How a Clean Air Brand Faded—Until It Breathed New Meaning

CASE STUDY: PRODUCT BRAND IN AIR PURIFICATION

FOCUS: Brand Drift | AUDIENCE: Stewards of Plateaued Brands

I helped an air purifier brand shift from technicalities to emotional resonance as an invisible guardian of breath.

The Brand Challenge

This once-pioneering air purifier brand had carved out market leadership during the early years of public concern around smog and PM2.5 levels in Indian cities. With efficient filtration, early distribution, and media awareness, it gained initial traction. But as the category matured, the brand lost ground. New entrants arrived with sleek designs, health-centric messaging, and lifestyle branding, while this brand stuck to cold specs, lab metrics, and dry PM certifications.

Despite a solid product and loyal legacy users, the brand was losing relevance. To the average buyer, it had become a white plastic box blinking in the corner—neither noticed nor remembered. In a category that was increasingly about emotional assurance, the brand had drifted into invisibility.

The Brand Insight

When I studied how consumers interacted with air purifiers, I realised they didn’t want to understand PM ratings. What they truly wanted was peace of mind. The best air purifier, in their view, was one they didn’t have to think about—but could trust deeply to protect their family while they slept, worked, or healed.

Meanwhile, newer brands were capturing this unspoken desire by linking air purification to parental care, better sleep, long-term immunity, and even pandemic safety. This brand had missed that shift. It was selling filtration data in a world now buying invisible reassurance.

The Big Brand Idea

I restated the brand as “The Invisible Guardian of Everyday Breath.” The idea was to shift the product from a clinical device to a quiet, caring presence—something that “keeps watch” without making noise about it.

Instead of selling specs, the brand would claim a new emotional territory: being the trusted protector of every unseen inhale. This created a metaphor of quiet guardianship—deeply human, protective, and resonant in a post-Covid world. This allowed the brand to honour its legacy of performance, while stepping into a warmer, more meaningful narrative space.

The Brand New Strategy

I crafted a strategy that blended its strong technical heritage with a fresh emotional core. The new communication avoided buzzwords like “filtration levels” and instead focused on real-life moments: a child sleeping peacefully, a grandparent recovering from illness, a parent working late at night.

Visually, I removed the clinical white aesthetic and replaced it with atmospheric imagery—warm lighting, lived-in spaces, quiet human presence. The tone shifted from “air science” to “life space safety.”

10 New Content Directions

Here are 10 strategic ideas developed (and several executed) to support the new brand direction:

Hero Campaign Line: “You may forget it’s there. But it never stops protecting you.” Used across digital and print.
Ambient Video Series: Slow, calming videos of families breathing, sleeping, or reading in clean air—with soft narration and no product shots.
Covid Legacy Storytelling: Stories of households where the purifier remained quietly in use even after the pandemic peak.
Guardian Badge Visual Identity: A visual marker used in packaging and website—subtly branding the purifier as a silent sentinel.
Emotive Website Rebuild: Shifted the homepage from data charts to emotional narratives, with microstories of breath safety.
Testimonial Reframing: Turned user reviews into short human vignettes—”My father could breathe easier again.”
Sleep Campaign: Linked product to deeper sleep quality—”Let your home exhale while you rest.”
Breath Counter Widget: A digital campaign showing how many breaths the product had purified in real homes.
Invisible Campaign Collab: Partnered with a meditation app for “clean space” audio tracks sponsored by the brand.
Virtual Home Simulation Tour: A microsite feature that lets users explore a virtual room with the purifier active—highlighting invisible air zones, allergen removal, and how the product blends into real-life spaces.

Results Within 6 Months

32% increase in D2C website traffic from organic search and long-tail emotion-driven keywords.
18% rise in repeat customers, especially from Tier 1 cities during post-Covid recovery.
Average session time on new website increased by 42%, indicating deeper message engagement.
9% lift in conversion rate from homepage to purchase.

CONFIDENTIALITY CAVEAT: This case study represents a confidential engagement. For privacy, specific brand identifiers, campaign names, and project phases have been withheld. It has been shared with permission while preserving client discretion.

Extra Tip for Broader Perspective

If you’re an investor seeking momentum for your portfolio brands, here is one of my case studies that could interest you: “How a Bridge to Global Careers Was Built Too High to Cross.“

And if you’re a solo expert looking to sharpen traction, this case study I worked on may resonate: “How His Punchlines Killed His Policies Before They Could Sell.“

Take your brand from stuck to full throttle − with one bold strategic shift

"One BIG IDEA can turn brand stagnation into unstoppable movement. Spots are limited each week—book your breakthrough session now."

Shobha Ponnappa

More Case Studies (and Breakthroughs) from the Brand Drift Category

Subscribe For Strategy

I Bring You:

Smart insights, real-world frameworks, and idea-driven clarity – designed to help brands move.

Get my fortnightly Brand Reframe newsletter. Smart insights, distilled thinking, and focused momentum to help your brand lead.

Get my free case studies guide. Practical ideas, bold shifts, and clever transformations to propel your brand forward.

Just fill in the form to join. Get my newsletter and the guide shown alongside, all with several game-changing tips.

(No clutter. No spam, No fluff!
Your privacy is safe!)