Interview
Mia C'bon creates high-end supermarket brand with new concept and creative services
Mia C'bon, formerly known as Jasons Market Place and synonymous with top supermarkets, has accumulated a large number of loyal customers over the years, but due to the expiration of the brand license, a new brand had to be created. As the license for the brand expired, the company had to create a new brand. The company felt that "creating an international brand made by Taiwanese" was quite a challenge, but was also very excited.
The Branding Workshop guided the gathering of ideas from different departments to find a consensus.
Sophia Huang, Director of Marketing Department of Mia C'bon, said that building a high-end supermarket brand is quite challenging. In addition to retaining the existing customers of the old brand, it is necessary to expand the new customer base with the new brand image, and the epidemic has changed the shopping channels and frequency of consumers, so it is necessary to re-examine many aspects. What is valuable is that the internal departments of the company can work together in this brand building program, and during the process, Pro has constantly guided everyone to think and create together to find a consensus, so we are very lucky to have Pro as a partner.
Jules Li, Honorary Advisor of Process Pro Brand Taiwan Branch, mentioned that at the beginning, when contacting different departments, he found that they had conflicting ideas, and through mutual communication and convincing each other, they slowly revised the direction to one that was acceptable to the majority, which was a very interesting process. The birth of a good brand is definitely the result of internal people having ideas and knowing what they are doing, but lacking a systematic way to communicate with each other. In this case, the Mia C'bon marketing team made it clear to Pro from the beginning that everyone in the company had their own ideas, and that they hoped Pro would be bold enough to tell them where they were going and set goals that could be discussed internally. The clarity of the internal goals made the communication powerful.
(From left to right) Sophia Huang, Director of Marketing, Mia C'bon; (center) Jules Li, Honorary Advisor, Process Pro Brand Taiwan; (right) Interviewer Wei Yuanling.
Branding is not a short-term marketing action, it is a long-term battle that requires continuous and consistent communication to accumulate brand equity.
Sophia suggests that companies that want to invest in branding projects should have a high level of participation from internal colleagues, especially the senior management with decision-making power, and set core values and visions at the beginning, with a clear understanding of the goals and the time needed to accumulate them. Generally speaking, the FMCG industry usually emphasizes on marketing, which focuses on the topic of the moment and has short-term and immediate results, whereas branding is a very different concept, which requires a more complete construction, a clear positioning, and long-term and consistent communication with consumers and other stakeholders, and requires a long period of time to cultivate, which is not achievable at once, but the more time passes, the more considerable the accumulated energy will be. Through Pro's qualitative and quantitative research on the market, we understand the expectations of consumers, and in the process of co-creation, we go back to the essence of what the company can achieve.
Angel Yang, General Manager of Process, said, "In the past, when we come into contact with some consumer brands, they are mostly specialized in marketing actions and are more oriented to activities, whereas brand engineering needs to further develop and extend the strategy and identification system to various consumer contact points, and to continue to accumulate the brand image so that the marketing activities and the brand image can echo each other. This time, Mia C'bon approached Pro for the branding project, hoping that from the front-end strategic values to the communication materials, such as the catalog design, store environment, product selection, and the experience to the environment, all of them can take care of the consumers and bring help to their lives and souls in various aspects. Since the launch of the new brand, consumers really feel different from the past. In the past, there was always a sense of rush, but now, after the redesign, the environment and atmosphere are different, so that they can completely change their mood and enjoy shopping here. In addition, when discussing different industry cooperation activities, after the brand team mentioned the core concept of "hoping to make the world a better place through merchandise," more manufacturers were attracted to become partners and play a role in making the world a better place.
ProPro Professional Insights Research Report Patience and companionship to help businesses learn and see in a new light
Sophia pointed out that Pro's assistance in sorting out complicated research reports has helped us know exactly what consumers care about, and this information has been of great help to us. In addition, the participatory process of the workshop guided us to find the answers together and led the team to move forward in the same direction, which is something that is difficult to achieve through internal meetings and discussions within the company.
Members of the brand team also mentioned that we often have our own blind spots, and the communication process is full of sparks, but Pro's consulting team is very patient and always looks at things from the customer's point of view. For example, when communicating visually, they will first gain a deeper understanding of the customer's ideas, which will then be transformed into the language of the designer's internal communication, and ultimately produce a vision that is in line with the spirit of the enterprise. The whole brand building project is a good opportunity for internal communication and learning.
(The Process team assisted the Mia C'bon team with a workshop to identify the brand's philosophy and core values).
Responding to the change of consumption pattern under the epidemic, the diversified self-service creates a safe shopping environment.
The epidemic of the century has made people around the world think twice about the environment. The new brand spirit, "Be good to yourself and the world will be good to you," is based on the idea of protecting the world and being friendly to the environment. The new brand spirit, "Be good to yourself, and the world will be good to you," is based on the concepts of protecting the world and being kind to the environment, and creates a pleasant and comfortable shopping process, such as installing electronic price tags and electronic screens in the stores to reduce the amount of paper used and to increase the efficiency of the store operations. In addition, in view of the fact that consumers prefer less contact services since the outbreak, Mia C'bon has introduced a cat robot store manager and self-checkout machines to give consumers peace of mind when shopping, and developed e-commerce services to satisfy the shopping needs of the busy consumer group.
As consumers become more health-conscious, the store displays organic and resume products in prominent places to satisfy the needs of Mia C'bon's consumer base. In terms of selection, the store not only introduces high-quality foreign products, but also develops Taiwan's local products with international standards such as Friendly Farmer to "bring the world to Taiwan, and Taiwan to the world," linking up the value chain.
Jules believes that leading brands in the retail channel have great power, and by taking the lead, they can influence the entire value chain, thus making the world a better place. This time, the Taiwan team of the Swiss company Pro Brands is honored to join hands with the Taiwan team of the French top supermarket brand to build Mia C'bon, which not only represents that Taiwan has fully borrowed the benchmark branding practices of advanced European countries, but also realizes the spirit of "from local to international", and becomes a success story for the Swiss headquarters of Pro Brands and other subsidiaries, so that Taiwan will also become a benchmark for the world.
(In response to the trend of digitalization, the price list of the store is also presented electronically.)
(To minimize contact, cat robots are available in the store for self-service.)
The next stage is to let more people know about Mia C'bon through "brand communication".
Sophia pointed out that after the launch of the new brand image, Mia C'bon stores are undergoing a rapid changeover, and the new brand image will be rolled out to consumers everywhere by the end of the year. The next step is to expand the promotion of the new brand, to communicate with consumers, to increase their goodwill, and to further build up their loyalty to the brand.
Case Study: Mia C'bon Supermarket
(From left 1) Jules Li, Honorary Advisor of Process Pro Brand Taiwan, Sophia Huang, Director of Marketing Department of Mia C'bon, Angel Yang, General Manager of Process Pro Brand Taiwan, and reporter Wei Yuanling take a happy group photo after the interview.
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