industry, audience and platform research, The Evoke Agency decided to focus on a natural, softer look as opposed to the previous identity with a wider demographic range of models and target consumers. Evoke focused on key brand and launch messages that emphasized product quality, features and benefits while also highlighting the growing brand community and an updated demographic.
To disrupt a beauty narrative that promotes conformity through trends, the new voice focuses on authenticity, rather than being overly positive, with an empowering and entertaining tone. The brand’s manifesto was reinvigorated to communicate the new and improved tone and attitude of the brand. The Evoke Agency also worked to create an engaged and loyal brand community by integrating the hashtag, “#HottieSquad” into branded assets and user-generated content. At heart, it is a rally call to coordinate the brand’s audience - and encourage them to speak for themselves with a “you go girl” attitude. From a stylistic standpoint, consistent use of all-caps for key verbs/actions will help differentiate our copy and messaging from other communities.
When developing the updated visual identity, Evoke went with a more natural toned palette so the hair could speak for itself. The imagery focuses more on a relatable and natural style instead of unattainable runway glam. The visuals lean more towards a lived-in luxury, staying away from flashy fashion colors. The Evoke Agency included images to guide the use of text as an element and included an arched shape, representing a “window” into the tips and tricks of the hairstyling world as well as helping to frame text and differentiate brand assets.
The logo got a subtle but important new treatment; the “Hotheads” wordmark was not easily functional across all platforms in the vertical type. In order to increase readability and designability, Evoke moved the type to the bottom of the logo mark. Another simple but effective change was including solid color options for the logo. Evoke aimed to make visual and verbal branding that was digitally friendly to enhance the natural colors featured in most brand products.
In response to the updated brand identity and following creative collateral, Hotheads saw an increase in commentary and engagement with organic social media assets and overall website interaction. Since the new brand identity focuses on representing and engaging a wider demographic of audiences, the content was more relatable to a larger audience. Rather than focusing solely on product benefits and features, speaking directly to the brand community and salon professionals allowed the brand to be viewed as more authentic and attainable to ‘average’ consumers.
