Brand image presentation and website design 🚀🌲

You’re putting words in my mouth. I never said that. What I said was that you needed to go more in depth than asking folks on an anonymous forum what their thoughts are. There are some informed and helpful people here, but surveying a very small sample of people on a graphic design forum is not a substitute for market research.

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No problem, I took it down:

@Anastasiya: Sorry for the inconvenience. I meant no harm.

Though, it’s not an uncommon for designers to showcase their skills by creating such rebranding ideas:

https://dribbble.com/tags/rebrand?s=popular

In 2013 Microsoft even hired one such designer:

Is this wood treated in some way to come into the US? Kiln treated or fumigated?
I’m pretty sure you can’t just ship a rough wood product from there to here without treatment…? That might affect it’s use and/or look even.

I think you’d benefit from looking at the branding strategies of companies stationed in Alaska, and to a lesser extent Montana. Both of these regions market their products and locations in a very American way, focusing on the positive qualities JustB mentioned that many Americans would associate with Siberia - namely the untamed wilderness, romanticizing the Mountain Men, Lumberjacks, and anyone else with the physical and mental strength needed to live in harsh environments. The idea that sells these sorts of products is that of being tough - that they’ve endured the rough weather and are still doing their jobs.

But like everyone else mentioned you are going to be competing with native weathered woods, which are going to be focusing on those same points, and will have the home field advantage in reduced shipping costs and local loyalties. You’ll have to do research on this, and see what advantages your product has on it’s competitors and market those as high qualities - ultimately it comes down to why Siberian wood, and not, say, Montanan or Alaskan?

You mention the color variety - that’s a good point to work from! People in construction/interior design can be very particular about the colors, so that’s one potential edge. Since I’m assuming these are mostly softwoods/conifers, you could also upsell the scent, or any unusual properties the wood may have - such as Cedar’s insect repellant properties.

But setting any actual, physical differences aside, you’re going to have to sell Siberia as much as the wood itself, and for that you might want to look at local tourism approaches. If someone is going to pay extra to put Siberian Wood into their home, they’re going to want it to feel Siberian - and the branding can really sell that. While they’re opening the package and putting it on the wall, what’s unique about Siberia that you want them to be thinking of?

Living in a rural/touristy area of Montana myself, I can definitely tell you that the market for weathered, outdoorsy products is niche, but the buyers are very willing to pay well. Aim high, and upsell the wilderness and (relative) exoticness of your region and you might carve a nice little spot out for yourself.

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@Anastasiya I took a look at your competitors’ logos.

If you want to stand out, and avoid any confusion, you should avoid black and very dark colors, shades of green, turquise and yellow, as well as brick-like colors.

In my opinion, one of your best bets at standing out is the color I suggested earlier:

https://www.pantone.com/connect/241-C

Also, I reworked my earlier design to remove any potential infringement of your trademark:

@Kaegro The problem with Siberia is that it’s not much different from Alaska or northern Canada. It’s cold, snowy and wild, but so are the other two regions. There’s nothing truly distinctive about it.

It would take a really clever marketing story to convince someone to choose second-hand planks from Siberia over ones from Alaska or Canada.

The fact that most of those planks probably are from the Soviet era isn’t helping the least bit.

@Anastasiya:

You could also try to use some medium shades of Blue:

https://www.pantone.com/connect/640-C
https://www.pantone.com/connect/2394-C
https://www.pantone.com/connect/7461-C

That might be the case for people in Poland or Europe in general. Northern Canada and Alaska are just as foreign as Siberia. However, for North Americans, these places aren’t foreign; they’re the northern outskirts of home.

Siberia, on the other hand, is foreign and mysterious. In some ways, it seems like Alaska or the Yukon on steroids.

I’m afraid I have to disagree, but I understand your reservations. I think Russian history contributes to the allure of Siberia.

If it were still 1980, I might agree, but the Soviet Union is gone, and the feelings of animosity have receded into history. For that matter, Americans look back to simpler times when the world’s geopolitical problems could were defined by the competition between the West and the Soviet Union. Today, the world is a much messier place. I don’t think most Americans would avoid Siberian lumber due to hostilities from decades ago.

As for the name you came up with: Tunguska. If I could order barn wood harvested from trees leveled by the Tunguska event, I’d be ordering it today. :grin:

4 posts were split to a new topic: Flood volcanism

2 posts were split to a new topic: Junk from Reclaimed wood thread

Putting on MOD hat.

I’ve removed the last two postings.

This thread is official back on track.

If you don’t have something to offer to the OP then scroll on by.

Any further mention of it will be deleted.

Siberia’s fascinating, volcanic past could be used to create a very interesting brand story:

For example:

In the RGB color space, red + blue = purple/pink.

So you could use the color I recommended earlier to represent both Siberia’s fiery past and cold present.

You could also create a website/YT channel/FB page with information about Siberia.

That’s huge, thanks!
I feel that our best way for now is to do a market research because it will tell us directly about our target audience, unique selling point exactly in America and everything that will help us more to promote our product on the market.

By the way, you’ve said that you worked in one of those agencies. Can you recommend the place where you worked for the market research? Or maybe you can recommend other familiar agencies that will be able to help us in our niche.

Thank you for that!

Previous reply deleted.
Please contact the OP privately for any requests.

Thanks :slight_smile:

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The reason I point them out as points of comparison is because they are similar - they provide a baseline on how Americans market the rugged wilderness of these regions to other Americans, since that’s one of the appeals of authentically weathered wood. Since, without comparing the exact specifications of each type of wood (which any discerning buyer ought to do anyway) the primary difference between this product and it’s competitors to an American consumer will be where it’s coming from. If it’s going to be more expensive because it’s coming from Siberia, what about it being from Siberia makes it worth the extra expense? Since the qualities Anastasiya mentioned above about Siberia are shared with Alaskan, Canadian, and Montanan “outdoorsy” marketing strategies, they’re a good place to start looking.

The US and North America is both geographically and culturally diverse - there is a lot of wilderness out there, but most of the population doesn’t live in it, so it still comes off as a bit exotic. Though that’s dampened by the “MADE IN AMERICA” labels they surely have. If you took that same approach and emphasized the foreign wilderness, I think you’d have a strong appeal to the exotic that could help reconcile the price gap for a consumer.

It’s always a bit odd for me to think about marketing the open wilderness because it makes me a little hyper aware of how lucky I am to live out here - I saw all the “Visit Montana” ads growing up and never got the point - until I got to visit other, more developed states and cities - and then I understood. There’s an inherent appeal in the wilderness, and for the majority of Americans, that appeal is inherently a little foreign. I think there’s potential if you lean into that.

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In terms of understanding the perception and understanding of Siberia and authentic reclaimed wood, I believe it is important to focus on the uniqueness of your product.

This post is a year old and the OP hasn’t been on the forum for nearly a year. :wink: