Molly’s Dog Care
A warmer, fuzzier standard of canine care.
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As much as people love their dogs, safety, cleanliness, and staff training standards are low throughout the world of doggie daycare. Molly’s Dog Care is on a mission to change that.
They wanted to win hearts and wag tails by raising the bar for the entire pet care industry. As the brand prepared to scale, it needed to build a cohesive identity and overall brand experience that could position it as a premium, hospitality-first category leader. We partnered with Molly’s to reimagine their entire brand experience from the ground up, including their vision, positioning, tone of voice, and a flexible visual identity system that could play across multiple locations and markets.
Our Services
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Brand Voice
Motion Design
Packaging & Swag
Interior Design & Signage
Brand Support
Website Design
(01) Focus
More than a look, a launchpad for national growth.
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The Molly’s team wanted to change the dog care game, and they had their eyes set on national expansion. To do so, they needed more than a logo. They needed a brand people could believe in and love.
We worked with the team to develop a foundational strategy around a reality that all busy dog parents experience: it’s hard to be spontaneous and live your life to the fullest if you don’t have someone you can trust to care for your dog when you’re busy or away.
What these busy dog parents really needed (and Molly’s was uniquely equipped to deliver) was a safe, high-quality neighborhood go-to they could trust with the well-being of their furry family, even at the last minute. To position Molly’s as that go-to, we not only needed to deliver first-rate safety standards, but we also needed to build strong relationships with our customers by prioritizing care and hospitality for both dogs and their humans throughout the brand experience.
(02) Brand Design → Voice
The trusted dog care expert next door.
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Dogs bring immense joy to our lives simply by loving us unconditionally and being their goofy selves. We wanted the brand to deliver and reinforce similarly warm and fuzzy feelings through its actions and its voice.
We brought Molly’s voice to life as the dog care expert next door — a fun, friendly, and happy-to-help presence. It needed to strike a delicate balance between playfulness (to engage) and professionalism (to build trust).
With a complete messaging strategy and tagline in place, we provided Molly’s with the tools to tailor their messaging and scale their tone across various audiences and channels.
(02) Brand Design → Visuals
A purple presentation to bring playful pup personalities to life.
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The visual presentation evolved from a set of essential elements, including owning purple as a unique color, and the existing logo assets. The brand team (and franchisees) were looking for an identity and brand system with personality, playfulness, and purpose.
Their brand refinement introduced a new color balance, featuring their brand's purple, along with complementary lavender hues that create a sense of calm, as well as the delightful chaos of 30 dogs playing with each other.
Complimenting their scripted logo is a bold and heavy use of Filson Pro, a typeface full of character and playful flourishes that felt like a perfect fit for a brand based around dogs. The brand pattern comprises 20 illustrations that leverage the unique Molly’s “M” logo to convey the range of pup personalities Molly’s cares for.
“We’re thrilled with their work and now, a year later, can attest that it wasn’t just thoughtful and creative, but also deep. We have a library of assets, both visual and written, that provide easy access to our brand voice and materials for all our brand needs.
This isn’t something AI could do for us, the human touch, the depth of content, the human understanding translated into brand permeates the outward expression of our business, and EightySeven is a uniquely great group to do that.”
Steve Gaudio, CEO and Co-Founder, Molly’s Dog Care
(03) Brand Activation
A brand relaunch that sparked national growth.
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The brand rollout has been a tail-wagging success. More than launching a brand, Molly’s is boldly expanding its footprint with several new locations to correspond with the rebrand.
Each location provides its own unique, neighborhood touches while remaining part of the larger environmental design strategy we collaboratively created to stand out and welcome you in. With a start in Baltimore and Washington D.C., the Molly’s mission is to expand their quality of care nationally.
With the launch of their first locations, the bookings are piling up, and the communities are being built. Brand-forward initiatives, such as Molly’s Dogs of the Week, are melting hearts on social media and giving people a sense of what Molly’s is about.
More importantly, the franchisees, the staff, and the busy dog owners they serve have been connecting deeply with the new brand, fully embracing a bigger vision of warmer, fuzzier neighborhood dog care.
Photography by @irlagency
