Corepel is a new brand of the SWISS KRONO Group, headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland, and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of wood-based materials. Corepel is a flooring collection characterised by the fact that the core board contains a specially developed high-performance resin to make the floor waterproof and durable. The new brand was launched in 2021.
To successfully launch this novel product under its own brand name, Corepel decided to create a brand identity that combined the modern, minimalist aesthetic of the product itself with clear, informative messaging and strong imagery, partly because being new the product required additional explanation. The logo consists of the brand name in capital letters over three lines, which works just as well in white on black as vice versa. Besides black and white, only a few tinted colours are used in the brand identity across all media. A high-quality and specially developed icon set was designed to match the logo and plays an important role in the brand design, communicating the core properties of Corepel products in an easily understandable way. With its brand identity, Corepel boldly breaks away from industry standards and achieves a high degree of visual independence. Moreover, this is complemented by key visuals and brand videos that impressively convey the message that “there are more important things in everyday life than taking care of the floor” and aim at positioning the brand as a premium flooring for people pursuing an active lifestyle. As the product launch took place in times of the ongoing pandemic that made a traditional customer approach impossible, a new way had to be found and followed: a total of 25 important distribution partners around the world received welcome boxes, which were then unpacked together in personal video phone calls between Corepel and the respective partner. In addition to the booklet and product samples, the boxes in puristic design also contain four drawers, each dedicated to one of Corepel’s USPs and inviting to experiment with the flooring. In this way, the quality of the products could be experienced in an interactive and memorable way.
Statement by the Jury
Corepel impresses with a consistent brand presence across all media, which is characterised by simple elegance in form and focuses on clear messages in terms of content in order to put the unique selling points of the product in the foreground. This is successfully contrasted by the generous use of photography and moving images, which lends this customer approach a strong emotional component. This departure from the industry’s usual visual language gives Corepel authenticity and credibility as a brand and makes it memorable.