BLOOMA: the communication theory
Rubricator
(1) General theoretical part (2) Brand presentation for a wider audience (3) Presentation for a professional audience (4) How we arrived at this communication strategy (5) Bibliography and image credits
BLOOMA. Nadina Ekaterina, 2025
(1) General theoretical part
Many people with a basic understanding of design often think that it is just a beautiful and attractive picture. They are partly right. However, besides the aesthetic part, design also performs a much more important function — communication. This is the process of exchanging messages between the sender and the receiver.
The sender (the brand) encodes information through symbols. The receiver (the buyer) interprets it in a way that both the buyer and the brand understand each other and speak the same language.
BLOOMA. Nadina Ekaterina, 2025
Communication itself is a continuous and dynamic process. It depends on the context and includes encoding the message by the sender and decoding it by the receiver.
Communication theory, based on traditions of signs (exchange of meanings through symbols) and persuasion (convincing through arguments), describes, explains, and predicts this exchange. In the design of fertilizer packaging for houseplants, the brand encodes information about the composition and benefits using colors, symbols, and infographics.
(2) Brand presentation for a wider audience
For more and more city dwellers under 30, houseplants are no longer just interior decorations. In the noisy conditions of big cities, they become a source of solitude and a way to reconnect with nature. Caring for plants turns into a mindful ritual — a chance to escape the hustle, relax, and immerse in the process of plant care.
This is why BLOOMA was created — a brand of mineral fertilizers where modern technology and scientific knowledge serve one goal: to help you grow a truly stable and thriving mini-ecosystem at home.
BLOOMA. Nadina Ekaterina, 2025
Our mission is to help people living in cities find harmony and balance through growing plants with science-based and effective solutions.
BLOOMA is your experienced friend and guide in the world of plants. We inspire, explain complex things in simple words, and motivate you on the path to creating your own home oasis, where you can find harmony and calm without leaving home.
(3) Presentation for a professional audience
BLOOMA is a brand of mineral fertilizers. It organizes the chaotic world of houseplant care through science-based formulas, simple instructions, and a meaningful story.
BLOOMA. Nadina Ekaterina, 2025
In a crowded market, where city dwellers feel lost among ineffective products and complicated advice, beginners often do not know how to achieve steady growth without mistakes.
BLOOMA solves this problem by putting the user experience and connection with nature at the center. The fertilizers are positioned as a bridge between human efforts, science, and plants.
The character of the brand can be described as: (1) curious and science-oriented; (2) open to experiments and beginners; (3) emotionally warm, but clearly structured.
The market for houseplant fertilizers in Russia and the CIS is divided between large companies like «Fasko» and «Bona Forte», and imported brands like Advanced Nutrients. These brands focus on wholesale sales through garden centers. They do not invest in brand promotion. They rely on customer loyalty and low prices. This leaves a gap for premium products with an emotional story.
BLOOMA aims to fill this gap. It considers the growth of urban plant care (the market grows 15-20% each year due to millennials and Generation Z who care for plants).
The target audience of the brand consists of city dwellers aged 25-30 who own 2-5 houseplants.
They often face a problem: standard fertilizers are either ineffective (they wash out quickly or cause root burns) or chemically aggressive, which scares beginners.
They look for simple, long-term solutions (effect for 2-3 months), but they feel overwhelmed by choices without scientific backing. This leads to burnout and giving up their favorite hobby.
Modern young people use plants to escape the daily rush, turning care into a therapeutic process. For them, plants are part of their identity and environment, not just «a pot on the windowsill.» They care about results, aesthetics, and clear explanations of what happens in their small home ecosystem. BLOOMA addresses this trend by offering mineral fertilizers based on scientific research in plant care. The product acts as a link between human effort, knowledge, and natural processes.
The brand style evolved from analyzing the visual culture of plant care. It moves away from stock photos of plants toward abstract biochemical diagrams. These are inspired by illustrations from botany textbooks (for example, «wild cucumber» — Sicyos angulatus as a metaphor for uncontrolled but managed growth with chaotic tentacle-like forms).
Brandbook of the BLOOMA. Nadina Ekaterina, 2025
The creative task of BLOOMA is to show the fertilizer not as aggressive «chemistry,» but as a systematic helper and clear guide in the world of plant processes. Below are the main questions that the brand’s communication answers:
(1) How to make the fertilizer feel like part of daily self-care through plant care, not just a one-time «procedure on a schedule.»
(2) How to reduce the fear of mistakes and give the user a sense of control: «I understand what I am doing and why it works.»
(3) How to visually and verbally connect the everyday care ritual with a scientific basis, without overloading with terminology.
The brand identity of BLOOMA is based on illustrations from scientific guides: growth drawings, photosynthesis schemes, and mineral exchange diagrams are reworked into the final logo and patterns. This creates an authentic «laboratory» aesthetic without off-putting sterility. It builds trust with the audience and attracts the target group through the aesthetics of all elements.
The communication strategy of BLOOMA is based on clarity, accessibility, and building trust. The brand’s language is conversational and explanatory.
The effectiveness of BLOOMA lies in the consistency between its strategic concept, visual language, and communication behavior. Every design decision supports one idea: the fertilizers act as a bridge between human effort, science, and the potential of nature.
Thanks to this, BLOOMA fertilizers work not just as a nutrient for plants, but as a complete ecosystem. It helps urban plant growers navigate their routine, express growth challenges, and feel part of a continuous harmony with nature.
(4) How the communication theory works in our brand
The promotion strategy of the BLOOMA brand is built on the basic principles of communication theory. Any communication has a sender and a specific receiver — another person or a group of people. For BLOOMA (the sender), the specific receiver is the target audience that buys mineral fertilizers for houseplants. These fertilizers are developed with modern technology and scientific achievements. The audience is conscious young people who want to live in harmony with nature and «ground themselves,» even while living in a big, fast, and noisy city.
The target audience of the brand is characterized by awareness and a responsible approach to plant care. Understanding plant growth processes is part of their conscious lifestyle. The process itself is a special form of meditation and a way to relax.
A key component of communication is the meaning that the sender conveys to the receiver through the message — verbal and non-verbal signs.
BLOOMA. Nadina Ekaterina, 2025
When developing the BLOOMA brand, we relied on a detailed brand platform. Within it, we identified the brand’s semantics — balance, unity, calm, pleasure, photosynthesis, grounding, focus, knowledge, support, harmony, science.
All these words reflect the values or important details mentioned earlier that the brand uses in communication. Also, within the brand platform, we found a unique positioning that differs from competitors.
It consists in the fact that BLOOMA helps beginners become professionals in houseplants, growing its community like flowers.
When creating communication messages for brand promotion, we focused on the need to convey these ideas embedded in the brand through text and visuals placed on advertising banners, in social networks, and on packaging — that is, on communication channels typical for the brand’s product category in the city.
Through this message and research on the target audience, we developed copywriting — the text design for posters, banners, and packaging — that conveys the main ideas of the brand.
This approach defines the Two-Way Asymmetric model of communication in PR. However, the brand positioning includes the desire to create a strong supportive community from its audience. The brand character suggests openness and readiness for criticism and changes. This communication model is defined by the Two-Way Symmetric model, which requires the BLOOMA team to have an active dialogue with buyers of the brand’s products.
Thanks to copywriting and interaction, communication happens in one way or another. It builds mutually beneficial relationships between the brand and its audience. This type of communication is called public relations.
This is a strategic process. It aims to shape the brand’s image in the eyes of the audience, as well as its marketing, advertising, and promotion. The chosen communication model matches 4 features of dialogue: mutuality, closeness, empathy, and willingness to take risks. It helps build trusting relationships with the audience.
Mordvinova M., Solovyova O. Communication Theory: Bridging Academia and Practice online-course. HSE. URL: https://edu.hse.ru/course/section.php?id=793909#module-513254 (accessed 03.12.2025)
All pictures from the project of Nadina Ekaterina — https://portfolio.hse.ru/Project/255493 (accessed 07.12.2025)
