CLIENT: Nikko Co., Ltd.

Founded in 1919, Nikko Co., Ltd. develops manufacturing plants and systems to produce asphalt and concrete, contributing to infrastructure development and urban planning around the world. In particular, the company boasts a 70% share of the domestic market in Japan for asphalt plants, and more than 90% for highway and airport plants. Daishinsha Delight provided branding services for the Nikko Co., Ltd’s 100th anniversary, and provided comprehensive assistance ranging from showroom design to video and brochure production.

From left General manager/ Planning Director : Kazushige Ogawa, Video director/planner : Masaki Furumoto, Spatial consultant : Akira Yano

A project in which specialists from various fields participated

–Please tell us about your individual roles in this project.

Ogawa: I am the planning director overseeing the entire project.

Yano: I am in charge of the interior design for the showroom. I was an outside contract member at that time, but I was involved from the initial stages of the proposal.

Ogawa: Mr. Furumoto joined us as a video director. This project was based on branding. Therefore, we developed necessary communication tools for including video content and space design. People from different fields were also involved, including copywriters and graphic designers for the company brochure.

Furumoto: With Mr. Ogawa as general director, I was in charge of the video production, Mr. Yano was in charge of the showroom, and so on. We had clear roles. However, for successful branding, there should be no inconsistency in design between brochure and the showroom, for example. Therefore, Mr. Ogawa, who was in charge of overseeing the entire project, would make decisions from a bird’s eye view. Once the direction was determined to a certain extent, each of us would proceed as director in our respective areas.

Revealing a sense of progress and future through visuals and space design

 –Please tell us about your work process and points of focus.

Ogawa: First, we read and understand the management philosophy and mid-term management reform to find out the challenges and strengths. From there, we come up with a creative concept, which is interesting. Nikko Co., Ltd. is a company that develops together with its customers, supporting cities where people can live comfortably and the earth through its relationships with its customers. Therefore, we took the concept of “co-creation” and managed to show it.

Yano: In the showroom design, the customer support center was placed in the center.  We set up glass walls so the main exhibition highlighted ‘people’. If there is any problem at the client’s plant, the operator of the customer support center would respond immediately by phone. By showing the soft part together with the technology, we wanted to convey that our strength is not only hardware.

Ogawa: As an asphalt plant manufacturer, Nikko Co., Ltd. is unique in its use of a customer support center. One of the key points of the project was to highlight this as a strength.

Yano: In addition, technical zones were arranged around the main customer support center, and technical videos were played in each zone. The showroom was not divided into separate rooms, but expressed the connections between people and technology. The overall taste was based on key concepts of advancement and the possibility of the future.

Ogawa: Another challenge was to change the image of the plant manufacturer industry. I can still vividly recall the heated discussions we had about wanting to reveal a new image of ‘advancement’ while at the same time showing traditional strengths in technology and human power.

Furumoto: In the technical video, we focused on what can be offered in the future and displayed the future solutions that Nikko Co., Ltd. was aiming for, weaving in the use of big data, AI, and IoT.  Although this promotion was to celebrate the 100th Anniversary, we wanted to convey the connection between the technology that has been developed up to now, with their technology and ability to create the future going forward, too.

Collaboration between various members more than doubled the level of completion and sense of achievement.

 –What has made a particular impression on you?

Furumoto: Brochures, showrooms, videos… I think it’s rare for one production company to make them all so well. I think it is because of Daishinsha Delight that this project was completed, and I could feel the teamwork spirit. With the scope of brand transformation, it was good that we were able to work all the way through to reach a point where we could think in various ways to realize the goal.

Yano: I feel the same (laughs). It has something to do with the reason why I joined Daishinsha Delight, but this project was something I had never had the chance to encounter before. I feel that it was only through working together with everyone together as a team that we were able to complete this project. By blending together various strengths, we become a greater force. I felt that the sense of achievement was more than doubled.

Furumoto: With Mr. Yano joining us officially, there are more things we can do as Daishinsha Delight.

Yano: This project allowed me to experience the excitement of creating something new from scratch through repeated discussions with everyone. I was also impressed by the smiles of customers full of expectation when they saw the completed showroom. While business performance and sales are important, I was also impressed by the smiling faces of customers who saw the completed showroom and said, “We are working in a place like this!” I felt like I could see the joy of the employees.

Ogawa: Indeed. It is nice to see the response in person.

Furumoto: We heard that it was also well received by Nikko Co., Ltd.’s partner companies. It is nice to feel that the company’s image has been handled well and improved.

Ogawa: Branding that changes the value of a company is not only for external use, but also can be used internally. There is little point in creating something cool if we can not be proud of it. In that sense, as Mr. Yano said, the feelings and attitudes of employees have changed. I am glad that we were able to contribute to internal branding as well.