Klarna (2017)Copied

On 29 August 2017 Klarna launched what it called the Smoooth brand, an overhaul that touched everything from its logo and graphic identity to its checkout. The company's announcement presented Smoooth as more than a slogan: the idea of making payments effortless was meant to run through the product as well as the marketing.

Handelsblatt, under the headline With pink logos against PayPal, reported the commercial logic. The Swedish payments company was overhauling its whole brand, visually and structurally, taking cues from the fashion and music industries, with the stated goal of pushing PayPal off the top spot. The paper noted that PayPal was available in 90 percent of the top 1,000 online shops in Germany.

Handelsblatt also described the move as Klarna approaching end customers more directly. Smoooth was about building a brand shoppers would choose, not just a service merchants installed.

Ehandel.se interviewed Klarna's marketing leaders on launch day. Its chief marketing officer called it a strategic shift from a traditional payment solution to a stronger consumer brand focused on an emotional shopping experience. The new logo shook off the old tulip from the K, and the language changed too: the company that began as Kreditor dropped words like invoice and instalment for everyday phrases such as pay now, pay later and slice it. The system came in several variants so Klarna could be the perfect guest in each shop, more visible in some places and less in others. The look went live across Klarna's communications that day, and merchants using Klarna Checkout got the new checkout automatically. The company said it had worked on the identity for more than a year, and that becoming a bank earlier that summer was a coincidence.

That shift is the real story. Payment providers usually look like banks, because trust is the product. Klarna bet that in online shopping, ease and delight could matter more than solemnity, and that a brand with personality could make a checkout button something shoppers look for.

The triple o is a gimmick, and a deliberately silly one. It is also memorable, which is exactly what a company trying to step out from the back end of e-commerce needed.