On a mission to make it easier to waste less food, Imperfect is building a world where everyone can enjoy delicious, fresh groceries that don’t harm the environment. The audience cares about the planet and their impact on it, but also just wants their groceries on time. The voice is optimistic, smart, and undeniably quirky.

Brand strategy and guidelines

Together with the Director of Brand Marketing and creative brains at The Regenerates, I reshaped the brand mission and voice to better align with the company’s mission to not just reduce waste, but reduce our customer’s guilt of waste. Imperfect is meant to inspire you to try new ways to reduce waste, practice them when you can, and do your best each day. 

Talking about something as complex and flawed as the food system in clear, compelling terms requires translating nuanced topics into concise language that the general public can understand, without losing the subtleties and quirks that make our story worth telling. 

These guidelines are still in the process of being shaped, but along the way, I continue to write, edit, polish, and brainstorm various types of content, from emails and OOH billboards to the very box Imperfect groceries arrive in.

Landing pages

I worked with various teams across Imperfect to realign their landing page with the mission, add quirk where possible, and offer customers more insight into the power of their groceries.

Imperfect’s impact

Together with Imperfect’s Content Marketing Manager, the Director of Brand Marketing, the Head of Sustainability, and some very talented designers, we overhauled Imperfect’s impact page to truly reflect the powerful effects each customer has—as well as the domino effect of the community. We were careful to tread the line between informative and quirky.

Packaging Page

I rewrote Imperfect’s packaging page to showcase the company’s unique Packaging Return Program—unlike any other in the world—and to make it easy and intuitive for customers to understand what to do with their box and its contents once they’ve unpacked all those tasty groceries.

Delivery box design

We revamped the new Imperfect Foods box to focus on our customer, highlighting:

• The Imperfect mission and how our customers fit in

• Easily-accessible tips the customer can use while put away their groceries

• Lots of that quirky Imperfect fun to make them smile

Close-up of content sections

OOH murals

To get our message and mission across to potential customers around the United States, we want customers to know that when you shop with Imperfect, you:

• Reduce food waste, which is one of the best, easiest, everyday ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

• Support local farmers

• Discover new and unique items

• Get high-quality groceries delivered right to your door

To do this, we need to provide content that delivers a consistent experience that speaks to our passion and personality in a way that resonates with an ever-changing customer, and their ever-changing lives.

Creative Direction: Jenn Vo | Design and Illustration: Tegan Harmonay, Irene Lee

Earth Month 2022

Earth Month 2022 brought an opportunity to give our refreshed brand strategy some action in the real world.

The atmosphere was fraught with tension: Customers were calling B.S. on brands’ grand gestures during Earth Month, while those very brands were putting constant pressure on customers to always do more, and do better, with endless listicles and environmental “to dos.”

Imperfect decided to celebrate the small actions customers were already doing, all year long. Whether you’re newer to preventing food waste in support of the planet or you’ve been at it for a while now, we’re celebrating your commitment to keep after it. The actions you're taking all year round matter. Your small wins—even with the #Fails mixed in—add up to a whole lot.

Our social campaigns allowed us to pressure test new messaging, themes, and content types in a low-stakes way. This included:

• 3 Reels with over 88k views

• 2 Contests with 350+ entries

• 5 Memes

• 2 Customer Spotlights

• 6 Campaign Posts

Content focused on the new brand pillars drove our organic Instagram engagement rate up +17% from the previous quarter. And the blog post sharing our brand viewpoint earned 63% higher time on page than the past year’s average, garnering press coverage from new outlets (press hits gained $56K in equivalent advertising value and estimated reach of 6.08 million).