Tugende

Road to opportunity

Expanding a business helping transform lives in East Africa

Challenge

Following several years of growth across Uganda, for-profit social enterprise Tugende was preparing to increase its presence and portfolio across Africa. With new assets to market, new countries to expand into, and a sizable internal audience to keep engaged, Tugende’s brand needed to mature and solidify—placing a firm stake in the ground about who they are, where they’re going and why they do it.

Insight

Our team traveled across Uganda to ensure our answer stemmed from the brand’s most important stakeholder—the entrepreneurs of East Africa. Through a truly ethnographic immersion—we conducted immersive workshops and one-on-one interviews across the communities—we discovered the key to the brand’s story was in the tangible impact it has. Ownership offered drivers the opportunity to provide for others, to improve their standard of living and to start their businesses—enabling them to have personal and financial independence. This connection and purpose drove our solution.

Answer

From a narrative-led architecture model that was formed to build and extend these relationships to an empowering brand platform and vibrant visual identity that echoed the optimism of the brand’s message, we ensured every touchpoint with Tugende communicated this core vision— empowering entrepreneurs to truly own their future.

The original Tugende logo was redrawn to create a more sophisticated and international appearance, the ‘boda boda’ (motorbike) was liberated from the mark to allow the individual elements to be used more freely.

We created a visually arresting appearance by taking inspiration for the pink color from the high-visibility vest that the ‘boda boda’ drivers wear and pairing it with a bright purple.

Tugende was founded to micro-lend for motorbikes or ‘boda bodas’ only. However, with an expansion to offer new assets, we created a range of icons drawn in the same style as the logo—visually communicating the new set of opportunities for Tugende’s loyal customers.

We created a range of vibrant and colourful patterns by taking inspiration from the traditional textiles in the region.

We revised Tugende’s digital experience through a new website and smartphone app, allowing the brand to engage across regions, for all audiences—enabling customers to develop and deepen their relationship with the brand

The brand was launched internally through a range of different events and by a full refit of the headquarters in Kampala.

Results

Going through Siegel+Gale's process from scratch not only gave great results, but helped us clarify and sharpen our actual business strategy. Tugende's been around for eight years, but with our new branding there has been a sudden influx of attention, and also a lot more clarity internally and externally on who we are.

Michael Wilkerson, CEO, Tugende

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