Background

Our client PeopleStrong, an HR shared services company, was to introduce a cloud based HR management suite (HRMS) for HR departments to manage recruiting, employee life cycle operations, and allow analysis of HR data. This suite offers essentially the same services that PeopleStrong already offers to a galaxy of A-list clients.

Discovery

Interviews with HR managers revealed discontent with the category. IT firms, they felt, didn’t really ‘get’ HR or the uniqueness of a client’s issues. HR managers consider software as an accessory, rather than a source of insight as IT people believe. The products were judged to be fussy to install. Worse, they need HR processes to “work around the software” rather than the reverse.

Brand Idea

PeopleStrong already provides shared HR admin services, allowing us to position the product as made “for HR, by HR”. Thus, we encouraged the client to tweak their processes to ensure that HR professionals directly interacted with the customer’s HR heads in the sales phase and with the actual users during installation, customizing the software with understanding and insight.

Identity

The name ‘alt’ suggests an alternative way to use PeopleStrong’s services—its software alter ego. Also suggested is the ‘alt’ key—HR admin at the touch of a key.

The logo suggests an application stack. Its contours and colours conjure the relaxed personality that distances it miles from IT service companies who provide similar products.

The PeopleStrong asterisk appears for visual endorsement of the product, and is re-purposed for the slogan “Life’s better with a pinch of *Alt”.

Spreading it

A design language was also created to ensure that all is always instantly recognizable across a slew of applications. The content is always quantitative, bracketed within a distinct headline motif. Easy.