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Spotty Otter
Introduction
Designing Demand has rebranded an online children’s clothing retailer, helping it to improve its image, attract new retailers and build its confidence.
Summary
Deciding it needed bigger margins, Sheffield-based children’s clothing retailer Little Trekkers began re-thinking its business. Looking at their existing marketing materials showed that their logo was used inconsistently, and neither it nor their marketing lived up to the fun, friendly and funky image they wanted.
They decided to rebrand the business by developing their own product range to sell through third-party retailers, under the name Spotty Otter.
Realising they would need external expertise, they signed up for Designing Demand’s Generate service. (Designing Demand helps SMEs to understand how design can add value to their business through increased profits, better productivity and sustained competitiveness.)
Generate’s design associate helped to identify a new form of clothing designers, which went developed Spotty Otter’s first product range and then went on to create several seasonal ranges. Branding projects then went ahead for Little Trekkers and also for Spotty Otter, which was positioned with the words ‘funky and functional’—encapsulating the brand’s unique appeal and defining a gap in the children’s outdoor clothing market.
The first Spotty Otter product was sold within 45 minutes of the new website going live. Distribution now extends to a number of offline retailers and Glacier Blue went on to design a second range of clothing.
Little Trekkers says the project has boosted their confidence in dealing with design agencies, clothing designers, overseas factories and freight companies. The results of the branding process have more than justified the financial investment.
What is Yorkshire Forward’s connection with this initiative?
Designing Demand is a national programme developed by the Design Council and administered regionally by the regional development agencies, such as Yorkshire Forward (which trialled the first national pilot in South Yorkshire from 2005-2008). Now available across the region, Designing Demand is run in Yorkshire by Business Link Yorkshire.
