Live for the story

Client

Canon

Date

30/05/2017

It’s no big headline that smartphones are dominating the way we live of our lives.
Their convenience, their ability to think for us, and the way in which they make life easier is what makes them all the more desirable. But, this has caused an unwanted and unprecedented challenge to the camera category. And where we have seen an obvious increase in smartphone sales, cameras have fallen sharply, leaving the retail sector focussing its energy and investment in phones and other other similar technologies.


Canon saw their buyers falling out of love with the category, as their products were being were being over-casted by new technologies in the retail space. They also faced a constant challenge in the manner in which their products are presented in store. Principally, their products are sold through on and offline mass and independent resellers, meaning that Canon have no control over their brand and are not able to create brand consistency from store to store, or reflect the premium flair that they want to.

Historically, the camera market has never had to work hard for sales.
Years of a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality has meant that as bottom-line pressure increased, price and promotion became the default response. 
 
We saw the need to behave as the market leader, not simply through product, but through shopper insight and commercial acumen too, to show retail partners the growth opportunities that can be derived from shopper needs, rather than purely through range. 
 
We conducted a multi-market retail audit and developed a category leading Shopper Journey Program to build best in class insight on their needs, behaviours, barriers and triggers. 
The clearest insight from our work was that the shopper experience was hampering the customer’s experience and therefore limiting trade. This was down to multiple factors from poor navigation, lack of segmentation, lack of inspiration and lack on information. All of which were resulting in the failure of the retail in converting shoppers successfully. 

This fuelled a retail brand re-skin in 2017 and a host of growth driver programs which are currently progressing to live market trials. 

As part of the global communications strategy for Canon, we designed the Retail Brand Design system toolkit. We utilised the iconic semiotics of the brand to ensure that the brand was represented consistently across every touch-point and to make sure it achieves immediate recognition, maximum disruption and clear recall. The system is designed to drive conversion in a range of scenarios from stand alone to seasonal campaigns and NPD launches.

The system was also designed to be simple and efficient  so that it can be used and rolled out by all local markets and general managers.

2017 saw the roll-out of this system across all retail channels from digital to mass and specialist. Beginning with core performance outlets, all new store upgrades are

now being launched in this new model and Canon is now delivering on one coherent brand experience across its stores and converting shoppers successfully. 

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This was a
Digital Products & Services
Project for Canon