McColl’s

Ener­gis­ing a neigh­bour­hood retail­er from the inside out

  • Brand Strategy
  • Brand Identity
  • Design
  • Messaging
  • Tone of Voice
  • Store design
  • Illustration
  • Uniform and launch collateral

We gave McCol­l’s back its mojo. By refram­ing the cat­e­go­ry in a more emo­tion­al­ly pow­er­ful way, from local to neigh­bourly, with the propo­si­tion ​‘your big-heart­ed store next door’, our brand strat­e­gy lever­aged inti­ma­cy as a core differentiator.

Own­ing the rich emo­tion­al ter­ri­to­ry of ​‘neigh­bourly’ rein­vig­o­rat­ed every­thing from the staff expe­ri­ence to store seg­men­ta­tion and prod­uct pro­mo­tion. Best of all we were able to join the dots with the brand’s her­itage mak­ing it feel rel­e­vant again and a key part of the brand’s future.

“ODA bril­liant­ly unlocked the her­itage of the brand cre­at­ing a fresh, warm and engag­ing iden­ti­ty encom­pass­ing the com­plete cus­tomer journey.”

Tim Fairs, Customer Director

MAK­ING MCCOL­L’S A SOMEBODY

The McCol­l’s brand felt anony­mous and cor­po­rate. To intro­duce famil­iar­i­ty and a human touch we went back to the orig­i­nal founder’s sig­na­ture and redrew a con­fi­dent friend­ly new logotype.

OWN­ING NEIGHBOURLINESS

Light-heart­ed ban­ter and lib­er­al use of col­lo­qui­al tone drove home feel­ings of inti­ma­cy. Writ­ten in our bespoke type­face Big Heart­ed Bold, and using a speech bub­ble cre­at­ed from the iden­ti­ty, it becomes dis­tinct­ly McColls.

TABLOID FUN

A set of car­toons com­mis­sioned from a renowned tabloid car­toon­ist brings fun and light­ness to the iden­ti­ty and nods to the brand’s her­itage as a newsagent. 

The team are a joy to work with, incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed but always bril­liant­ly pragmatic.

Tim Fairs, Customer Director

Back To Our Work