ur

The goal of ur is to become a household name, carbon positive phone brand by encouraging consumers to reuse phones and by offsetting the carbon emissions of every refurbished phone they sell through a commitment to planting trees. Their ‘Love it. Use it. Return it.’ ethos converts the process of buying a phone into a positive contribution in combating climate change, through buying used, recycling and reforestation.

Our brief was to develop a new brand identity, new website, and brand/marketing assets that reflected the business’s premium refurbishment standards – giving users more reasons to consider buying and trading in their used phones. And to express its passion for the circular economy philosophy.

Armed with the knowledge and understanding of ur’s urge to promote a circular economy through refurbished phones, Glorious started to construct a visual framework to provide them with an equally strong brand identity that could express their strong company values. 

In order to meet our objectives, we developed a brand identity that really reflected ur’s ethos of sustainability and recycling. The new brand identity rests largely on the recurring circular element, which takes the lead to embody the intentions of the circular model that ur hinges itself on – whilst also giving a nod to the familiar cyclical nature of popular recycling symbols, and aligning with the existing ur logo. 

The visual brand identity we created needed to differentiate ur as a premium provider in a crowded and let’s face it, sometimes “bargain-basement” refurbished phones market, whilst being accessible to both a younger and older audience, given the wide target demographic for buying used phones. We opted for a bold, sleek but stand-out colour palette and kept the lifestyle stock imagery high quality yet relatable across demographics. 

We took this visual brand identity and used it to customise a pre-existing Shopify template resulting in a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site that would allow ur to finally establish themselves in the market as an independent refurbished phone retailer and build connection with its consumers, separate to its Amazon business. We continued use of the circle motif throughout the website imagery – including ur phone users donned with a subtle halo to convey the idea that buying a phone with ur – simply gets you good Karma. This was one of the many themes that the brand wanted room to eventually grow into their customer rewards strategy. 

We positioned important company and ethical stats inside bright and bold circle designs and used circular icons to visually express the many benefits of buying a ur premium refurbished phone.

Tone of Voice and Copy Writing

Integral to the new brand identity, we provided ur with a new tone of voice and brand narrative, which was then mapped across all new website copy. Copy lines were crafted to provide the brand with a friendly but empowered tone of voice that could be used across primarily digital assets from organic social to web banners and adverts. For this, we created a series of impactful headlines to support ur’s cause and express their impassioned founder’s message.

Additionally, we created a series of informative blog posts and social captions offering insight into the detrimental impact of new mobile phones on the environment – and what can be done about it. As well as debunking the myths surrounding buying refurbished phones, to support ur’s launch SEO and content strategy.

Packaging

We optimised the design elements for ur phone packaging, to create a high quality tangible unboxing experience that reflected the brand ethos across the consumer journey. The packaging was designed to align with the premium quality of these loveable refurbished phones and encouraged consumers to be part of the circular economy, by giving them a reason to keep the box and eventually trade in for their next refurbished ur model.

The results deliver a positive, empowering, altruistic and environmentally conscious brand that clearly expresses the boundless benefits of buying and trading in premium used phones with ur.co.uk. It has resulted in 300 and growing, 4.5 and above star ratings on Trustpilot, in the months since the brand’s launch, 4,374 trees being planted to date (March 2022) and the brand being shortlisted as TechRadar’s CSR and Sustainability Initiative of the year, in the 2021 Mobile Industry Awards.