Challenge

Aswaaq wanted to enrich the community with a supermarket where residents could interact and share in a comfortable atmosphere. The ambience needed to be both international and local. It had to offer a sophisticated and extensive variety of products but still feel like a local corner store. The goal was to create a market so appealing that the normal monthly shopping chore would become a weekly, or even daily, enjoyable experience. Landor identified an opportunity for Aswaaq to begin an open dialogue with customers and become part of Dubai’s rich community.

Solution

Landor discovered that street markets were what people missed most about their homelands—friendly places where expert vendors offered honest advice. This inspired the Brand Driver™ Street market. To help Aswaaq with its goal of being community-minded, we developed a brand identity that engages the community while incorporating social responsibility as an integral part of the brand. To communicate with Dubai’s diverse population, we designed a visual language of symbols that express everything from cultural diversity messages to in-store destinations. Now Aswaaq is fresh, playful, and differentiated among its competitors and its place is solidified in the colorful fabric of Dubai. In 2009 it won a bronze Design Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

The Aswaaq brandmark incorporates the inviting brandline Let’s all speak Aswaaq.