We were approached in the summer of 2021 by our long standing client Sim Local to help them with a complete brand refresh across all their retail units at Heathrow Airport. 

We were also tasked with making the signage and marketing POS easy for consumers (whose first language may not be English) easy to digest, so they could determine which of the network partners Sim Local works with was the right one for them.

Where did we start?

Walking, walking & more walking…

The best way to fully understand the user’s experience was to visit the retail units ourselves. This was done over the course of several recces, which obviously involved a lot of steps! 

The way in which each of the retail units has been set up made it difficult for a customer to understand the different networks and packages available. It was confusing which SIM card was best for data, which was best for calls to certain countries and which network offered the best value. 

We needed to make this information clear and easy to digest for someone who may well be suffering from a serious case of jetlag. And it was very important to Sim Local and their customers that we got it right as the SIM card is often the first purchase decision that is made when arriving in the UK in order to make contact with friends, family or colleagues on arrival.

How did we help develop the solution?

The current in-store POS branding was bright pink and all the offers were displayed on shelves with large dummy SIM cards describing the offers available from each network. The POS was in need of a complete overhaul and with our studio offering various concepts the client was soon making decisions about the look that they were striving for. Soon, the new POS and signage was taking shape, offering a fresher, more corporate feel. 

We then had to look at how the products were displayed. Our studio team offered several options that stripped the messaging back to its bare essentials, offering Sim Local customers a simple, clear message of which network was offering what, allowing the customer to easily decipher what product suited their needs best.  

What was the final outcome?

Using the existing retail units our solution was to wrap all the previously pink POS signage in Sim Local teal and to have all the network offers across the front of the bays covering the old, tired shelving that used to display the product. 

Having a clear, bright message from all the networks, the bays were transformed and helped the consumer see all the network offers clearly. It was also much easier for the Sim Local sales team to show the consumer the best offers available. The panels were also branded by network (EE, three and Lyca) so the consumer could easily recognise the products on offer from a familiar network provider they could trust.

 

"Citizen were a critical partner in the brand refresh of our Heathrow store portfolio. They worked as an extension of our brand and marketing team to bring our vision for the store refit to life and then carried out a high quality installation on our behalf. The end result is stores that are more inviting to customers and make choosing the right products for their needs simple and easy."
- Sara Diamond, Marketing & Communications Manager, Sim Local