DESGRIPPES GOBÉ BRINGS EMOTIONALLY BRANDED RETAIL CONCEPT TO TOKYO - PELTIER

Desgrippes Gobé brings emotionally branded retail concept to Tokyo - PELTIER

(Tokyo / Paris, January 2003 )

Joël Desgrippes, founder and CEO of Desgrippes Gobé arrived in Tokyo for the opening of the newly redesigned Peltier boutique in Tokyo’s fashionable Omotesando district. Peltier, a division of Juchheim Co. Ltd. (Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture), retained Joël and d/g* Desgrippes Gobé Group in late 2002 to rejuvenate the famous French patisserie brand.

d/g*, as it is affectionately known in Asia, was founded in 1971 in Paris by Joël Desgrippes. Today the company has a global network of 8 offices in New York, Tokyo, Brussels, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Lyon and the Paris headquarters, each office performing brand creation and brand design services for clients. The company is widely recognized for its uniquely sensorial approach to brand design, a philosophy called “emotional branding”.

The group’s Tokyo office, which also serves as the Asia regional headquarters for d/g*, was founded in 1991. Originally the Japan office focused solely on packaging design for cosmetics and food & beverage clients. Soon afterward, the Tokyo team diversified its business model to offer clients the full range of brand strategy, corporate identity design, naming creation and in the case of Peltier, retail architecture design. d/g* fit their brand design to fit the client’s needs – sometimes a collaboration between d/g* network offices and other times using the talent of the Japan team exclusively.

Juchheim Co., Ltd. needed to refresh the Peltier brand concept and understood the need to create a deeper, more emotional connection with consumers. They approached Joël Desgrippes, one of Paris’ most preeminent designers, and assigned him the task of elevating the brand cachet of the Peltier brand in Japan. The first challenge: to refresh Peltier’s flagship store in Omotesando, the epicenter of haute couture in Tokyo.

The brand concept for the new Peltier is “Awakening the Senses – the Peltier Savoir Vivre” (Peltier living style). “I wanted to create a genuine emotional bond between the customer and Peltier” said Joël Desgrippes of the concept. “Like a maiden voyage in an sea of sensation, it will deeply awaken the five senses of people. This is truly a fusion of French passion and Japanese sensitivity”.
 The new Peltier concept was designed to stimulate each of the five senses of sight, touch, smell, sound and of course, taste. In fact, Joël Desgrippes collaborated in Paris with Philippe Conticini, the internationally renowned patissier in charge of Peltier’s product development, in order to ensure a sensorial feast. “We are the experts in branding, but Philippe is the expert in taste”, added Mr. Desgrippes.
 The ability of d/g* to successfully marry the passion and flair of French design with the sensitivity and precision of Japanese design is unique. “We have a long history – over 12 years now in Asia - of providing emotionally branded solutions that resonate with consumers”, said Craig Briggs, d/g*’s Managing Director of Asia-Pacific and Representative Director of the Tokyo office. “From beverages to beauty, from luxury to mass, from hotels to hospitals, the power of emotion is a formidable tool to differentiate your brand from competing brands and to win over people’s hearts”.

d/g*’s emotional branding philosophy comes from our belief that deep, long-lasting and successful relationships are based on powerful emotional connection. A strong brand and a strong relationship both require touching people’s feelings. This means moving beyond the ordinary to create amazing experiences and moments of delight. With the emotional branding process and an inspired passion for creative design, d/g* expresses brand identities in ways that really impact people’s head, heart and guts.