Tuan Anh Nguyen & Thu Vu
Graphic Designers
Alex Yates
Creative Director
Background
Booming, vibrant and constantly growing—Lạng Sơn is the most fascinating border town you’ve never heard of. Sitting on the border of Vietnam and China, Lạng Sơn is a conduit for a constant flow of goods and people across the border. But what it is not is a city with exposure to western brands, including Four Points by Sheraton. A sign of Lạng Sơn’s rapid development and increasingly cosmopolitan population, this hotel property represented a first-mover from a western brand in this part of Vietnam. When it came time to adapt their offerings for local audiences, they turned to Fourdozen.
Problem
Four Points approached Forudozen for help rebranding three of their food & beverage outlets on the property—a rooftop bar and lounge, a full service restaurant and a lobby bar. And just as the Sheraton brand was new to the residents and potential customers in Lạng Sơn, each of these restaurants presented their own unique challenge. Tam Thanh restaurant, for instance, has a distinctly northern Vietnamese identity but offers western dishes and preparations, on a foundation of local ingredients. Lounge 1509 offers a range of relatively familiar cocktails overlooking stunning city and river views, but it was the first to present craft beer to the customers in Lạng Sơn.
Our first creative step in approaching each rebrand was to start by checking our assumptions at the door, and researching our target customers. What were they really after, when they went out for a night on the town? What was their idea of “new” and “exciting”? And how could we differentiate the drinking and dining options at Four Points Lạng Sơn from the international Chinese fare offered all across the city?
Our result was a series of brand identities that are sleek yet accessible, embracing the key new elements of each brand and forefronting them to make them easily understood. We have a lot of experience doing this work by now, but what a thrill it was to do it in such a new context, for such new customers.
