Project Background
One of Insight’s founders, Zakera Kali, saw a window of opportunity for her two-decade old vision for a multi-faith stationery boutique. Zakera decided to create the brand as a result of her frustration at lack of contemporary and design-led greeting cards on the market for the Eid celebration.
Sector
Giftware
Project Timeline
2017 - Present
Supported In
Peace & Blessings is a multi-award-winning brand that launched in 2017. The company creates gifts and stationery for key cultural festivals such as Eid, Hanukkah, Diwali, Chinese New Year and other faith groups and cultural events. Since their successful launch, they now supply high street retailers such as John Lewis and Fenwicks and were the first company to supply Eid cards to Selfridges.
Our challenge was to position Peace & Blessings in the already highly competitive and price-led greetings card market as a new and unique proposition. With such a diverse and culturally sensitive product offering, it was imperative to position the brand in a way which met the needs of customers from a wide variety of backgrounds and faiths.
How we helped
As Peace & Blessings was not already established online, the first task was creating the website and brand identity. The products themselves were to be simple and ecologically sustainable – something that was paramount to Zakera’s vision – and the brand had to reflect the same values. Every touchpoint needed to be culturally sensitive and respectful of the festivities they were celebrating. Zakera wanted to ensure that the ethos of the company reflected the values of these communities.
We have gained a further understanding of the challenges around e-commerce, especially as our development team works closely with Zakera on integrating inventory management, shipping, social media campaigns and accounting software to allow her to use her time more effectively.
The results
Peace & Blessings has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Stationery Matters and Greetings Today, and did an interview with GS1. After less than a year of starting, Zakera managed to secure a coveted launchpad position at the Manchester Stationery Show. The company continued to grow at a rapid pace and at the beginning of 2018 it won the 2018 Greetings & Stationery Gift of the Year. The success of the first year led to Peace & Blessings being signed to the Art File, a leading independent publisher of greeting cards, stationery and gifts.
Within two years, Peace & Blessings has grown rapidly and partnered with a leading publishing house in the UK to stock greeting cards in premium high street and independent retailers including John lewis, Fenwicks, Selfridges and Fortnum & Masons in the UK, as well as selected retailers in the USA, South Africa, Middle East and Australia.
At the beginning of 2019, Zakera was featured in Forbes, a fantastic achievement for any entrepreneur. This multi-award-winning company is only in its early stages and we are all very excited to see where it goes next.
Insight has helped us from the original launch of our brand and have worked with our design team for over four years. The team are efficient and professional and we love how we can work collaboratively with them to grow our business.
- Peace & Blessings Team, Jan 2022
