Schawk! Getting the right brand for the right market

If you’ve seen products from Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G, Mars, Mondelez, Heinz, Kao, Suntory or Bridgestone, then you have probably seen the work of Schawk!/ANTHEM Japan, a global branding development & deployment firm under the sgk umbrella.

Schawk! and its division Anthem have been in Japan since 1999 when it was based in Kobe, handling its sole client – P&G. At that time, Reiko Nakamura joined the firm and was placed in P&G to ensure their global brand consistency in the Asia market.

Nakamura became managing director in 2005 and moved the Schawk! headquarters to Tokyo five years ago, growing the business. Schawk’s services include creating brand meaning for the Japanese market, designing packaging to get the maximum impact in the retail arena and adjusting graphics and printing to get to market faster.

Japan Today editor Chris Betros visits Nakamura at the Schawk! office in Meguro to hear more.

What is the difference between Schawk! and ANTHEM?

ANTHEM is more to do with brand development -- how clients want to sell a product, how they want to express the brand, what kind of visuals will connect emotionally with consumers, what sort of localization will be necessary and what design consumers will like. Schawk! is the brand deployment side – materials, packaging, printing, colors and brand consistency.

How are you different from advertising companies?

Ad companies don’t really do graphic design for packaging which we focus on. Packaging is the most representative form of branding and advertising has to be consistent with the branding. Of course, we work together with ad companies and sometimes we receive key visuals from ad agencies and create brands; sometimes we create a brand image from scratch and pass it to the ad agency.

Is localization a challenge?

Yes. Our global clients like Coca-Cola, P&G or Unilever have strict guidelines but we still have to express the selling point in a small space. We need to know the brand equity that we have to keep and what points that can be localized for Japan. So while printing methods and materials may be different, brand consistency must remain.

With Coca-Cola, for example, we do some localization but each element on the packaging is already decided for some brands. We cannot even move it one millimeter even though we have to change it to Japanese as having same brand equity globally is the most important brand value. On the other hand, Xbox has the same game titles but visuals are totally different for Japan because how kids here see the game is different. Which colors we use and what characters are put on the front are different in Japan.

What percentage of your clients in Japan are global companies?

About 70% are foreign clients like Unilever, Heinz, P&G, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Campbell. The rest are Japanese companies that want to be global, including Kao, Suntory, Bridgestone and Ajinomoto.

You’ve been in the business for many years. How has it charged since 10 years ago?

Our client base now includes Japanese companies. Before, they didn’t care as much about brand consistency in Japan and overseas. Now they do, and manage their brands much more. We are also doing a lot more 3D-looking work for websites.

How is 2014 looking for the company?

First quarter results were good and I think we will be meeting our projections in 2014. Our results are greatly affected by how often our clients launch new products.

How many in your team?

We have 17 here in Tokyo and three in Kobe. We have designers, print managers and account managers and they are all bilingual. In this industry, you have to have some graphic design, printing experience and communication skills.

What is a typical day for you?

I come here about 8:30 a.m. But some days, I have early-morning teleconferences with the U.S. During the day, I focus on sales, HR and finance. Sometimes, I go out to meet clients which I enjoy. I try to leave about 6 or 7 p.m. I encourage a work-life balance among the staff, but it can be difficult just before a project presentation deadline.

When you’re out and about, do you look at product packaging?

Always. It’s instinctive. I especially like to look at product packaging in supermarkets.

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