The Brand
“DateMySchool” is a dating service launched in 2010 designed for students and alumni who want to find relationships amongst their peers. While the service provided is desirable the brand name and awareness were lacking. Tasked with a rebrand I changed the name, logo, and app design as well as launched an ad campaign to help raise awareness.
Rebrand
It challenges us, changes us, and forces us to grow. It nurtures us, brings us joy, opens our hearts and minds to pleasures we never knew existed, as well as pain we never wanted. It frustrates us, tortures us, takes us to new heights while delivering us new lows. It’s simple but complex, beautiful yet ugly, rejuvenating and exhausting, it is love. It is a lot of things and holds different meaning for different people but if it were to be described in one word it would be, rare. Love is a beautiful thing to hold but a difficult thing to find. This is because it can’t be obtained, it is an emotion, something that can only be experienced and shared. True love requires two individuals to work harmoniously together as one. It’s hard to tell who the right person is or what qualities our soulmate might hold; sometimes it is the qualities we never expected that we love the most. When it comes to dating options are a luxury, which is why the dating service industry has seen a major influx of new services, each providing their own take on the best way to find love. With a commodity as complex as love there are countless of ways to deliver a product to find it, the goal for the “DateMySchool” rebrand was to find the right way.
The desire to find love, or at least a companion, is high, there are over 20 dating apps currently on the market. Finding the right way to go about finding love is tricky because ultimately the process differs depending on the user. The question is, how do we deliver a service that is both effective and attractive to a widespread audience? What are the components of a dating app that users desire and how do we assure them that our app will be the last they download? With these questions in mind I conducted research, through surveys and testimonials from influential bloggers, to find what qualities users desire most in a dating app. The number one feature I found users desire was exclusivity. It is a premium for dating apps because it provides security to users, assuring them that people online are who they say they are, while also providing comfort that the people they meet online are looking for relatively serious relationships. While exclusivity is a premium, subscription services are not, they reek of desperation. “DateMySchool” has an edge here as the service is exclusive to students and alumni but doesn’t require a subscription. Information is also key, bad dates might make for good stories but the goal of dating is to find someone to laugh with not at. Finding ways to increase familiarity amongst users before the date allows them to make informed decisions, cutting back on the number of wasted dates or conversations. Using the insights from my research I went to work on how to change the brand and service, tailoring it to the needs of our market.
Our aimed market is for people who lead busy lives and have a hard time fitting in extra time for their personal lives. Our users need an efficient and relatively painless service that allows people to expand their social circles without taking precious time out of their already cluttered schedules. The model for the app is based off of the college application process. Like any college users want a diverse set of options to choose from but they don’t want just anyone. There is a set of carefully selected criteria that each applicant must meet. The same goes for our heart, we have our image of the ideal candidate and do our best to find the person who checks off most of the boxes. Of course there are always those people who don’t necessarily fit the bill but have those intangibles that make the other criteria seem unimportant. The new app follows this method as users are able to set their list of criteria giving them candidates that meet their requirements. Which ones stand out depends on your taste and attraction to their intangibles. The app also contains a free response section, a set list of questions on your profile that users can respond to, allowing them to show off their charisma. The new name is “Accepted”, as the app serves as an application process to your heart. How you chose who to let in to your heart is up to you.
New Name, Logo and Tagline.
Ad Campaign
App Design
Accepted allows users to pick their “type” while also leaving the door open for that unexpected someone. The people on accepted don’t want to waste time endlessly swiping through face after face only to hope that the 3 people they actually find attractive like them back. With Accepted users aren’t flooded with “potential” matches, instead they are given 5 “applicants” to choose from that all fit their specific criteria. With a small amount of applicants coming in on daily basis users are given the option to carefully weigh who makes the cut and who doesn’t. Allowing people to choose based on the best overall person, not the best lighting.