HappyFresh rebrand looks to reflect millennial sensibilities

Southeast Asian grocery delivery service HappyFresh has undergone a wholesale rebrand of its platform in a bid to better appeal to millennial shoppers.

The four-year-old business, which operates in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, wants to change the way it appears and communicates with millennials, which make up the majority of its current — and target — user base.

It has placed quality, service, and sustainability at the forefront of its brand proposition, under a new tagline ‘Freshly Handpicked’.

Design-wise, it has dropped the ‘Apple boy’ from its brand logo, with the character now featuring as a separate brand mascot.

Old logo above, new logo below

As well as modernising its logo it has also added greater functionality to its app, with an in-app chat function available for customers to decide what to replace an out-of-stock product with. The chat will have an auto translate feature built in for foreign customers.

Meanwhile, it has committed to use Oxium 100% biodegradable plastic bags or cardboard boxes for its deliveries, starting in Indonesia and rolling out to Malaysia and Thailand by year-end.

It has also upgraded its delivery equipment to keep food fresh, with individually-packed thermal insulated bags for frozen and chilled products, and an upgraded thermal insulated box for riders.

HappyFresh VP of marketing David Lim said: “The new brand provides a crucial interface for retailers to capture the generation of shoppers — the millennials — who have a higher demand for quality and service especially being aware of their health. With this rebranding exercise, we seek to serve our customers with an attitude circled around "build to deliver a simplified life" where our customers benefit the most.”

The brand will embark upon a month-long campaign to market its rebrand this month.

The grocery service launched in March 2015 in Indonesia and Malaysia promising one-hour delivery to its customers. This is no mean feat in Jakarta traffic, but the company claims to have a high success rate in the city. It added Thailand to its footprint in late 2015.

It then rolled out to Taiwan and the Philippines in early 2016 before retreating from the countries just months later to concentrate on its three main markets.

The Indonesian-headquartered platform raised US$20m in Series C funding earlier this year, with funding from Mirae Asset-Naver Growth Fund, Line Ventures, Singha Ventures and Grab Ventures.

The proceeds of the funding will be used for both city and country expansion, as well as investment into technology and specialist functions such as data science and omnichannel technology.

The business has three revenue streams: charging customers a small delivery fee, charging a fee from its retail partners, and monetising its analytics and data business, HappyData.