BRAND: ALOHA POKE CO.
The challenge: Aloha began as a tiny, humble food stall in a bustling Chicago train station, becoming a sensation faster than anyone could have predicted. The concept provided a healthy, customizable seafood meal, coupled with a side of laid back, feel good grunge. With a national expansion plan driving the rapid growth, we needed to determine how to efficiently scale without sacrificing the small shop culture that was crucial to the internal and external experience.
CREDITS:
My role: Design Direction and Brand Strategy Lead // Created at: in-house design team, Aloha Poke Co. // Founder and Creative Director: Zach Friedlander // Photography: courtesy of Aloha Poke Co.
DESIGN METHODS
Brand innovation workshops with stakeholders, to define the brand’s vision, voice, values and personality -resulting in the filter “simple, bold, fun and fresh” to bounce all design decisions against.
Series of interviews with employees, to deeply empathize where employees experienced pain points on the job, as well as their evaluation of the brand and company as a whole.
Observational ethnography, to analyze how people physically moved through quick-service restaurants and revamp our service model to meet their needs best.
Social media and Yelp review mining, to gather a realistic understanding of how customers were talking about us and where we needed to improve.
Iterative prototyping to develop environmental graphics and physical touch points that were the most effective expression of the brand.
KEY DELIVERABLES
Internal e-commerce platform which houses Aloha’s operational items, empowering local store managers to order based on individual needs and reduce overhead costs.
Franchise program and website, to both attract and aid partners in the national expansion plan.
Brand book and secondary internal tools which define the personality, mission, values and voice to align all employees with the brand’s vision.
Visual standards guide to inform the art direction for photography and all marketing efforts, in order to direct the brand narrative from HQ.
Environmental design intent guidelines to inform the build outs across the country based on the most efficient space plans from synthesizing the data in observational research.
the outcome
The design standards were operationalized across all channels, growing Aloha from 4 open locations to 17 nationwide, with a robust franchise plan beginning in 2019. The restaurant was also named “Top 5 Spots to Score Poke in Chicago” by ABC 7.
WHAT I LEARNED
Design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Leaning on the strengths of enthusiastic partners that crave growth alongside you allows you to build something larger than you imagined.