Natalie Maaden

Located at 1460 Gordon Street in Guelph, Natalie Maaden Boutique Med Spa is the kind of place that just gets it. Over the passed two decades Natalie has built the kind of culture most companies dream of. The team, the customers, and really everybody who sets foot inside the spa feels like they're part of something. I should know, my sister and her friends spend nearly all of their money there.

The Challenge

The pandemic has been pretty tough on all of us, but for Natalie, the timing couldn't have been worse. The spa was in the midst construction to expand their location. At the time the spa was called Anne Maaden and was co-owned by Natalie and her mother. What people didn't know was that when the lockdowns began, her mother wanted to cut their losses and close down the business. Natalie strongly disagreed. She wasn't about to give up everything she had built there, or let her friends lose their jobs. She was left with no choice but to start over from scratch, and we were more than happy to help her reshape the business to align with her own vision.

Tasks

Brand Strategy | Brand Identity | Web Design | E-Commerce | Email Marketing | Social Media Design | Interior & Exterior Signage | Print Collateral | Photography

Here are some of the highlights:

Brand Strategy

Brand strategy is a core process in every business. It's the part of marketing that people who thrive take seriously, and what those who struggle overlook. Simplified, brand strategy is the art of gaining clarity in who you are, who you serve, and how you communicate within that relationship. You can't really control what people think about you, but you can certainly do your best to influence it.

The Mission

To set the new standard for what it means to be a spa by fostering a community where people feel confident, valued, and like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

For Natalie, the culture she has built there extends beyond her own business. She feels that spas often resemble factory lines, with the goal of squeezing as many cents out of people as quickly as humanly possible. They don't put people first, and Natalie is striving to set the example of what a spa can be when they do. Natalie has also taken an active role in designing and instructing in the aesthetician program at Conestoga College. For her, it's not enough to just teach knowledge and skills, it's also about fostering the right values and attitudes in young people as they prepare to enter this industry.

Brand Identity

Well it might seem a little bit cliché, Natalie has really come into her own as a leader in both business and education, and we can't think of a better metaphor for her transformation than a beautiful butterfly.
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Type, Colour, Imagery.

We chose Futura and Raleway as our primary typefaces. We chose white, black, and fuchsia as our colours with the intention of providing a soft, clean, and elegant frame for imagery showcasing the notion that true beauty comes form the confidence you get when you look and feel your best.

Website Design

We built Natalie a modern responsive website that looks great on desktop and mobile devices. The aesthetic not only looks and feels authentic to who they are, but it's also an extension of their values, beliefs, and what their community stands for. We also added a small online shop which allows Natalie to continue to sell products and DIY kits when the spa couldn't serve customers in person during the lockdowns.
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Email & Social

Email marketing has always been an important part of how Natalie runs her business, and we were able to reinvigorate that platform to be more than just advertising monthly specials, and start educating the community on the tips and tools of the trade. They're also very active on Instagram using stories, reels, and educational carousels, that also maintain that consistent professional look and feel of their brand.

Kind words from Natalie

Ken put together our new brand, designed our website, our online store, our print collateral, and our storefront signage. The process was very fluid. I basically had to restart my business from scratch, and we were under a very tight timeline. We met several times a week to set expectations, and review progress. Ken was very empathetic to our needs and goals, and he helped me come up with creative solutions to some of the unexpected challenges we faced this year.

The work helped us navigate our way through the pandemic, and stay afloat during all of the government lockdowns and restrictions. Really, the quick turnaround with rebranding and adding e-commerce was extremely beneficial. The Process was seamless. Ken was always attentive to our needs, and he genuinely cares about us and our success.

I've worked with companies before where I was just a client, a number, and everything was rigid. Contact and having content changes made was always an ordeal. With Ken, he is always personable, available, and he actually cares about us and our business.
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