Brand Perception

We began our work by holding a focused listening session between the client and our team. We asked a range of questions to better understand the clients work, the obstacles they face, and the successes that they’ve had. We inquired about previous marketing efforts, events they host, and reviewed marketing collateral that they already had. From this meeting it was clear that the largest hurdle to finding foster or forever homes for many of their pets was an unprofessional logo (which worried potential owners that the operation wasn’t held to a high standard), a confusing website experience, and a difficult application process.

Next was our research phase. Along with the client’s input, we identified local and national animal-related businesses who were doing well and brainstormed over the consistent trends we saw in regards to their branding, websites, and application process. We saw that iconography wise it was most typical to have paw prints, hearts or the silhouettes of animals. The most used colors were pastel versions of greens, purples, pinks and blues. Websites prominently featured one or two available pets, success stories, and easy links for donating or getting in touch.

Using all of this information we focused on designing a logo that would remain consistent with the industry standards (to promotes credibility), but also unique so that the client would stand out against their competitors. We finalized on a design that featured a cat, dog and rabbit icon as a subtle reminder that there were more than just cats and dogs available for adoption (they often took in abandoned ferrets, rabbits or hamsters). We choose a cool blue and white palette that was inviting and home-y, but still professional.

We then used this brand as a guideline for the website. Our biggest focus was to drive viewers to the most important pieces of information available on the site - how to donate / make a donation, pets that are available for adoption, and the adoption form. Since making a donation is the easiest and quickest way to become involved with Paws & Purrs Rescue, we highlighted that process by placing a “Donate” button in the top right hand corner of every page. For adoptions, we focused 3/7 of our navigation options on driving traffic directly into profiles of available animals, and featured two animals on the homepage at all times.

The adoption form was one of our biggest challenges. There were many “caveats” that would require the person filling out the form to provide additional information, or skip over certain sections that were not relevant. We utilized a robust form system that would allow us to set a series of intricate rules on the form, that would dynamically change the form as you progressed to show only the fields that were relevant to what you needed to fill out.