Petro-Canada, one of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies, retained Shikatani Lacroix to develop an employee branding program that includes campus recruitment initiatives that build on the company’s vision. The mandate was to develop an employment branding strategy that could evolve over the years throughout all of the company’s HR, marketing, work environment and recruiting initiatives.

CHALLENGE

Since the new branding initiative was to impact a broad range of employment touch points over a long period of time, and within various areas of management of the organization it was imperative that the program be rooted in an overall strategy and brand position. In addition, there was a high sense of urgency that the new initiative lead with the campus recruitment in the spring of 2008.

SOLUTION

SL initiated a strategic branding process to better understand employee and student needs and perceptions of Petro-Canada that lead to an umbrella employment brand statement “ Your Potential, Our Possibilities” expressed as part of a tagline and unique identity linked to their corporate Maple Leaf icon. In order to provide a range of visual tools that reinforced the employment brand message and essence, SL designed the “Opportunity Ribbon” that reinforced the key brand messages and which was leveraged as part of communications, website and interior facility wayfinding and common areas. SL was responsible for the development of the fully integrated program, including the development of the campus recruitment advertising, first of its kind digital brochure and a host of other communication elements. SL also worked with Petro-Canada on on-boarding and knowledge tools to better link the Employment Brand strategy to on-going HR initiatives

RESULT

The overall program, and specifically the campus recruitment program was a huge success, both in increasing Petro-Canada’s profile and access to top candidates in addition to provide a platform to gain visibility on an on-going basis.

The Challenge
The design needed to capture the whimsical feel of the Alice in Wonderland movie, along with the personality of Tim Burton’s characters, while clearly communicating the Tetley brand. The timing for this project was extremely limited due to printing timelines, the fast-approaching release date of the movie, and the multi-level approval process, which required approvals from Tetley, Disney, Tim Burton, and the talent featured in the designs.

The Solution
SLD created stunning designs that captured the artistry of Tim Burton’s creation while maintaining the Tetley brand equity and other key elements of Tetley’s packaging architecture. On the Tetley Orange Pekoe cartons, SLD integrated Tetley’s blue with the blue tones used in Burton’s Alice imagery, and incorporated an Alice in Wonderland tea cup image into the design, thereby linking the tea-party themes from the film to the product. On the Tetley canisters, SLD emphasized Tetley’s three limited edition flavours using bold, flavour-specific colours along with visuals of their corresponding Alice in Wonderland characters. The SLD studio drew on its amazing capacity to work cooperatively, creatively, and efficiently to design and produce artwork for ten skus in only two weeks.

The Results
SLD’s designs ensured the Tetley brand remained recognizable on-shelf without compromising Disney’s Alice in Wonderland imagery – Tetley and Disney, and were thrilled with the results.

Background

TD Canada Trust, Canada’s second largest financial institution identified the need to evolve their retail experience to better reflect the needs of the customers and their “Comfort” brand position. That is when Shikatani Lacroix Design stepped in and developed new digital signing and in-branch communication architecture for TD, to create a new customer-centric experience.

Challenge

The new design needed to seamlessly integrate with the existing branch décor while ensuring that the new elements stood-out and properly complemented the sales and service layout. Another challenge was the way the new experience had to be delivered as part of current facility budgets, with no incremental spend allocated to the new program.

Solution

Shikatani Lacroix (SL) developed a new décor program that worked with the current facility décor while communicating a lighter and fresher image to customers. In addition, SL created some unique experiential features that include a Community Room designed to fit larger groups of customers, a Community Wall that shares a pictorial story about the local area along as well as a large LCD screen that features the latest community programs. In addition, a Kids’ Area was created, equipped with books, toys, and a computer that provide access to safe and fun children’s websites. Interactive units such as web kiosks, and online brochure library were installed to enhance customers’ bank experience.

Results

Response by customers and visitors has been overwhelmingly positive.

Background
EMD Serono Canada provides innovative drug therapies that address unmet medical needs in the areas of neurodegenerative diseases, fertility and endocrinology. EMD Serono Canada Inc. is an affiliate of Merck Serono, Geneva, Switzerland. Merck Serono is the division for innovative prescription pharmaceuticals of Merck KGaA, a global pharmaceutical and chemical group based in Darmstadt, Germany. In Canada, Merck Serono operates as EMD Serono. The company identified an opportunity to leverage its success of the Multibionta brand in Europe for the North American market. SL was retained to develop a new package design for the Canadian market.

Challenges
Multibionta was developed to meet the needs of today’s demanding and hectic lifestyle and the new package design needed to reinforce the greater benefits than traditional multivitamins. Multibionta is a combination of probiotics, vitamins and minerals, not only helps balance and normalize digestion while strengthens immune system. The new packaging need to also reinforce a unique 3-layer caplet that is smaller than most multivitamins and easier to swallow while leveraging its #1 multivitamin in U.K. and France position.

Solution
SL developed a new packaging brand architecture that provided focus on the products three unique benefits while creating an overall design that simplified the communication while ensuring strong shelf impact. The new package design leveraged a fifth panel that clearly communicated the product features while an illustration reinforced the unique multilayer tablet design.

Results
The new program has received strong support form the trade and is currently being rolled-out across Canada. For more information, please go to www.emdserono.ca.

TD Canada Trust has invited Mr. Lacroix to speak at an upcoming FREE online seminar that will show you how to create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your business. Learn how to position your products and services in a way that distinguishes your business from your competitors, keeps your brand top of mind with customers, and increases your sales. The session is hosted by Irene Law, Senior Manager, Business Banking, TD Canada Trust and includes Jean-Pierre Lacroix, President of Shikatani Lacroix, one of North America’s leading branding firms and Michael McDerment, CEO and Co-Founder, Freshbooks, the Leader in Online Billing.

The session will be held Thursday, October 22, 2009, 12 noon eastern standard time.

Click here to register for October 22nd Webinar

Mr. Lacroix’ topic: Making your firm “Mighty”. With the majority of design firms consisting of five or less employees, how do you run your design profession for success and effectively compete? Jean-Pierre shares the fundamentals of running a firm for success. He explains how to define your point-of-difference, the numbers to watch to keep you out of financial harm and the key factors that will drive a firm’s growth.

Visit DesignThinkers

As part of our commitment to providing our clients and the industry with knowledge tools that fully link design to business needs, we offer a wide range of lunch-and-learn “DesignLounge” sessions, developed to assist your organization in fully leveraging the power of design.

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The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (RGD Ontario) has announced the recipients of the 2009 Student Awards, including the Shikatani Lacroix Award for Packaging Design

In recognition of her outstanding achievements, the winner is Narani Kannan, a graduating student from the communication design program at OCAD University. Narani receives a $1,000 cash prize donation by Shikatani Lacroix, a special certificate and a profile of her work in Applied Arts magazine.

Narani’s award-winning student project is Gotta Moo, an eco-friendly milk packaging solution. This greener milk packaging solution would outperform plastic, and plastic coated, packaging in the food and beverage industry.

“We applaud Narani for using creativity and research to help address the issue of waste reduction,” says Jean-Pierre Lacroix R.G.D., founder and President of Shikatani Lacroix Brandesign. “We’re also pleased to support the work of RGD Ontario as it encourages the next generation of designers to the highest levels of communication and strategic thinking.”

This year, RGD Ontario distributed $18,000 in cash prizes to 12 students. There were four regional awards for Excellence across media and 14 awards for Excellence in specific media, which included branding, logo design, books and editorial, multimedia, packaging and print. A jury of award-winning creative professionals selected the winners.

RGD Ontario’s Student Awards program aims to bring industry professionals together with emerging designers to promote excellence and encourage the next generation of design professionals to the highest levels of creativity, innovation and conceptualization.

In the 12 years that RGD Ontario has organized this program, it has distributed $119,000 in sponsored cash prizes supported by industry leaders. Awards are given to students graduating from three and four-year graphic design programs at Ontario colleges and universities. Shikatani Lacroix, founder, Mr. JP Lacroix was instrumental in launching the Student Awards program as part of his role on the RGD board and has been sponsoring the event for the past ten years. The work from all years has been archived at http://students.rgdontario.com.

Background

Quest Vitamins in one of many brands in the crowded natural supplements and vitamins segment in Canada, with presence in Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart, as well as many Grocery and Health Food Retailers. The brand has had a number of corporate owners over the years and recently it was acquired by Purity Life’s consumer products business. It consists of over 126 products that cater to the entire family.

Challenge

The supplements and vitamin category has become extremely competitive with new entrants and a growing desire by consumers to live healthier lives. The Quest brand did not effectively evolve with consumer needs and its presence at retail was being eroded while the brand’s value proposition was not clearly being communicated. In addition to the brand erosion, the category had become very confusing, fueled by the addition of new brands and new product categories with poorly defined benefits.

Solution

Shikatani was retained to dramatically improve the shopability of the line with high impact graphics and packaging re-design and iconography to help consumers navigate the category easier. Purity Life was launching life stage, gender-specific product innovation and the new look of Quest greatly increased the consumer appeal of the proposition

Results

The brand has an aggressive growth target of achieving over ten million in retail sales by the beginning of 2010 and the sell-in success has Purity Life well on the way to achieving its target.

Background

Purity Life (a Division of SunOpta) is a marketer of a wide range of natural health products with a number of brands that have been previously underleveraged within their portfolio. A key component of their brand portfolio is branded products that they own and distribute such as Vivitas, one of their large contributors of sales and profits.

Challenge

Purity Life had identified a market opportunity to launch an innovative family of supplement products. The challenge was that most products within the Vivitas line were issue-related, (ie. Melatonin as a natural sleep aid), as opposed to habitual purchase and use items. Purity Life identified a potential market and opportunity to have first mover advantage by having a line tailored specifically for women. The challenge consisted of creating breakthrough package structural and graphics that would clearly reinforced the emotive and functional benefits, while supporting the introduction of a new product offering that broadened the appeal of the line and increased habitual consumption and strengthened point-of-entry marketing.

Solution

SL initiated extensive consumer research to understand the emotive needs of the core target group. Based on these insights, SL developed a range of unique package shapes and systems in addition to label designs that could effectively connect with customers at store level. Through the use of research, a final design direction was selected that leveraged a contour bottle structural design and bright flower graphics for the supplements line and a pregnant bottle shape for the prenatal vitamin offering. Although the design process did explore a wide range of potential names, the name “Vivitas Woman” was selected by consumers for its ideal fit with the brand promise.

Results

The product is currently being launched and initial sales results are extremely positive with a target growth of doubling its sales within a year.