International brand design agency – Square44 in Sri Lanka

Square44, a specialist brand design agency operating across Asia from office in Hong Kong and Thailand, reaching over 16 countries in the region has decided to explore potential in the Sri Lanka market.

Speaking on the importance of the services on offer Founder and Brand Design Consultant Mathijs Aliet stated, “One of the things we specialise in is packaging design, which most of the time is not given due attention by most marketers. Packaging is a silent salesman; it stays on the shelf talking to your customers long after your ATL or BTL bursts have ceased. But unfortunately the attention paid to this critical element is far less than the attention diverted towards main stream communication. We consider it our role and responsibility to create packaging design solutions that can provide a competitive edge for your brand helping you perform better. We operate in many countries in Asia and have been able to make a difference to most brands we have worked with. Our first visit in Nov 2014 to Sri Lanka was exploratory and an eye opener. We never realised this country had so much potential.”

Adding further Brand Design Consultant Sven Petersen said, “Even as a country there is so much value branding can add, Sri Lanka as a brand has got tremendous potential, but currently perhaps still rather underutilised. Your teas have so much potential too; it would be exciting to explore some of these areas. When we first visited we quickly got very excited about the tremendous potential that exists here. You have a large number of very solid FMCG companies that produce very high quality products which are managed by smart thinking teams. That is a great foundation. If we can help these companies by adding the right branding layer, we can enable them to compete on a more strategic level, not having to worry about fighting tactical battles linked only to a product fighting on a commodity platform. Adding the right branding layer can help a brand get noticed by more people, generate trial, convert to more users, demand price premiums for higher quality products and create a loyal user community that actually cares about the brands they buy. Great branding also opens the door to competing on a regional or even global scale.”

Square44 works with consumer, corporate and retail brands and its scope of service spans across innovation, brand strategy, brand design and unique impactful brand activation ideas.

“Square44 is a brand design agency that helps large multinationals as well as strong local companies build, manage and grow their brands with a long-term commercial focus. From our two Asian offices in Hong Kong and Thailand we’ve been serving clients across 16 Asian markets for the past 10 years. Our team of marketing and branding experts work closely together with brand and business owners to look for opportunities to build strong, meaningful and unique brands that are relevant and focused on adding real value to people’s lives,” added Mathijs, elaborating on Square44.

Speaking on how Square44 help clients to build, manage and grow  their brands he stated, “We offer services across 4 key areas: we help brands innovate and develop fantastic new products that make people’s lives better; we help brands connect better with their target audience by refining their positioning and by developing brand concepts that explain the unique benefits a brand offers in a simple and easy-to-understand manner; we help companies get their brands noticed (and wanted!) by developing brand identity solutions that create a unique and consistent signature style for their brand; last, we help companies think of smarter and better ways to sell their brands through activities that are relevant and connect the right product with consumers at the right place, and time.”

Speaking on the importance and relevance of Square44’s entry into Sri Lanka, local partner and brand consultant Tusitha Kumarakulasingam added, “In Sri Lanka, we are at an exciting stage, politically and economically. We are bound to see companies place greater emphasis on their brands to compete both locally and internationally. In the area of brand design locally we lack focus, therefore what Square44 has to offer is interesting and exciting. Being an experienced marketer who has been in this market for several decades, I am sure there is a winning formulae.  Furthermore even the public sector has so much to gain from what we can offer.”