Goal
Development of a comprehensive business plan and branding program for a yoga and meditation studio with a mandate to offer a holistic (body, mind, and spirit) wellness experience unique to the Industrial Heartland region and greater Edmonton area.
Target audiences included yoga practitioners and instructors feeling out of place in traditional yoga studios and health centres, residents (local and within the greater metro area) – especially those self-medicating due to trauma or illness, and commercial and industrial business owners and staff.
Situational Analysis
Countless research has shown that people often favour self-medication treatment to numb the pain of trauma, stress, and anxiety. This is even more so in centres so focused and reliant upon the volatile oil & gas economy, and the City of Fort Saskatchewan, located deep in the Industrial Heartland of Alberta, is no exception. As a result, in these centres, less priority is given to health and wellness practices of the body and mind, and consequentially, to businesses that provide these forms of treatment.
In response to a growing need for community health and healing, and wishing to counter negative misconception and common Western thought that yoga is a physical practice only – a series of difficult stretches, bends and poses designed for the very wealthy, the very fit, and the very flexible, female, The Space was created not to cater to typical audiences or clientele such as experienced female yoga practitioners, but to those with a need for its services, despite age, gender, orientation, body type, abilities, financial status, or fitness level, thereby distinguishing itself from the competition, including health centres / gyms and traditional yoga studios.
Unfussy Recommendations
Reflected in brand direction setting and brand story, visual identity, and messaging platform development encouraging audiences to meet yoga and wellness on their own terms within the four corners of their mat or the space of their own minds and bodies, The Space must actively work to counter negative industry perceptions while strategically positioning itself as a healthy, alternative solution to the growing concerns of self-medication; with yoga and other practiced forms of meditation as a path through discomfort and suffering…not around it.
These sentiments should be reinforced through not just creation and execution of targeted traditional, online, and social marketing communications materials and campaigns, but also in business, operational, and recruitment and retention decision-making. This includes the employment of many social and cultural initiatives promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as the hiring of employees, instructors, and practitioners of all genders, backgrounds, body types, and physical and mental abilities not typically seen in other yoga and wellness studios: men, individuals that identify as non-binary, larger-bodied individuals, individuals with a history of trauma and abuse, and individuals with disabilities.
Output
- Feasibility Study and Business Plan development
- Strategic Direction and Corporate Brand development
- Internal and external communications strategies
- Messaging Platform development
- Name generation and Visual Identity (logo) system creation
- Targeted advertising and marketing communications campaign conceptual development, design, and production
- Ongoing marketing collateral design and development
- Social Media and PR content creation and management
- Signage design and production
- Brand Standards (Playbook) / visual identity guidelines development
- Photography and Videography services
- Website design and development
The brand initiative and ongoing marketing campaign development was and is fed by extensive internal and external research, including key stakeholder workshops, SWOT, and discovery sessions, and significant community engagement in the form of online surveys and PR / social media engagement.
Outcomes
The Space has taken tremendous effort to be seen as a welcoming, comfortable, and non-judgemental safe space promoting healing, accessibility, and a powerfully inspirational and uplifting sense of community for all. Much more than “just” a yoga studio – offering a strong sense of community in addition to its physical, mental, and spiritual health and healing classes, workshops, and therapies, The Space has become a second home to many, promising empowerment and emboldenment in pursuit of a better, healthier, and happier future.
To truly reflect and promote its inclusive brand, The Space has become a registered Safe Space Member of the Safe Spaces Alliance (creating safe spaces for LGBTQI+ communities worldwide); and—owned and managed by a certified trauma-informed yoga instructor and strong Indigenous woman who herself felt uncomfortable, un-welcomed, and under-represented when attending other health and fitness facilities due to her physical appearance and beliefs—a proud member of Indigenous Tourism Alberta, offering an authentic Indigenous experience through spiritual, land-based practice.
Living up to its highest brand ambitions and aspirations by giving so much in just one space, the studio measures success through the steady growth of class memberships, workshop registrations, corporate and group bookings, and social likes, follows, and shares month-over-month and year-over-year.
Testimonial
“This is what The Space offers me every time I step through the doors: a space to heal, a space to be imperfect, and a space to love myself. It’s not just about yoga. It’s about finding the tools for self-love and self-compassion that I desperately needed, and I found them only because I found connection to a brand that felt not like a yoga studio, but like home.”
Christi M.
The Space Student
