As the retail competition in China intensifies with national chains expanding frantically and selected international CEA retailers beginning to establish operations in China, the time for a significant evolution for Suning had arrived.

rkd retail/iQ was engaged to create the new retail brand strategy across the entire Suning group.  An initial matrix was created to identify and categorize each format within a new group of brands that matches customer demographics, location strategy, merchandise assortment and customer service strategies while creating the destination of choice, sustainable market position and a differentiated experience for each sub-brand of the group.

Of the 3 retail brand formats identified across all Suning Appliance Stores, the mid-size shopping center based format was chosen to be the first for implemented for a variety of reasons.  First as group brand building and positioning exercise, Suning Elite would be the first sub brand specifically targeted at a more upscale, aspirational customer and would be located within upscale shopping centers in the CBD of key tier 1 and tier 2 cities.

The brand destiny of Suning Elite was achieved through a clear and unified overall design concept of the new signature environment that presents a clear category definition of an edited merchandise assortment, product brand consistency and superior customer services across all merchandise categories.

The retail environment is represented by a family of complementary color and materials all fashioned into a crisp and contemporary expression that focus the attention on the merchandise across all categories and the lifestyle solutions on offer.

Share, Enjoy, Live were coined as category names to organize and present the three worlds of merchandise that define Suning Elite.  A comprehensive retail graphic program was developed to communicate category lifestyle, brand, product benefits, price and promotion strategies.

Within each world, an experience zone was created within a unique semi- enclosed exhibit component.  Each experience zone was implemented with a flexible kit of parts that could easily be reconfigured to present the variety of merchandise within each world and with a focused lifestyle solution based theme.

Additionally as product brands were strictly controlled, their opportunity of brand fixturing were removed from the format, the experience zone offers the opportunity for brands to present an entire lifestyle presentation of their branded merchandise within a consistent Elite architecture

rkd retail/iQ was responsible for the retail strategy and all creative expressions including name generation, brand + environmental graphic programs, retail planning + design and construction documentation.  Beyond the initial pilot stores, rkd retail/iQ will continue to implement the program across selected locations throughout China.