Bringing People Closer Together

The Desert Empire acquired an ice cream parlour specialising in Japanese style gelato, renamed it Haato, and broadened its food offerings beyond frozen desserts.

We were tasked to redefine the brand as part of plans for franchising. This challenge was four-fold: be differentiated, ensuring high quality products stood out in a very crowded category; be scalable, able to support variegated new product offerings; be relevant, across multiple markets; be easy for franchisees to implement.

Haato's frozen desserts and other products were winning high praise from experts and food critics.

Workshops with Haato showed this emphasis on quality was part of their commitment to doing the best they could for their customers. It also showed Haato was committed to forging effective partnerships with employees, suppliers and franchisees.

Restaurant chains succeed by being part of each community they serve – familiar and trusted for good food and hospitality.

Relationships are key to all of these. Here was our opportunity to differentiate the brand.

Sharing is intrinsic to good relationships – bringing people closer together to share products and places, good times and good things. This is the brand defining value for Haato, the one ring that binds them all.

The ampersand is understood everywhere. It ties two things together. We made it the icon for Haato, integral to all the brand is and stands for, connecting it to all its various associations.

Applied on almost everything, it is simple, visible, scalable, distinctive and memorable – a powerful tool able to identify and establish the brand in an almost infinite number of ways – highlight product quality e.g. fresh & real, cross-sell, e.g. gelato & cake; introduce a new product offering, e.g. Haato & alcohol; head an employee contract e.g. Eric & Haato; localise the brand in a new culture, e.g. gelato & dim sum; link Haato to a local community, e.g. gelato & Serangoon; support a charity, e.g. gelato & Dover School, and so on.

More than a mere communication device, it becomes a symbol and expression of the partnership in excellence Haato seeks with all its customers, employees, franchisees and other stakeholders.

John Lennon once wrote

“A dream you dream alone is only a dream – a dream you dream together is reality.”

Haato’s dream of partnership in all things creates its own reality.

Today Haato operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. Haato will soon add alcohol as the newest addition to its rich range of products.