A destination not just a store
According to Minale Tattersfield’s energy sector head David Davis who was a senior designer in 1995 on the Petronas “Green light” rebrand, “A revolution in the presentation of the brand was required to both compete effectively in the retail market and also appear consistent with a dynamic, growth driven Malaysian company about to occupy the Twin Towers”.
In 2010, after more than 10 years of sustained leadership in the Malaysian market, Minale Tattersfield won the pitch to evolve the retail brand and convenience store in order equip Petronas with the attributes to enjoy another 10 years of prosperity.
A leader going forward
To stay still when the market is changing is to effectively go backwards. At the same time when you are a leader, care must be taken to retain the brand equities that customers recognize and trust. Petronas acknowledged this dichotomy and created a brief that would make a discernable expression of change without confusing the same customers upon which they rely. In parallel, a review of the relevance to the customer and capital cost to construct each sign type was required.
Local the new Global
The Mesra C-store refresh included removing all superfluous exterior ACM cladding that had become vulnerable to damage and costly to install plus a completely new interior design that was more modern, flexible and with a proper food to go offer.
Retail is detail, and allowing a multitude of stickers to be placed at random on the shop window by the shop entrance just served to devalue the whole offer and cause confusion. Instead, by creating a neat and ordered communication space next to the door that contained all corporate messages and a unique to fuel retail industry dedicated “Community” message board next to the amenity block, these small design decisions ensured that the maximum benefits of the refresh could be achieved.
Prototype leads to RM200 million investment
The interior c-store and forecourt design elements are now being rolled out across the entire network as part of a RM200 million investment following favourable feedback from consumer focus groups. The logo and logotype was subsequently refreshed in a separate exercise and will be applied to the new design.
