We’ve got some good news! Humour Me is the official branding partner of Heads Up For Tails! We’re very excited about it, and can’t wait to create great work together.

Heads Up For Tails has a variety of products and services for pets, from toys, to leashes, grooming services and more. I was already familiar with the brand before we partnered with them, and I have to say, my experience at their stores as always been of the highest quality.

The first thing on our agenda was to create a clear positioning for the brand. This is one of the most important aspects of branding – a good positioning can be the difference between a brand that stands the test of time and remains salient in consumers’ minds, and a brand that achieves short term success based on an immediate need in the market, only to be smothered by the next player who arrives with a better offer.

However, this is also one of the most challenging aspects of branding, as the core positioning sets the foundation for everything else to come. Moreover, with new companies appearing on what seems to be a daily basis, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to differentiate themselves. This has given rise to a lot of positioning statements along the lines of ‘Best in India’, ‘Number 1 in the Country’, ‘India’s favourite brand’, etc.

Positions like these are a clear attempt to find a hack to saliency, and most brands with such messaging are often the fastest to be replaced by competitors. Truly successful brands never have to explicitly boast about themselves.

To find a good positioning statement for Heads Up For Tails (HUFT), we did a lot of research into the pet product market and how other brands communicate to consumers. We have now found a position that we feel could have an enormous impact on consumers, due to both its novelty and long term potential. I will reveal this positioning when we begin the larger campaign work for the brand.

Once we found our positioning, we got to work on a manifesto and brand tagline to cement it. This was all taking place around the time of Diwali, and HUFT was preparing their internal team to create small content piece for the same. Since building a good relationship with our partners is very important to us, we offered to pitch in and help out while still continuing our core work. We created a script, made a storyboard, helped the internal HUFT team with casting and also assisted on the shoot.

Now, we are moving on to a larger branding exercise, using content to build the brand. During our research, I was shown an extremely powerful content piece that nearly had me in tears (if I wasn’t at the office I would have definitely broken down). The film was about adopting wisely, and brought out the lack of awareness a lot of people have about the commitment that comes with adopting a dog, i.e. they are not toy. When you adopt a dog you are literally adding a new member to your family, who requires a lot of attention and care.

You can watch the film here: