Prophet x COLMO | Creating A Simply Extraordinary Experience

"COLMO has what it takes to be highly relevant and aspirational in the market, combining essential elements of successful premium brand: a deep sense of purpose, an iconic design, and pragmatic innovations.”

COLMO, the premium home appliance brand of Midea Group, hosted the first COLMO TALK at its Global Experience Center on March 12th to share unique perspectives on smart home and AI technology. Benoit Garbe, Senior Partner at Prophet spoke at the event to share the story of how COLMO was created.

Midea Group saw the opportunity to answer the distinctive tastes and needs of the new rising Chinese Middle Class with a more premium brand. Leveraging its robust expertise in consumer electronics, Midea Group wanted to create a new brand and build an immersive, smart home experience using AI technology. With this objective, Midea Group partnered with Prophet to create a new premium brand.

“We are extremely excited to partner with Midea Group to create and launch its new premium brand COLMO,” said Benoit Garbe, Senior Partner of Prophet. “With more than 45 million affluent households expected by 2020, China’s New Middle Class is offering a massive opportunity for growth. More discerning consumers are trading up, spending more on their homes, their health and well-being, and on experiences that make their lives better. COLMO has what it takes to be highly relevant and aspirational in the market, combining essential elements of successful premium brand: a deep sense of purpose, an iconic Neo-Bahaus design, and pragmatic innovations.”

Image source: COLMO TALK

Through extensive research and analysis, Prophet defined the brand essence for the new brand as ‘Simply Extraordinary’, reflecting the craftmanship of the brand and its endeavor to deliver an extraordinarily intuitive user experience through AI. This powerful message echoes deeply with the emotional needs of the modern-day consumers who feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the technologies and information they face every day.

With this concept in mind, Prophet created the name COLMO, derived from the Italian for ‘summit’ or ‘crown’ to highlight the ambitions and quality of the brand. COLMO is an invitation for us to experience, pursue and explore.

The visual identity is also born from this idea with an abstract crown symbol and an elegant matching wordmark for COLMO. Colour is used sparingly to create a modern, sophisticated look with contemporary iconography and typography to support product descriptions and features.

“Brands now need to interact with consumers and meet their needs in tangible ways,” said Young Kim, Partner and Executive Creative Director of Prophet. “COLMO’s visual system is a beautifully crafted, simple design, with the attention to details in the user interface and iconography that are designed for the discerning needs of our modern-day consumer. It is meant to be seen, interacted with and responsive to their needs on a daily basis.”

COLMO was unveiled in October 2018 on Mont Blanc and launched its first range of beautifully designed, award-winning products in December. With a simplistic design language incorporating geometry and natural texture, COLMO creates a seamless and engaging interactive experience between people and technology.

Image source: COLMO

About Prophet

Prophet is a leading global consulting firm that helps clients unlock uncommon growth through marketing, brand, experience, innovation and organization & culture capabilities. We operate differently than other consultancies, blending insight, strategy, and creativity with anoptimistic yet pragmatic approach.

We have partnered with some of the world’s most successful companies, including Electrolux, T-Mobile, UBS, Gatorade, and GE. With eleven global offices and more than 400 experts in marketing, innovation, digital and design, we can bring together the right people with the right experience to solve our clients’ business challenges. Prophet.com

About COLMO

Launched at the peak of Europe, Mont Blanc, COLMO is the premium AI-powered home appliances brand of Midea Group. Relying on the Emerging Technology Center (ETC) in Silicon Valley as a cutting-edge technology research base, COLMO intends to spark a deep sweeping smart transformation in home scenarios, inspire life with innovative AI technology and constantly push the envelope of imagination for Human life. 

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