Brief Explanation

A short term strategy was required, to take advantage of the chance to attract customers away from rival brands as they decided how to upgrade their accounting software in response to the tax change. We needed a policy capable of promoting sales in the short term using an idea that would directly tie the brand and its products. How best to sell a product with low brand recognition? We focused on corporate identity. The challenge was to rediscover the client’s brand identity and develop an effective CI strategy for brand and products.

The Brief

Japan had just increased its consumption tax rate for the first time in 17 years and accounting software companies, including our client, were upgrading their products to handle the new rate. The client wanted an idea to promote sales and to improve their low brand recognition (just 16.8% of people had heard of the company).

How the final design was conceived

The client’s name PCA stands for Professional Computer Automation. We decided to reinvent PCA’s corporate identity, creating a silhouette of a face inside the letter P to symbolize PCA’s target clients, professional users. We also replaced their brand color with 100 color variations. This allowed us to identify each product while situating it clearly within their brand.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Brand recognition shot up by 193%. And among the most desired target users, professional accountants, about 50% now recognized the PCA brand. Sales surpassed forecasts by 129%, reaching 1.15 billion instead of 890 million yen. Retail sales were 250% higher than the previous year, making PCA the fastest growing company in the industry.