Case Study: St James Shopping

The Challenge

A refresh of Edinburgh city centre's largest shopping mall's brand identity and marketing collateral.

Develop an ongoing visual style and positioning strategy/campaign platform that would work across a variety of media and applications.

With the centre set to close in early 2012 as part of the multi-million pound St James Quarter development, we were asked to work with the existing identity rather than develop a totally new look.

Research had shown that the breadth of retail offering is a key factor in choosing a shopping destination. SJS wanted a communications campaign which reflected their strength in this area, and would drive footfall, dwell-time and spend.

The Solution

First we undertook a full identity & competitor audit - looking at all existing marketing collateral from past campaigns and conducting a competitor analysis. We were also lucky enough to be armed with an existing detailed set of market research, undertaken by our client, to allow us to make fully informed creative decisions.

A. The logo
As it was there were four similarly themed but different logos, each one representing a different mall within the centre sitting under one parent logo. We advised that it would be clearer for consumers if there was just one main logo on all marketing material. We also set about undertaking a number of slight tweaks to the parent logo to make it more useable on certain applications.

B. Ongoing visual style
From looking at existing marketing material we noticed that there didn't seem to be any real kind of brand guide lines being adhered to. We set about developing a consistent and distinct visual style for the centre that would work across multiple applications. We opted for a look that focused on dramatic product photography rather than the usual family/model shots used by the majority of centers, to give our client a unique look and stand out in their sector.

C. Positioning strategy/campaign platform.

One of the key findings from the consumer research was that the most influential factor in determining a retail destination for shoppers is the breadth of offering - naturally we focused on this as the basis of our campaign. This lead us to the strapline that no matter what you're doing 'there's always a reason to visit St. James' and that you'll find what you're looking for when you're there.

Overall we provided our client with a tighter brand identity, a unique and consistent visual style with high stand out and a strong creative campaign platform that worked across a variety of media and applications - job done!

The Results

Footfall and percentage of retailers hitting targets up month on month.

St James Shopping looks set to go out on a high!