Our Story

As a co-founder of Pet Choy, a pet food startup with a mission to improve pet wellness and rights, I embarked on a journey to create a brand that would make a positive impact on the lives of pets in Vietnam. After three months of successful launch, I organized a networking event to gather feedback from our customers. While their pets loved our food, I learned that cost was a significant factor in their purchasing decisions. To address this, I conducted thorough market research and rebranded our company to target young, urban Saigonese who are willing to invest in their pet’s health. With the help of M-N Associate, a creative studio, we were able to bring our brand to life and create a unique position in the market. As the Marketing Manager, I played an instrumental role in this rebranding process and am proud to have been a part of a company that is dedicated to improving the lives of pets in Vietnam.

Combined from “pet’s choice” and “pet’s joy”, PetChoy wants to visualize the happy choice of your beloved pet when knowing they’re getting favorite dish for mealtime.

Before

PetChoy provides delicious meal plans for cats and dogs in Saigon, Vietnam. Founders think pets should be served as their owners. PetChoy aims to educate and empower the pet loving community with an accurate and comprehensive understanding of pets’ nutrition and health. Since rebranding, PetChoy has been grown quickly with completely outstanding packaging on shelves. Our approach is a complete transformation for local pet food brands to compete with international ones in visual and content direction, and targeting new customer types like urbanist and GenZ.

Logo

The new logo is a purely typographic design from TT Trailers with characteristic inktraps inspired by happy wagging tails. Combined with “pet’s choice” and “pet’s joy”, we want to visualize the happy choice of a pet when knowing they’re getting PetChoy for mealtime.

Color Palete

Inspired by core ingredient colors: seafood, meat, chickens, and vegetables.

Characters & Icons

To define from the cat and dog product line, we designed cat and dog characters minimally and brought them subtly into letter A’s negative space. Also, the icon set was designed solid and recognizable to easily differentiate between products.

Typography

Taking PetChoy from a blank generic brand, TT Trailers was chosen by its great fitted personality, through inktrap, funky narrow shape design. Working closely with TypeType, we developed into TT Trailers Petchoy with happy tail- and-ear-inspired Vietnamese diacritical details. This approach brought more fun, exciting characteristics, and bold statements to distinguish the brand from the market. Pairing with Fragen Italic for sub-headlines, VT323 for menu description, and Nunito for body content, the new font systematic approach elevated health and flavor strategy for PetChoy as customers expect.

Bua an tuoi

The main pate product’s name (wet food) is changed from “Thuc an tuoi” to “Bua an tuoi” strategically to push brand vibe further into restaurant feel, making customer and their pet feeling more well-treated than feeling buying nutrition food.

Packaging

In contrast with the usual market standard, we took the packaging to a typographic-based layout that “Bua an tupc’’ becomes the main element, giving a strong message to define the product and distinguish PetChoy on shelves with others that use pet images. The paw and the dog/cat icon will describe what the product is for, complementing with restaurant ticket gives full information about the meal.

Backside is usage instruction that provides steps of changing from old food, caution, storage instruction, and contact / social information of the brand.

Imagery

Providing the essence of authentic selected raw materials and the joyful moments of PetChoy customers, and completing the brand vibe, we collaborated with Wing Chan & Thuy Duong for material styling photoshoot and lifestyle imagery.

Marketing plan sample

Performance measurance

After a successful rebranding effort, Pey Choy achieved several significant milestones. Sales increased by 200%, the brand received approximately 7,200 organic likes in earned media, its products were distributed in 20 pet shops, and it received promotion from local influencers such as Ben Nguyen (an artist), Linh Rin (a model), and others.

Pet Choy
Marketing Manager - Van H. Le

Studio

  • Design firm M — N Associates
  • Creative Director Duy — N, Anh Nguyen
  • Content Director Quan Nguyen
  • Social Art Director Anh Pham
  • Designer Quân Nguyen, Anh Pham
  • Web Designer Anh Nguyen
  • Producer / Project Manager Quan Nguyen, M — Lan

Typography

  • TT Trailers Petchoy by TypeType
  • Fragen by The Designer Foundry
  • VT323, Nunito Google Fonts

Photography

  • Photography Wing Chan (Lifestyle / Food / Portfolio)
  • Stylist Meo Thuy Duong (Lifestyle / Food)
  • Digital Retoucher An Nguyen

Awards

  • Dieline Awards 2022
  • First Place in Pet Packaging, 101st
  • ADC Awards
  • Bronze Cube in Packaging Design, & 2 Merits in Branding, WBDS Agency Design Award 2021/22
  • 2 x Silver Award Winners, 3 x Certificates of Typographic Excellence for Communication Design, TDC68 on Logotype, Packaging & Branding

Features
BrandNew, It’s Nice That, Dieline, Print Magazine, Advertising Vietnam, Brands Vietnam, World Brand Design Society, Packaging of the World, Fonts In Use, TypeType, DesignWeek