Mr Simms Rebranding and Store Design:

Redefining

Sweet Traditions

Brand Design Lab has brought a fresh new perspective to this traditional British style sweetshop. Mr Simms has over 75 stores across the UK and a handful in France and Hong Kong. The stores feature a range of traditional and contemporary sweets and candies including packaged sweets, handmade chocolate bars, gifts sets and the iconic pick and mix. We have helped to revitalize the brand and redesign all the key touchpoints including the brand identity system, the store, uniforms and packaging. 

Challenge

As franchises, Mr Simms shops are effectively a network of independent businesses operating in a huge range of locations from rural villages to seaside towns, tourist hotspots to bustling cities. The portfolio covers a range of store sizes and formats, both traditional high street and modern retail centre. The challenge was to create a new look and feel for the brand that was a balance of traditional and modern and that would appeal to children and grandparents alike. The store experience needed carefully redefining to create moments of wonder, engagement and interaction to delight customers and revitalise the brand’s appeal.

The project began with an extensive phase of store audits, competitor reviews, best practice research and customer journey definition, followed by the design of the new brand identity system, store design and brand guidelines.

Insight

Mr Simms is much more than just a sweet shop. It cares for its’ customers, plays a role in local communities, and encourages people of all ages to treat themselves and their loved ones. It’s also about seeing memories rekindled and new ones created. It was important that these timeless sweet shop traditions were redefined and captured in the new brand expression.

Solution

A charismatic, captivating new identity system with a hint of mystery was created, with a symbol that can be seen either as Mr Simm’s bow tie or a wrapped sweet and a bold, uplifting colour palette to create a warm, friendly feel.

The mysterious Mr Simms character appears in unexpected places and pops out from behind the iconic stripes on bags and signage, creating a sense intrigue and delight.

The new store, uniforms and packaging system have been carefully designed to build the feel good factor, the passion and pride. We believe that everyone’s day can be made a little sweeter with a visit to Mr Simms.

Results

Mr Simms has been reaffirmed as a much loved pillar of the local community so that they continue to be loved by all the family just as much today and tomorrow as they were in years gone by.