FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 28th 2006

SHH create new range of brand applications for tractor and groundcare giant Kubota

SHH has created a full range of environmental brand applications for showroom use by the tractor and groundcare division of Kubota (UK) Limited(a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Osaka-based Kubota Corporation). The range of applications ­ from external signage totems to banners, lecterns and floor graphics - has been used to date in two test sites in Leighton Buzzard and in Wales. They have proved so successful that the work will now be used as a roll-out across 60 UK dealerships stocking Kubota products, beginning with three full range showrooms in Reading, County Roscommon in Eire and Newmarket.

‘Every dealer will have the opportunity to purchase items ranging from internal and external signs to parts counters,’ explained Rhian Kendall, Kubota’s Marketing Co-ordinator. ‘Our dealers are vital to our success and it is our aim to help them grow their market share within their territory. Whilst dealers were doing all they could themselves to promote the Kubota brand, every dealer was offering a different message and it was clear that a corporate approach was needed. By implementing a consistent brand philosophy we believe that our dealers will be able to promote the Kubota brand effectively.’

SHH was briefed by Kubota to create a full signage and exhibition package, which would enable the brand to have a clear and high impact, especially in dealerships where multiple brands were on offer, by creating a total of 38 individual parts and applications within an overall system, which would be flexible enough to work in many different sites.

‘Kubota’s tractor and groundcare division is very much a high-end manufacturer in its market, which covers everything from small ride-on to huge-scale tractors’, explained SHH Associate Dan de Groot, ‘and we wanted to ensure that the brand achieved a bold and differentiating solution within a showroom environment, that would work clearly with the product and the existing marque to give a stronger visual effect.’

SHH tied together varying disparate elements of the existing brand, such as the chrome badging and the white Kubota label, marrying those elements together with the striking orange used for the bonnets and covers of the products themselves. In addition to this SHH added super-sized photography of grass as a motif to offset the orange and underscore the final outdoor application of the products. In some instances the grass image is used transparently against a mirrored backdrop so that light still bounces through.

The final range of work runs from branded fascia signs and totems to rigid banners, product information lecterns, internal suspended illuminated signs, graphic cladding, printed floor graphics and closing stations.

Chris Brown, MD Of George Browns Implements Ltd, whose 17,500 sq ft Leighton Buzzard head office was the first site to test out the new applications, commented: ‘We have been Kubota dealers for nearly 20 years and in that time have seen the company’s products and brands develop in many ways. The innovative new material which Kubota has provided without doubt reflects the high quality of every Kubota product and we have been delighted to showcase these exciting new developments.’

SHH
1 Vencourt Place
London, W6 9NU
Phone: + 44 20 8600 4171
E-Mail: carolinecollett@shh.co.uk
Website URL: www.shh.co.uk