Sometime in mid-summer 2008, I needed a break from coding and developing applications, so I decided to take a job in designing a printed publication for school kids, that would help them organize their school assignments and extracurricular activities. It was called a “School Calendar” and little did I know, it marked the birth of a new brand.
These kind of organizers were widely spread across Europe at the time, but the Croatian market never even got a glimpse of it. Placing a new product on the market required introduction, a lot of promotion and a wise choice of distribution channels – it turned out to be an interesting and challenging project. Designing a product itself proved to be an easy task compared to everything else, since there were no similar products on the market at the time that could help us, at the very least to form a price range.
So in the year 2008 we went for POS displays and distributors, posters for schools and online advertisement. We also included the possibility to flip through the pages online, as well as in the stores, by applying a sticker on the covers inviting the kids and parents to flip through the publication, since this is a large cultural difference between Croatia and Western countries, in terms of consumer behavior.
The marketing company that published this school calendar already had the mascots registered in one of its previous projects, which we decided to use as “content guides” throughout the publication. They were called “Smartici” (Croatian for “Smartys”) and they combined learning with fun.
The large display stands contained six POS dispenser boxes with twenty calendars in each box. The stores always had one of the dispensers placed next to the register.
The website featured a detailed description of the publication content, a possibility to view the publication online and the order form. It was a simple PHP mailing-form with a “thank you” page.
