Have you ever met someone who seems to understand something so raw about you? That’s how we both felt the moment we started talking with Renée Tanaka, founder of They Call Me MAMA. She came to us when she had the idea, and nothing more. She invited us to join her on her journey as she explored what her business meant to her, what she wanted it to mean to mamas, and how she wanted to communicate it. 

THE CLIENT

They Call Me MAMA offers baby programs designed for mamas. Renée wanted to build up community connections in her neighbourhood between mothers who needed to have real and raw conversations about motherhood. Through her own experience as a mom of two, she struggled with post-partum depression, isolation, self-doubt, and the whole mess that comes with it. And she knew she wasn’t the only one who experienced these things, but no one was talking about it. She wanted to talk about it. She wanted mothers to know that they weren’t alone. That’s why she developed her educational-based programs that focus on topics moms want and need to talk about. 

THE PROJECT

Renée is one of the kindest and most sincere people you’ll ever meet. Who she is as a person needed to be part of her brand. When she said wanted a brand that was light, airy, and crisp, we knew we needed to work ‘her’ into that. She’s a down-to-earth woman, a little bit feminine, and a whole lot of cool. We both landed on earthy tones, a friendly and comforting tone, and a real-life approach to communicating. 

BRAND CLARITY

We worked closely withRenée to understand who she is and how she wanted to help mothers in her community. Through our discussions with her, we were able to help her find her brand voice and develop key communication phrases and strategies to reach her target audience. With this clarity, we were then able to move forward with the visual aspect.

LOGO DEVELOPMENT

Renée presented to us logos that appealed to her, which gave us a starting point. As we played around with ideas and talked more with her, we further realized the importance of integrating Renée into the brand. With that in mind, we were able to incorporate her son’s handwriting right into her logo.  

WEB DESIGN

We had three main goals with Renée’s website: 

1. Sell the value of the programs 
2. Make it easy to sign up 
3. Funnel people into an email list 

We stayed committed to the ‘light and airy’ design while incorporating some earthy tones. We ensured that we wove her story into the copy to help create a powerful message of sisterhood, support, and connection. 

The home page introduced each of these elements, teasing readers with program information, Renée’s story, with direct and transitional calls to action. 

SOCIAL MEDIA LAUNCH PLAN + STRATEGY

Renée is your typical social media user. Venturing into business for the first time on her own, she knew that social media could be an integral part of her marketing, but wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it. Her audience focus is local, which means she needed a localized plan to hit up mamas in her community. We helped her to develop a launch plan that focused on reaching those local women and collaborating with community partners to help her extend her reach.  We designed a 3 month content calendar – including a blog strategy – that she felt she could confidently manage on her own.  

Renée was an amazing client to work with! We are so delighted that she asked us to be a part of her journey and to help bring her vision to life. And we’ve gotta say, talking with Renée about motherhood and acknowledging the ups and downs of it really had a positive impact on both of us. It was a definite bonus for us to be able to engage in some real and raw conversations with her! Mamas who join her programs are going to get so much out of them.