SHANGHAI, July 12, 2017 – Délifrance, a French bakery chain, opened its second retail shop in China market in Shanghai on June 25th, following its first shop in Beijing in April this year. It utilized localized brand identity including the Chinese brand name and bilingual brand signature created by Labbrand.

Since created in 1983, Délifrance has served “French style” bakery products in over 50 countries on 5 continents. It is committed to recreate the French taste worldwide, without forgetting to adapt it to every different country, culture, and customer. As a part of its global ambition, and to be the best Premium Café Operator in Asia offering unique French style environment and quality food, it stepped into China market.

Labbrand, the leading China-originated global brand consultancy, worked closely with Délifrance to help it localize its brand identity to connect with Chinese consumers. Labbrand created the Chinese brand name 枫黎舍 [fēng lí shè], conducted consumer focus groups to understand consumers’ perception of Délifrance’s concepts, as well as designing the bilingual brand signature.

The Chinese brand name 枫黎舍 [fēng lí shè] pictures an exotic bourgeoisie style for the brand. 枫 [fēng], meaning maple, echoes with the red logo color and brings out a boutique and artistic feeling with the association of 枫丹白露宫 [fēng dān bái lù gōng] (Chateau de Fontainebleau). 黎舍 [lí shè] stands for the bakery shop from Paris, being highly compatible with the brand image. 舍 [shè] is also the character used in 香榭丽舍 [xiāng xiè lì shè], the transliteration of Champs Elysees. The name together well conveys the brand essence of Délifrance as a Parisian inspired Café-bakery. 枫黎舍 [fēng lí shè], among 3 final name candidates, clearly stood out during the consumer test, being pointed that Délifrance could appear more premium and closer to its positioning with the Chinese name.

The consumer research was also conducted to test Délifrance’s latest brand and retail concepts among the Chinese consumers to understand preference and to further be able to identify opportunities of fine-tuning.

Labbrand subsequently designed the bilingual brand signature for Délifrance. Based on the classical type style Songti, the final Chinese signature has distinctive characteristics which create a parallel construction with the English signature.

“We really appreciated the collaboration with Labbrand to bring the French taste into China. The dedication and the dual culture capability of the team helped us understand well our local partners and future customers while enhancing our brand heritage. Together with Labbrand, we are confident in building the brand as the best premium café operator in China,” said Fabrice Herlax, Chief Marketing & Operations officer of Délifrance Retail Franchise International.

On June 25, 2017, Labbrand was invited to Délifrance Shanghai shop opening party at Zendai Himalayas Center in Shanghai. President of Groupe VIVESCIA Frederic Duverger, CMO of Délifrance Retail Franchise International Fabrice Herlax, along with Labbrand project team attended the party.

About Labbrand

Labbrand is the leading China-originated global brand consultancy with a rapidly expanding global footprint that includes regional operations in APAC (Shanghai, Singapore), Europe (Paris), and North America (New York, Vancouver). We lead branding journeys and facilitate implementations to light up companies and products with the power of your brand. Through brand innovations, we steer brands towards unrivalled brand space. On our journeys we Create, Grow and Disrupt to build resilient brands in dynamic markets. Our cross-disciplinary approach in research, strategy, naming, design and digital gives us the foresight and ability to guide brands beyond the status quo.

About Délifrance

Délifrance is a French bakery brand serves “French style” bakery products in over 50 countries on five continents. It has been in operation for over 30 years, with the brand mission – bring a whole, uniquely French world, focused on the taste sensations associated with bakery products to growing numbers of people all over the world. The parent company of Délifrance, Grands Moulins de Paris, is a major French milling company in Europe and supplies 100% of the flour used in Délifrance’s products.