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Design: Lianhua Supermarkets Unveil New Brand Image By Superunion Amidst China’s Fiercely Competitive Retail Market 

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SHANGHAI, CHINA – Lianhua Supermarkets, a 28-year-old state owned Chinese retailer, has undergone a complete brand refresh. The new look, including a refreshed logo and instore signage and design, is being rolled out across the retailer’s 42 stores in China including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Anhui, Guangxi, Henan, etc.

Like many traditional Chinese retail brands, Lianhua’s efforts to attract and retain customers were focused on in-store promotion and pricing. However, the Chinese retail industry has undergone tremendous changes in recent years. Numerous digitally-driven and technology–led retail brands have seized the market share and disrupted China’s retail industry bringing fresh and seamless online to offline retail experiences to China’s increasingly discerning consumers. In order to deal with the external challenges, Lianhua felt the need to change and define touchpoints to re-establish the connection with consumers amidst fierce competition in China’s retail industry.

Recognizing the importance of branding, Lianhua has undergone a complete brand refresh, from strategy to concept, design and finally, in-store execution through their strategic partnership with Superunion, facilitating the execution of their business strategy.

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In a unique approach, Superunion conducted a series of interviews with members of staff, including the CEO, department directors and store managers, to understand the brand more from the internal stakeholders’ perspectives and gain insights through them. Through this process, Superunion uncovered the unique aspects of Lianhua’s culture – from the older, more experienced employees, to their reliable supply chain and neighborhood-oriented stores. The high market coverage of stores is also the biggest difference between Lianhua and their peers. These strengths are part of Lianhua’s long-held heritage and are more pertinent than ever amidst China’s fast-moving, overwhelmingly dense information society, a society that increasingly fears losing meaningful connection.

This insight is the core of the brand’s newly created brand positioning of “Togetherness”, aiming to nurture relationships and solve the pain points that consumers experience in fast- paced life. Through “Togetherness”, Lianhua have re-examined the nature of retail and created a more satisfying consumer experience providing high-quality products and consumer services, giving them a more unique positioning in a highly competitive market.

“Togetherness” has been visualized as an elaborate ribbon that ties all elements together. The new eye-catching store signage has become a highlight on the streets of the Yangtze River Delta region with the new key visual communicating a sense of connection among Lianhua, shoppers and the community.

As part of the corporate rebranding process, a cross-functional brand committee and a brand team have been established to provide professional brand management training and to ensure the brand transformation progresses smoothly, with passion and engagement from within the organization, both at head office and in store. Lianhua employees and consumers, believe the new logo and brand image brings a modern touch to the household name and is expected to attract younger generation to the store.

By the end of 2019, the first stage of the brand rollout will be complete. It’s expected that 42 Lianhua stores will display the new brand image, including updated in-store design, signage and staff uniforms. So far, the response from customers has been positive, with the fresh new look in-store vastly improving the Lianhua brand experience.

Commenting on the project, Ray Lan, Managing Creative Director Superunion said: “Creating the Lianhua brand identity was a challenging but fun journey. The new key visual – the “ribbon” – reflects the brand positioning “togetherness” in a very smart way, endowing it with a more vivid and concrete representation. It has become a powerful visual asset of Lianhua, enriching the brand through various touch points, and communicating what the brand stands for to customers.”

Commenting on their partnership, Maggie Chien, Client Service Director Superunion, said: “Our strategic partnership with Lianhua involved the development of a completely new brand strategy and brand expression, which we are now seeing come to life in-store. The new brand brings out the core advantages of Lianhua, whilst maintaining the brand’s heritage, giving the brand a new look and a more contemporary feel. It was such a pleasure working with Lianhua, who trusted our upstream creativity process, and were willing to rethink their future growth journey. We will accompany Lianhua to continuously make great impact in the journey of brand building.”

Tao Xu, CEO, Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co., Ltd said: “As a retailer based in the Yangtze River Delta, focusing on the whole Chinese market and owning multiple retailer brands, the challenge was delivering a unified brand image that maintained the flexibility and uniqueness of each brand. Superunion not only developed a comprehensive brand expression for Lianhua, but also helped us to execute the strategy and change our culture step by step. Superunion’s professional upstream creativity and empathetic approach have made the Lianhua brand compelling and impactful again.”

Doreen Cheng, CMO, Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co., Ltd continued: “We believe retail has the power to bring communities together. Superunion helped Lianhua build a unique brand model of “togetherness” that comes from the intersection between Lianhua’s strengths (coverage and resource) and the cultural disconnection being felt in Chinese communities. “Togetherness” will differentiate Lianhua in the competitive retail market, creating a holistic platform for the brand.”

CREDITS:

Monica Lee, Chairman, Asia
Ray Lan, Managing Creative Director Jolin Guan, Senior Strategy Director Maggie Chien, Account Director Tommy Xiong, Senior Designer Coco Qi, Designer
Chofi Chang, Designer
Han Lin, Senior Client Manager

About Superunion

Superunion is a next-generation brand agency. We use upstream creativity to build brands that unite people and organisations. Founded in response to the nature of clients’ needs today, Superunion comprises 750 people across 23 offices in 18 countries globally, including Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Thailand and India in Asia, and works with clients including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deloitte, Diageo, Ford, HEINEKEN, Zalora, SWIRE Properties, Nestle, Pfizer, Prudential, Facebook, Samsung and Vodafone.

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