Giguo

Below: Before and After Images in Slide Show, Summary, Credits

In Taiwan, dining out is a common practice, and the restaurant industry is highly competitive, especially hotpot restaurants. As of today, there are over 430 hotpot stores competing for consumers country wide. Giguo, a Japanese-style hotpot chain store founded in 2014, must constantly introduce new marketing tactics to attract consumers while keeping its brand name and value at the top of consumers’ minds.

Due to fierce competition and consumers’ preference for novelty, Giguo has undergone several rebranding efforts. However, each change has pulled the brand in different directions and made the image and positioning increasingly unclear. To stay in customers’ minds and stand out among numerous competitors, Giguo had to preserve its brand assets, strengthen its consumers’ emotional experiences, and create meaning and motivation for consumers dining there.

The strategy was to create a concept based on Giguo’s Chinese name, which means to gather and connects to the restaurant’s original purpose, using Japanese hotpot to foster closer relationships. With this strategy, Giguo was designed to resemble a Japanese izakaya, known for their lively atmospheres perfect for groups. Every visit to ” ” was designed to be a beautiful get-together moment. Taiwanese people often say “Let’s meet another day” but that day never comes and turns into years.

In response, Giguo used the message with characters that have a double meaning:
1)“Let’s meet up today” encourages people not to wait anymore and just gather
2)“Come and meet up here today” invites people to gather at this restaurant specifically

Giguo is the ideal setting for people to gather over carefully crafted hotpot broths. The message attracts customers by creating a sense of urgency. It inspires people to embrace their spontaneous side by removing room for hesitation. Giguo was relaunched in November 2022, successfully leveraged the brand’s appeal, and caught the attention of consumers, including younger audiences.