Created a Distinct Brand for Q’Son to Compete with Major Brands
Established in 1996 with just six staff members, Q’son Kitchen Equipment has since grown exponentially with 150 staff members and fourteen service vehicles. The company is now considered one of the leading companies for any kitchen project consultation, kitchen equipment provision, kitchen equipment repair, and services. Today, the company is listed on the Catalist Board of the Singapore Exchange under holding company Singapore Kitchen Equipment Ltd. and enjoys a position much beyond and higher than being just a local company. The company has ample experience in what it does, but the only challenge that lies ahead is creating a powerful enough brand identity to be distinguishable among powerful international brands.
Created a Distinct Brand for Q’Son to Compete with Major Brands
Established in 1996 with just six staff members, Q’son Kitchen Equipment has since grown exponentially with 150 staff members and fourteen service vehicles. The company is now considered one of the leading companies for any kitchen project consultation, kitchen equipment provision, kitchen equipment repair, and services.
Today, the company is listed on the Catalist Board of the Singapore Exchange under holding company Singapore Kitchen Equipment Ltd. and enjoys a position much beyond and higher than being just a local company. The company has ample experience in what it does, but the only challenge that lies ahead is creating a powerful enough brand identity to be distinguishable among powerful international brands.
The Challenges
The expansion of the company and its range of products are still in progress today. Having built its brand among local dining experts, the company’s new targets are Michelin Star and 5-star hotels—the bar has to be much higher now, regarding services, quality, and the brand’s own identity. Not to mention, these customers are tough in their ask and winning their trust requires special steps to be taken. If Q’son wants to penetrate into this tough mark, it needs to be the most promising brand offering the highest value to these customers.
The bigger challenge that lies ahead for the company is that it now stands in the same queue as some of the most well-known and powerful international brands. It’s a massive crowd of really impressive brands wherein Q’son will have to do something special to distinguish itself from the rest. As Q’son sets its foot in the South East Asian markets and strives to increase its visibility, the management realizes that the brand buffing and stronger value propositioning are of critical significance.
Our Solutions
Our first step was to get a grasp of the future of kitchen industry and what customers expect from it. We conducted thorough interviews to collect that knowledge. This strategy helped us much in identifying the new possibilities for Q’son—how it could make an impact as a brand capitalizing on the power of its kitchen capabilities and offerings.
We began the efforts to make Q’son a distinct and unique brand right at this moment as we created a new, fresher and much more appealing tagline for Q’son, i.e., “Great Kitchens. We Make It Happen.” With this tagline, we squeezed in the strengths of Q’son as a brand, e.g., its smart kitchen solutions, a wide range of kitchen products, competitive prices and host of kitchen-related services.
Realizing the ever-appealing nature of visuals—more importantly in the modern times—we knew the Q’son’s logo needed some new shine and personality. We work with Oculus Design to create the new logo and entire system of identity. This gives Q’son an identity that sticks to customers’ minds right from the first glance. Of course, no brand can ever be strong externally unless it is strong internally. To cascade the Q’son brand internally, Broc helps the entire staff participate in fun, exciting and learning teambuilding activities.
Cascading the Q’son brand through a team building event
Results
Q’son has been on the road to making new achievements since we made the needed adjustments. Just six months after our project completion, Q’son took home the Singapore Prestige Brands Award. More importantly, Q’son made an impact in the international markets as it enjoyed an incredible increase of 7.5% in its overseas projects—shooting from 2.5% in 2015 to 10% in 2016. With these fantastic achievements, Q’son further deepens its roots in the local markets and penetrates deeper into international markets as a distinct brand.