S Group’s co-op membership program’s brand identity by BOND

S Group

Bringing simplicity and coherence to a €12bn retail giant

S Group is a Finnish network of companies operating in the retail and service sectors. It has more than 1,600 outlets, over 2.4 million co-op membership program members and almost 4 million bonus cards distributed in Finland. New co-op owner volumes were growing but they weren’t as committed to the loyalty program as before. S Group had not been successful in communicating the benefits a loyalty program member gets from using the group’s services.

We were set to add simplicity and coherence to S Group’s co-op membership program’s brand identity. As local and group-level brands needed a clear common factor, we ended up using the S logo throughout the identity with a new fresh design. We also introduced a new recognisable and ownable typographic style to the core of the identity.

More Info

client:

S Group

contributions:

Brand identity

Logo design

Art direction

Custom Typography

industry:

Retail

Unified recognisable presence with clever use of typography

It was clear from the beginning that we would not redesign all S Group sub-brands, but instead create a flexible custom font family that could be utilised in many of them as a subtle way to create a more cohesive S Group brand. Custom typography ties in the multitude of S Group brands and customer touch points, giving them a unified and recognisable presence. A single common font family also creates practical synergies within the S Group. The basis for the S-Bonus loyalty programme font family design and its form language was in the redesigned S logo. S-Bonus was designed to achieve a balance in terms of personality, versatility and functionality. The font has a personal, concise title font as well as a functional text font that works well in digital channels.

Finland's first ever vertical credit card

In the past the green membership card had been the brand’s key visual. We redesigned the card to have a modern, vertical format yet following Visa’s design specifications. The new vertical design matches the modern use of cards better and makes especially online payments easier.

Mobile app in the core of the customer loyalty program

The mobile app is in the core of the customer loyalty program. For the app we designed all UI icons and our custom fonts are also designed so that they are easy to add into the mobile app environment.

“BOND is agile, responsive and extremely creative.”

Lauri Toivonen

SVP, Head of Marketing

"Building a long-term relationship with them has been great and the results speak for themselves. They are familiar with our processes and business model, constantly clarifying and simplifying our brand communications across our different channels" says Lauri Toivonen, SVP, Head of Marketing.

From a fragmented look to a unified one

The new identity is boldly green and looks alive. It can be applied in a simplistic and understated, or vivid and distinctive way. The S logo acts as the key visual throughout the customer's path. The new flexible brand identity unites S Group’s local- and group-level communications and marketing, crystallising the before fragmented visual identity.

37% increase in the perception of loyalty program benefits

Before the biggest difficulty was conveying the benefits of the loyalty program. Thanks to the rebranding project, together with new services such as the new mobile app, and other marketing and service development, the co-op membership program is now perceived as easy, rewarding and digital. The most notable improvement during the two-year project was the 37 percent increase in the perception of the loyalty program being beneficial. Consumer perception of the brand as digitalised also improved by 64 %.