Night Lark

After re-imagining the traditional duvet to be more convenient, comfortable, transportable and most importantly, coverless. And after selling thousands of units via retail big-hitters M&S and John Lewis, our client Night Lark decided they wanted to start selling their products direct-to-consumer (D2C), not only here in the UK, but in new markets abroad, specifically the U.S. 

To compete in a market significantly different from our own, in-depth research into the American bedding market and consumers needed to underpin this rebrand. In addition to breaking the American market, Night Lark also came to Glorious seeking to refine their brand identity and tone of voice for the UK market. Our brief was to determine how a refresh of the brand, tone of voice and its assets could disrupt the category of an overseas market, help to deliver a new global D2C website and accelerate sales growth across the UK and Europe.

Besides the opportunity to get really creative with this innovative disruptor brand, what also excited us about working with Night Lark was the parent company Trendsetter’s obvious passion for sustainability. A pending B Corp organisation at the time (now fantastically secured) it was clear from our initial discussions that the team were genuinely doing all that they could to ensure high product standards and innovation that supported both consumers’ and the planet’s needs – something that chimed immediately with our own internal philosophy here at Glorious.

To gain an in-depth understanding of the U.S. market, we began by conducting a series of immersion sessions with Night Lark’s key stakeholders. We also ran focus groups in both the UK and the U.S. with the brand’s key customer persona groups. Based on this data, we were able to refine the brand’s proposition, claim a differentiating territory and build out a range of brand and product benefits that would truly resonate with its audiences.  

The new proposition ‘Magically transforming and reimagining the duvet’ demonstrated that: 

Innovative thinking can transform the humble duvet into the most useful and in demand item in the home. Bringing magic to bedding at last; Night Lark has used its disruptive attitude and innovative expertise to search out that magic ingredient that has been missing from duvets. Consumers can enjoy an all-in-one duvet to sleep with, with washing, drying and making the bed – simpler than ever before, but also use it wherever and whenever they want, taking it from the bedroom to the couch to the patio, and on adventures with joyous ease. 

This proposition meant that as a disruptor, we knew the brand could be bolder, braver and more playful and that using this strong brand platform, we could begin developing the creative concepts. 

We provided the client with five visual identity concepts and potential routes for the new brand look and feel and two final routes based around ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Playfulness’ were chosen to test with the core audiences. 

After conducting further research, a follow-up survey that tested the concepts in play, in both markets it became apparent that a ‘Playful’ brand identity resonated both with UK consumers and even more so with American consumers. As a result, this became the epicentre on which we built and refined our creative ideas for the new brand visual identity and tone of voice (ToV).

Now armed with our playful and vibrant brand identity, we began developing the visuals that explored these themes further, forming a new world where bedding could be fun again. We aimed for a disruptive yet differentiating look and feel, bringing a spirited and exciting new entry into an over-assorted and confusing bedding market. 

For the brand colours, we opted for a palette of subdued blues, purples, yellows and soft beige, naturally indicative of the peace, calmness, and tranquillity of sleep, yet both these and the secondary palette, capturing the fun and playful ideology of the brand without opting for the tired and dull classic white that most would associate with bedding.

The new and improved brand logo incorporated a master symbol, the night lark now known as Luna, denoting that the brand is user-friendly, fun and applicable for adults and children alike. Luna gave the scope to bring more personality to the brand, with the flexibility to be animated or illustrated and to use Luna in different positions that help to reinforce and pull out core brand messages and attributes.

Alongside comprehensive new brand guidelines, we also provided Night Lark, with a photography and visual style guide which informed their own internal photoshoot. Our research concluded that images should be bright and colourful, just like the products. In terms of ‘mood’, the photos needed to portray realistic but bright, informal and engaging scenarios without feeling staged, posed or contrived. The photography needed to quickly express the key benefits highlighted in the research phase, such as the unique material/comfort, the ease of washing/changing the bed and the adaptability to be used and moved around in and out of the bedroom.

Working closely with our trusted partner, Web and Ecommerce agency Courageous, we developed a web style and designs for the new website. And provided Night Lark with bespoke product packaging and swing tag designs, as well as branded social media templates and presentation decks highlighting different product benefits for differing markets, in order to maintain a consistent approach to the visual identity across all brand touchpoints.

As a direct result of our research, we adopted an unapologetically bold, playful, mischievous and at times empowering ToV, and differentiating copy style for our client. To elevate Night Lark’s core message of joy, transformation, innovation and sustainability, we developed a brand narrative and copy lines highlighting the key benefits that our research determined were essential to both the American and UK consumer (sometimes vastly different) and expressed them in a new, fun and playful ToV while keeping lines simple, short and sweet to maximise engagement. 

We opted for speaking in the first person, using tactile and transformative words to bring the benefits of Night Lark’s products to life. And of course, purposeful but sparing bird related puns – to capture the joyful essence of the brand in brand headlines. 

The newly crafted Night Lark tagline ‘The duvet that sings to a different tune’ – helped to cleverly position the business from its competitors, whilst attempting to encapsulate its product innovation; a duvet with a flexibility and simplicity that transforms how people think about and use duvets. 

We adopted the term ‘All In One’ bedding for the American market, as this was the most universally understood term and benefit of the product drawn from our insight – no flat sheets, no duvet covers, no comforters needed. And based on this consumer research we made sure to adopt cultural nuances in bedding language, to distinguish the copy used in the U.S. from the UK market.

Night Lark’s Tone of Voice Attributes

– Playful but not childish

– Bold but not arrogant

– Whimsical but not magical 

– Imaginative but not farcical

– Upbeat but not silly

– Empowering but not over-emotional 

– Down-to-earth but not casual 

– Caring but not over-friendly 

– Knowledgeable but not arrogant 

– Trustworthy but not insincere 

We mapped this likeable and friendly ToV throughout all assets created, including packaging, video scripts, social media content, digital advertising assets and web copy. And, alongside a bank of key copy lines covering product collections and benefits that could be used as and when needed by the client – we developed ToV guidelines that would help to ensure consistency of language across the business.

The outcome of this project is a successful consumer-centric rebrand of an already thriving bedding business that can now extend its unique all-in-one duvets in an entirely new market, establishing itself as an innovative comfort connoisseur, across the pond.