Identity and digital rebranding
CONTEXT
Oporto City Flats offers an integral management service for short term touristic rentals in Porto (Portugal). It is present in the market for 10 years and sustained by its partners’ many years of experience in the rental market. Following this, Oporto City Flats has been concerned with developing a business that aims to reply to the growing touristic demand of the city.
CHALLENGE
Oporto City Flats wanted to find a new way to communicate its business, which would reflect the growing search tourists have for getting to know the genuine side of Porto. They had aimed at restructuring their old brand in order to correspond to the visible challenges of Tourism in Porto, and therefore they were looking for a new identity that would be elastic and could, in the future, extend to other cities. They wanted a contemporary and urban brand that would have a balance between the relaxed and the formal.
SOLUTION
So, we had to develop a new identity concept and repositioning of the brand, applying it to several platforms and brand materials. Throughout the years, Oporto City Flats has already identified its target groups. All of them look for a genuine and independent accommodation. In the new concept we developed for this brand, we based ourselves in the growing search tourists have in living unique experiences in their travels. We reinforced the fact that Oporto City Flats is focusing on the feel at home away from home and we built a proposal that would bring its target groups closer to the realities of the city. We came up with the positioning “The Native Experience”, which invited travellers to have an integrated experience of Porto, a truly native experience.
For the construction of the new identity we have made a thorough research on what is the true essence of the city. We got inspired on those characteristic and distinctive details of Porto, as for example the balconies of Ribeira. We brought the concept “The Native Experience” to life through seven characters: the natives of Porto, who represent seven types of audience that the brand considers to be their target groups. We got inspired by real local people to build up a story and an image faithful for each character. And we defined the places and tips which these natives specifically suggest. The aim is that the Oporto City Flats guests identify themselves with the proposed lifestyles and follow the suggestions given by each native.
This concept and experience get to live in the new website that we developed for the brand, in which the search and selection of the apartment, as well as the tailor-made programmes offered, are associated to the seen natives. We also suggested that the positioning “The Native Experience” unfolds in several materials and platforms and that it connects through the contact points with the guests: for instance, at the shop, where clients do their check in and out; in the online cross-strategy (facebook and website) that will be fed with segmented offers according to each native; and in the city guides organised by native to be distributed in the shop.
