From “lodging” to “gathering, staying in, and living”
A brand strategy to make the future meaning of hotels change
“COCOSHUKU” is a hotel brand developed by Hokushin Fudosan in metropolitan areas. It converts buildings that were originally office buildings and employs an unmanned check-in system. Since its establishment, it has maintained a high availability with foreign tourists as its main target, but right as it was preparing two new bases, it was faced with COVID-19. Having experienced this, it reexamined the future meaning of “hotels” and strived to change their brand strategy.
Their new concept is “a free and unrestrained private hotel”. With their strength being high-quality guest rooms that can be used for affordable prices, in particular, they have incorporated the needs of young people who now face restrictions in the places that they can gather due to COVID-19 and realized a new lodging style in which guests can not only stay at the hotel but also spend their time during their stay in various ways.
ACTANT formed a team with the hotel producers and, along with supporting the construction of a brand strategy, was in charge of renewing the website that would focus on COCOSHUKU’s new bases. While working together with a web designer and illustrator, we carried out the art direction of the entire site.
- Category
- Lifestyle
- Site/Year
- Tokyo / 2020
- Services
- Branding / Visual identity / Web design
MABATAKI, inc. (Web design)
am. (Illustration)
Kamoike Design.Lab
Approach
Reframing the meaning of hotels
A resilient brand construction that can flexibly accommodate changes and diversity
One of the distinctive traits of COCOSHUKU is that it does not have a front desk and shared facilities. Compared to other business styles, it has an increased sense of privacy, and we considered a positioning strategy that makes use of how it can be used in various ways and found a new field that is a living room that can be stayed at = a private hotel.
As the axis of a brand that embodies that field, we set the keyword “casual neutral” and constructed a flexible image that can easily accept changes in the state of society such as COVID-19 and a diversity in new styles of staying. For the website, in order for young people to experience a sense of familiarity in the aspects of price range and activeness as well, while basing it on basic hues, we made use of vivid illustrations to depict scenes in which the hotel is used. We created casual visuals worthy of the brand.
Also, as the design of the new service, in addition to the usual lodging plan, we started providing options that allow users to freely customize the way they use the space. By combining items such as home planetariums and cake stands, it is also possible to realize their own unique form of lodging.
Point
- A strategy that reframes the meaning of “lodging”
- Service design that allows guests to create their own experience of “accommodation”
- Visual expression that actively conveys the diversity of “accommodation”