The Seasons Renaissance.

The Seasons Renaissance.

A few months ago I blogged about how Seasons was going to start referring to itself as incomparable. Time has moved on, and hopefully you will have seen our Incomparable narrative gaining some more airtime:

We are storytellers.
Stories that tell of your loved one’s life.
Stories that make their life live on.
Stories told by our family to honour your family.
Memorable stories.
Stories that deserve an memorable farewell.

With this change of language we have also started the roll-out of some new branding starting with a new logo. Again hopefully you will have seen the website, Facebook (and other social sites) and some of our recent advertising all featuring the new leaf Seasons incomparable brand. Over the coming months you will start to see more of our stationery, vehicles, merchandise and chapels (this financial year will be Mandurah, Balcatta and Redcliffe) move across as well.

So how is the change of language and logo related, and why have we done this?

Firstly, I believe it is important to spell out why we are incomparable, or the incomparable recipe, which in brief consists of telling life stories through being innovative, having a sense of familyness and service beyond the expected over-service.

Firstly, I believe it is important to spell out why we are incomparable, or the incomparable recipe, which in brief consists of telling life stories through being innovative, having a sense of familyness and service beyond the expected over-service.

In long-hand we believe you have to be innovative to tell incomparable stories. Innovation is a key value of Seasons. Is there a better way of doing this? If there isn’t, could it be replaced with one that is?

A sense of family is everything to Seasons. It’s a part of our DNA; its hard-wired and sits behind everything that makes us, us. We call this backdrop familyness.

Another term we use to define ourselves, and the final key incomparable ingredient, is service beyond what is normal or expected. We call this over-service. We sweat every detail so that during our clients time of stress and grief they don’t have to sweat any. And the story of their lost loved ones life shines through without distraction.

Ok, why don’t we say for a life worth celebrating anymore?

Because we are more than that, and better than that, as I have outlined above. That’s one thing we do, but it’s how we do it (beyond comparison) and who we are (truly unique) that counts and sets us apart from the rest. Incomparable.

Why else?

It is also important to note that with Just Cremations growing as it has, having clear space between our brands for long term sustainability of each has become more important. With Just Cremations doing well in the No Fuss category, its important that Seasons is moved more upscale.

As we move forward, Seasons will be offering the best of everything – renovated new chapels and vehicles, amazing professional team members with increasing access to training and development, top shelf catering, live music, and just about anything else the client family could want for a farewell.

Further, Seasons is now approaching 24 years of trading and we felt it was time for a Seasons renaissance. We wanted something new and fresh to say: This is our new chapter, and we are the new Seasons.

How did Seasons come up with all of this?

We conducted a lot of market research including focus groups, interviews and surveys with customers, team members, management and owners during 2012 and 2013. Our values and essence were crystallised, our market positioning revised, language re-shaped and new draft logo prototypes were developed and tested back with client families, leading to this final version.

What’s with the leaf and the font on the logo?

The new logo had to be upscale, sophisticated and contemporary. It had to fit with our values as outlined above. It had to be unique, given we are saying we are incomparable.

It had to fit with our name, our heritage and our life-long link to nature. It had to symbolise the cycle of life. It had to be versatile, and work across all of our applications. It needed to keep our famous green in play.

We also wanted a motif (the leaf itself, away from the text) for versatility and as a rallying point for our brand. Something to tie everything together and make it instantly recognisable as Seasons.

But most of all, it just had to feel right. And we think this does.

As an aside, what makes our new logo a little unusual is that it (the leaf motif) is actually an image. It’s a real leaf, captured in rude health from the top-end during the last wet season. It’s been exquisitely photographed and then fine-tuned in post-production to give it that fabulous, vibrant detail. It has a story in its own right!

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *