Customers step in because the store looks familiar, not only because it is close to home.
Convenience stores win on consistency: whichever new location opens, customers find the same thing they already know. Sinh Vũ builds the identity and brand standards so the tenth store looks like the first.
Three things: a mark that reads from across the street, a set of standards for shelves, price signs and the counter, and one distinctive thing for customers to remember beyond location. Together they keep a newly opened store feeling like a familiar one.
Clear on a lightbox sign at street distance, and still recognizable when shrunk onto a bag or a label.
Say how large the price signs are, how shelves are arranged and what goes on the counter, so staff at every location do it the same way.
Something the store does clearly better, said in one short line on the sign and the counter, so customers have a reason to remember.
All of them sell everyday essentials, but each kind of store competes on something different.
Their customersOffice workers and students stopping by quickly, many of them in the evening, who need to find the right item at once.
Brand challengeLook clean, bright and well stocked from outside, and let people find things inside without thinking.
Their customersNeighborhood families doing the weekly shop: vegetables, meat, dry goods.
Brand challengeStanding next to the traditional market and the large chains, the store needs a reason to be chosen: tidiness, clarity, trustworthy goods.
Their customersHouseholds and small eateries buying every day, who know the seller by face.
Brand challengeKeep the familiarity of a corner grocery while staying as tidy and consistent as a chain, even when the people minding the store change.
These are the places where a chain loses customers even when the goods are not lacking.
Passers-by can't tell the store apart from the shops around it, especially after dark or in heavy traffic.
A mark and a block of color of your own that read from a distance, tested on a real sign before mass production.
Start from this problemSigns of different sizes, self-printed price boards, a different uniform color at each place; a customer visiting two locations sees two different stores.
A short set of standards with sample photos for signs, shelves, price boards and counters, enough for people at a new location to get it right on their own.
Start from this problemCustomers carry home a plain bag, and the store's own-label goods sit mixed in with everyone else's.
Bags, labels and own-label packaging that share the store's mark, so what goes home still carries the seller's name.
Start from this problemWhen another store opens nearer, customers switch, because nothing else gives them a reason to stay.
Find one thing the store does clearly better and put it on the sign, the counter and the greeting, instead of chasing promotions.
Start from this problemAt the Notice stage. Customers decide whether to step in within a few seconds of walking past, so an unclear sign and storefront lose the customer right at the door.
Touchpoints are the places where customers see, touch or hear about the store. These five decide most of the impression, so do them before opening any new location.
Passers-by decide in a few seconds.
Where customers spend the longest and can easily see whether the store is well kept.
The last place customers meet, so it leaves the last impression.
They follow customers home and remind them of the store's name on later visits.
The person at the counter is the face of the chain, so what they wear must be consistent everywhere.
Listed in the order to do them. With only one or two stores, stopping at step two or three is enough; a chain that is expanding goes all the way.
Name, mark, color and type: the base for the sign and everything after.
Sign, shelves, price signs and counter built as a real model, tested before being multiplied.
Shopping bags, labels and own-label packaging.
Standards so a new location gets it right without having to ask.
Monthly support when the chain opens fast and needs someone to hold the brand.
Sinh Vũ has not published a convenience store project. The two below are the closest: a clean-food store chain and a retail jewelry brand, both carrying the identity from the sign to wherever customers touch it.
Happy Farm is a clean organic produce chain in major cities. Sinh Vũ built a logo and identity that is fresh and approachable…
One shape that repeats on the sign, shelves, price board and bag, so customers feel the same thing wherever they meet the brand.
2009LiuGems sells natural-stone jewellery to people who believe minerals carry energy, a trade where beauty tends to arrive improvised and promises tend to run ahead of proof…
A full application set running from print and packaging to the store front: a template that makes every point of sale look alike.
The principles behind it
A simple mark that reads from far away and still works shrunk onto a bag or a label. Sinh Vũ tests the logo on a lightbox sign and at its smallest size before settling it.
Large type, strong contrast, few colors, and a test at night, because many customers stop in during the evening. The sign needs only one mark and one line, not a list of goods.
Standards for logo, color and type; standards for signs, shelves, price boards and counters; and ready-made price board, label and bag templates so a store only changes the text.
Don't try to look like the big chain. Pick one thing the big chain finds hard to do, such as familiarity with the neighborhood or a hand-picked range, then say it consistently from the sign to the greeting.
Write what made the first store work into brand standards, then build one model store. New locations follow the model instead of memory.
A few lines about how many stores you have, where they are and what is holding you back is enough. Sinh Vũ reads and replies within one working day.