Muse Energy: How we Created a Tangible Product from an Abstract

Muse Energy was founded on a business strategy to capitalize on unidentified markets of energy drink consumers. Looking at the competitive market, energy drinks use aggressive imagery to target thrill seekers. Muse Advertising identified artists, musicians, performers, and other creatives as an overlooked market cap based on the audience's reputation for abnormal sleep patterns. It is less expensive to capitalize on unidentified market shares than to compete for the same customers in a saturated market dominated by two brands.

Upon review, a master brand strategy was chosen as the ideal way to establish equity and reduce both short-term and long-term costs. To remain relevant to the category Muse Advertising developed a proprietary, protectable, brand identity system that would not require reinvestment.

The lightning icon is an aggressive image that competes within the category. It represents the electrical current of the origin of an idea. The shape is a subtle allusion to the letter M. Applying the graphic treatment to make the lightning appear intricately interwoven adds a sophisticated feel that when combined with the vibrant color scheme, stands out and grabs attention.

To differentiate the product from competitors, we named it Muse which has a soft, elegant connotation that is synonymous with inspiration. The name's historical relevance and modern definition allow Muse Energy to borrow equity already established.

The positioning statement of liquid inspiration conveys the benefit of the product to the consumer, whose main two needs are energy to perform their craft and the inspiration behind their work. The name and positioning work in concert to save costs on explaining the product benefits, while appealing to the target audience as fulfilling their need.

The font of the Muse word was chosen because of its Greek aesthetic. A font treatment was applied to the marble shaped letters to give them a silk texture, representative of the dresses worn by the goddesses.

For video purposes we added an audio signature of a lightning strike and thunder roll (Which ties in with Zeus, the father of the muses.)Audio signatures are often neglected, but are a great way to establish familiarity with a brand. This gives the audience a memorable association by grabbing their attention audibly, adding another layer to the brand impression.

For a graphics system, we chose to use beautiful women to represent the historical goddesses which Muse derives its name from. This enhances the Muse brand by giving it a visual people can associate with.

Muse Advertising developed the nomenclature system with the fact there were going to be multiple flavors in the portfolio. Without an actual drink to use properties from, we had the creative leverage to pick what colors we wanted to use in our packaging design system. We assigned each color a fruit, then added an adjective that would appeal to the artistic sensibilities of the target audience.

The packaging design system was created to be consistent to reinforce the Master brand strategy. When you stick with a consistent design, it is less expensive than designing a new outer package for every flavor. The design scales across all outer packages to show cases containing variable unit quantities, which increases the likelihood of gaining distribution with retailers.

The next step was to apply the identity system to the marketing strategy. Muse Advertising applied the brand identity system to develop fleet graphics, apparel, a website, freezers, and items that could be purchased by customers. We kept the blue and the logo mark consistent to remain true to the Master brand strategy, while keeping the images relevant to the style that best fits Muse Energy’s brand personality. The first campaign we launched was the "Get Inspired" campaign. As the introduction campaign to Muse Energy, we wanted to keep the focus on establishing equity in the positioning statement, Logotype, and blue color.

We created subsequent campaigns by using the flavors to target subsets of the market. Utilizing videos and images that depict artists, dancers, musicians, and women that can stand in for the muse goddess, we incorporated the vibrant colors and copy that would cut through the noise. Creative that grabs attention is memorable. When supported by a solid brand strategy and identity system, creative increases product trial and builds brand loyalty.

Click here to see the work Muse Advertising did for Muse Energy.