How to brand responsibility.
Content-driven Brand Design
A Narrative can be
powerful.
Higher, faster, further. Few industries pursue those goals quite as fiercely as e-commerce. But when everything is available anywhere, any time, and when little else matters except price and speed, how do brands manage to stand out from the crowd? What do they actually stand for? And how long can they make it work?
The Otto Group has always been an advocate of doing business responsibly and demonstrates that being successful in the corporate world and maintaining a strong set of values are not mutually exclusive – quite the contrary, in fact.
'Doing business sustainably to protect the environment and the climate is becoming something of a "licence to operate" for companies.'
Alexander Birken
CEO of the Otto Group
Responsibility and performance are cornerstones of the company's brand identity, and now also the basis for its new branding. A values-based, modern and likeable look that brings the purpose of the Otto Group to life through wide-ranging and entertaining narrative content, with the theme of
Responsible Commerce that inspires.
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Setting the Stage for
the Content.
Responsibility is not a tangible object. Responsibility is an attitude expressed in the subjects for which a brand provides space.
That is why the Otto Group's brand identity is brought to life primarily by the new imagery comprising a varied array of narrative illustrations and powerful visual themes that put people and humanity front and centre. They underpin the compelling stories about the brand and its attitude at a visual level, evoke powerful and positive gut feelings, attract attention and demonstrate diversity. They also entertain and inspire and, in so doing, lend an authentic face – sometimes many faces – to the theme of 'Responsible commerce that inspires'. The basic elements of the corporate design, such as the logo and font, are somewhat restrained to allow them to act as a stripped-down stage for the multi-faceted content.
The new ottogroup.com website has become a central communication hub for the entire corporate group and combines storytelling formats with clearly written facts. The stand-alone visual assets for all the most important meta themes relating to environmental and social responsibility, new work, cultural change and e-commerce are used liberally and prompt an emotional response to the world of the Otto Group.
Clarity fosters Understanding and
Accessibility.
The combination of clarity and structure in a layout with wide-ranging narrative visual content is the idea behind the brand identity. It has allowed the values and identity of the Otto Group to be translated directly into visuals and brought to life.
A design system with simple rules. Easy to understand, recognisable and adaptable to all kinds of media. The welcoming logo, which merges the letters O and G to create one powerful symbol, integrates the Otto Group's open approach to culture and working methods directly into its trademark. The brand's established colour of red, a font named Optimist designed specifically for the Otto Group and simple lines act as unambiguous brand codes and help to shape the overall look. At the same time, there is plenty of room for the substance. That creates a flexible and yet functional framework for content and storytelling.
The digital brand portal provides a quick way of seeing how the design system works and provides guidance in the form of educational video tutorials. It makes all the key brand assets accessible and simplifies brand management across the entire corporate group.
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Tatjana Wolfram
Customer Relationship Management
