Brand-led transformation

I enjoyed my time at Landor, particularly when working across disciplines. This is a solid ‘brand-led business transformation’ project, the initial concept stage of which I remember fondly.

Context – Preem is the largest fuel company in Sweden, with retail petrol and convenience store (c-store) offers. At the time, petroleum price wars had eroded their petrol sales profits to almost nothing. Its c-stores, rather than petrol sales, could rectify this.

Challenge – The brand challenge was to bring Preem’s retail business back into profit and achieve a 40 percent increase in c-store sales over five years. Preem needed to find a point of difference for the brand and its c-store offer, refresh its image, and refit its sites.

Insight – Research indicated that Preem attracted more female customers, and was perceived to be more caring and friendly than its competitors. Landor’s recommendation was to reposition Preem as a retailer with a petrol offer, rather than a petrol station with a retail offer.

Design – Shown here are some of my sketch visuals along with some images of the finished pilot site in Stockholm. Everything was designed with women in mind, paying special attention to ensure nice restrooms. With previous experience in designing retail environments, I also steered the graphic designer’s early outputs for the retail elements of this project.

The bottom line

Business transformed – At pilot Preem service stations initial sales results from May to July 2006, compared with the same period in 2005, saw almost a 30% increase in fuel volume and a 146% increase in fresh food sold.