SUMMARY
Fluo is a Finnish circular economy group that collects, processes, utilises and recycles materials and manufactures recycled products through its national circular economy network. The Fluo Group is made up of circular economy units, Ekokuljetus JNH (Kokkola area), Finells Transport (Pedersöre area), Ekoman (Vaasa area), Itä-Suomen Murskauskeskus (Joensuu), Keskinen Recycling (Kuortane) and FL Pipe (Kaustinen), which are all leading players in their respective markets.
Fluo was previously known as Ekokuljetus Group, named after one of the local units. We were tasked with an extensive and interesting challenge: how do you take a group of local, autonomous units, and turn them into a unified circular economy group, that maintains the strengths and roots of the local units, while conveying an inspirational circular economy growth story?
The Ekokuljetus Group and all the entrepreneurs from the local units trusted us in becoming their partner for the renewal journey. Our extensive partnership and brand work included everything from brand naming to brand architecture and launch PR, and we still continue working together with the newly re-branded group, Fluo, to strengthen the brand’s positioning in the Finnish market.
Services
- Brand strategy
- Brand architecture
- Brand naming
- Brand identity
- Brand storytelling
- Web design and development
- Launch PR and communications
- Marketing communications
Research
Our insight for the brand work came from how local units and their entrepreneurs operate. Most of them had grown up within the waste management industry through their family companies. The entrepreneurs and their local teams know exactly what happens in the field and how to run their operations locally as efficiently and as sustainably as possible. We discovered that the competitive edge when challenging the nation-wide bigger competitors was highlighting the locality, efficiency, and approachability of Fluo.
Strategy
Our insight showed that many of the competitors focus on their own industrial processes rather than the end-customer benefits. However, for the end-customers, waste is still waste at the end of the day, and people mostly care that their waste is managed in an efficient and sustainable way. We positioned Fluo as a challenger that makes local waste management look easy, effortless and fresh, while building thought-leadership on circular economy at a societal level. The name Fluo comes directly from Latin and means ‘to flow’, ‘to lead’, which connects perfectly with Fluo’s mission: to make the circular economy mainstream by increasing the recycling rate of domestic raw materials and manufacturing recycled products.
Design
We designed a differentiated brand that stands for the seamless operations of Fluo’s local units. All of the verbal and visual brand assets convey approachability, efficiency, paving the path towards the future of circular economy. The fresh and modern visual identity was paired with a verbal identity that makes Fluo sound easygoing and customer-focused, rather than stiff and self-centred. All of the Fluo brand assets share the same DNA, from the new fluo.fi website, to presentations and waste management truck designs. We continue working with Fluo today as an extended brand marketing team, making sure that the brand is implemented and communicated as intended.
