7-Eleven: A Swedish Convenience Makeover
Convenience retailer 7-Eleven has unveiled plans to rebrand some of the 77 locations in Sweden. The company hired design firm BVD to take on the challenge of creating a new shopping experience for customers. In contrast to North American stores with halogen lighting, white, clean appearance and minimal logo use, BVD has chosen to take the brand back to its roots. With green backdrop found throughout the store, and brightly coloured corporate packaging, 7-Eleven Sverige has emphasized the brand in this market and created an engaging, amicable, and exciting environment.
Regional branding is operationally difficult to execute seamlessly. It is also something not many market-sectors undertake as they want to maintain a single global brand message (consider fashion and luxury brands). Perhaps acknowledging that a clean US based convenience store is not a global destination in many developed countries, 7-Eleven is taking the opportunity to create a meaningful experience for their Swedish customers. This will be an excellent test before rolling out a re-brand or regional strategy for the retailers other 48,000 locations globally.