How to evolve a global retail brand in six key steps

Benoy North America were first engaged by Canada Goose to support an ambitious growth plan involving the design and rollout of new brick-and-mortar stores in North America, Asia and Europe. Benoy assigned a dedicated team to act as an intimate, in-house resource providing seamless world-class design services. To help achieve the client’s objectives, the team conceived an approach built around six key steps and focus areas.

To help evolve any brand, you need to get under the skin of the company history, vision and values. You should look to conduct in-depth research and investigation and build a deep understanding of the nature, needs and ambitions of your client. Through this process, you can then identify opportunities to upsell additional services and value-add skillsets, expanding the traditional client-designer relationship. As Paola Marques recalls in the case of Canada Goose: 

“Things began as you’d expect: conventional design briefs with a focus on retail spaces. But the more fully we immersed ourselves in the brand, the more diverse and strategic the work became; and the more we were able to determine the direction of the journey and a possible destination. 

We began producing sketches for new product launches. We initiated the idea of providing the client with insights into retail trends and consumer behaviours. In this way, the dynamic began to change; rather than simply receiving instructions, we became more front-footed, gradually shifting into the wider role of ​‘brand interpreter’ for their retail spaces and creative consultant.”

In addition to delivering retail design solutions, you should also look to drive brand extension across target markets. Key to the success of this will be a true collaborative process, involving ​‘blue sky’ brainstorming and concept development. Paola reflects on their approach with Canada Goose:

“We’d all meet, sometimes with a design brief in advance, but often with a completely blank canvas requiring fresh ideas and on-your-feet thinking. The Benoy and Cananda Goose in-house team provided great energy and inspiration, creating a space in which no idea was a bad idea and where we could challenge ​‘what-if’ scenarios’.

What was most unique was the fact that our creative director would be hand-sketching, live with the team. It’s a really immersive way of working, with on-site sketching and image search, exploring ideas in a collaborative session. It saves time and captures the energy of the moment creating unexpected solutions to the brief. It all happens there, with each session culminating in a ​‘concept direction’ that can be taken forward for further development.”

This collaborative approach came to define and underpin the burgeoning relationship between the two companies, enabling Benoy to move freely into a range of consultancy roles and service areas. 

When working with global retail brands, you need to balance global messaging with more nuanced execution at a local level. And with responsibility for the design evolution of all Canada Goose stores globally, Benoy’s role as brand interpreter was critical. While retaining a carefully considered common thread and reflecting big global ideas, each store had to be tailored to its specific location. 

A store in Canada, for example, would require different design concepts, materials and finishes to a store in California, where the weather, lifestyle and general ambiance is very different. Looking to ensure the brand resonated with consumers in each location, Benoy’s artwork and spatial designs became reflective of local landscapes, communities and cultures, as Paola observes:

​“We undertook a lot of research into the separate store locations, drawing on local knowledge and nuance that would enable us to maximise brand impact in each area. This resulted in richly contrasting store designs – for example, the light wood panelling, soft materials and sunny disposition of the South Coast Plaza store in Costa Mesa, versus the dark slate façade and finishes of the Toronto Eaton Centre store. By personalising the brand, we wanted to speak directly to local consumers, while consistently asserting the global character and values of Canada Goose.”

Collaborations with local artists also helped to ensure the brand’s relevance and appeal for audiences on the ground. In Beijing, for example, Canada Goose collaborated with Chinese-American artist, Juju Wang, who took inspiration from Benoy’s architectural designs to create frozen landscape artwork for the Northward concept store. Benoy’s work in Beijing helped to transform a deeply challenging store layout, creating dramatic visual impact through the use of iceberg structures and glacial motifs. This new design language marked a stunning departure from previous Canada Goose store formats, and provided a strong point of reference for Juju Wang’s art.

To help Canada Goose reach new markets, Benoy began looking for opportunities to extend the brand through idiosyncratic locations and bold store formats – an approach which meant embedding flexibility into their design strategy. In Macau, for instance, the team leveraged a retail ​‘bridge’ to create what Paola refers to as ​“a metal ribbon, which literally pulls people from one side of the complex to the other, utilising this floating, liminal space to engage customers with Canada Goose merchandise”. 

Flexible, pop-up retail environments became a core part of this strategy. Pop-ups, Benoy advised, would help to raise brand awareness in markets where Canada Goose was less well known, enabling the company to assess the potential for a more permanent retail presence. The temporary nature of the pop-up also allowed for greater levels of design innovation and experimentation. Benoy, for example, used pop-ups to reinterpret Canada Goose’s ​‘Live in the Open’ campaign and concept stores – a series of temporary locations that push the boundaries of the traditional store format, as Paola reflects: 

“Live in the Open spaces are a combination of living foliage, landscaping and digital technology. They create an immersive experience that gives the impression you’re shopping in the outdoors. We interpreted what this concept meant for Canada Goose at the time, creating a new pop-up model that could be adapted to multiple locations. For the pop-up stores in Manchester, 5^th Ave New York and Amsterdam we used real trees and plants to conjure the look, feel and smell of a living forest, while in Taikoo we embraced the nature concept through layering and stone to recreate mountainsides and riverbeds. They’re utterly unique and evocative retail spaces, and very cost-efficient.”

Pop-ups also enabled Canada Goose to keep their doors open when flagship spaces, such as the Yorkdale store in Toronto, were undergoing renovation and refurbishment. Installed directly opposite the main store site, the Yorkdale pop-up comprised flat-packed, soft-membrane exhibitor cladding, adorned with stunning landscape visuals from US artist, Jason Carter. What’s more, the light, flexible, low-impact materials used to create pop-ups enabled Canada Goose to advance its sustainability credentials. 

Reimagining the instore experience was a key part of Benoy’s efforts to connect consumers to the Canada Goose brand values. At the Sherway Gardens store in Toronto, for example, the client had originally created an immersive digital experience. Recreating artic conditions, Canada Goose had conceived a snow room and a gear room through which customers moved, then a third ​‘crevice space’ which digitally reproduced the effects of running water and ice cracking underfoot. To support their first footwear launch, Canada Goose wanted to evolve the customer experience, so Benoy introduced a digital Northern Lights spectacle, which elevated customers’ gaze and provided more 360-degree storytelling. Meanwhile, to counter the sense of exposure, Benoy designed a physical shelter, made from indigenous materials, where customers could try on the footwear products using a foot scanner, as Paola explains:

“We created a shelter using red cedarwood. The idea was to create something tactile that would provide a deeply enriching experience on a sensory human level. We also integrated new shelving into a side space to make the actual products more accessible. In this way, by counterbalancing the digital with the analogue, we helped to reimagine the instore experience and create deep connections with the consumer.”

For key locations like, London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong, Benoy created a kit of parts that included digital storytelling, fixture displays and seating incorporating the foot scan technology. So popular were these experiential design features, they have remained in place for the past five years, with the details shifting to reflect the change in seasons – for example, falling leaves for autumn and green trees and meadows to support the sale of summer merchandise. It is also a model that has been rolled out globally, but modified in each location to achieve maximum impact. 

Ensuring accurate and consistent rollout of your new evolved brand is key to any retail brand project. To help ensure consistency of experience while allowing for localisation when working with Canada Goose, Benoy produced a comprehensive set of brand guidelines for future store designs and developments. The guidelines embed the Canada Goose values and provide clarity around instore design and brand articulation. They also incorporate the lessons learned and insights gleaned from the 100+ projects delivered by Benoy during a deeply productive six-year period. Indeed, since 2018 Benoy’s fast-paced and prolific design interventions have helped to evolve the Canada Goose brand across multiple channels and locations, as Paola concludes: 

“Whether through instore design or digital presence, we’ve positively impacted their relationship with consumers around the world. And it’s something we can do for other functional luxury brands and retail clients. Through our holistic approach, and through our work with our sister company, Pragma, we can map out new directions for retailers and make informed decisions about the use of space and materials – redefining conversations with consumers and creating lasting value.”