A beloved Singaporean branding with more than 16 outlets island-wide, Tiong Bahru Bakery prides itself as one that serves fresh French pastries and artisanal breads amidst stylish and comforting interiors. Following its success in Singapore, the brand has strong ambitions to further expand its business by leveraging the immense potential of the specialty bakery and coffee market overseas.

As the brand plans for this next stage of growth, it is timely to look back and assess what is required to better position Tiong Bahru Bakery for global expansion in order to create strong appeal and relevance with audiences in other markets. In close collaboration with the Management team and Investors, Labbrand was invited to strengthen the Tiong Bahru Bakery global brand through a comprehensive positioning refinement and naming exercise, leveraging the brand’s strong foundation to gear itself for good success overseas.

Challenge

While Tiong Bahru Bakery has managed to win the hearts of local Singaporeans with artisanal-quality and creative menus, the challenge lies in resonating with overseas customers. At the same time, the brand faces intensifying competition by some of the most established local specialty brands, as well as international bakery and coffee chains that have vast expansion plans to take on a bigger market share in the very same key markets.

As a new entrant overseas, Tiong Bahru Bakery requires more than just a differentiated product offer; it needs a strong brand that is backed with a meaningful, distinctive narrative to stand out from the crowd. Additionally, given its highly localized name, the brand needs to be assured that its name continues to draw positive associations, remain relevant, appealing, and memorable, whilst ensuring it is registrable and usable overseas.

Solution

Through extensive stakeholder immersions and market competitive research, Labbrand gained a comprehensive understanding of not only what the brand does best and holds close as compared to other international and overseas brands, there is also greater clarity on what the expectations are for Tiong Bahru Bakery’s global brand as opposed to local.

With this, Labbrand developed a robust brand strategy with a core position of ‘Passionately Artisanal, Fearlessly Vibrant’ that can be easily activated for global markets. It highlights the passion, love, creativity, and care that Tiong Bahru Bakery pours into perfecting its crafts, reflecting a distinct vibrancy that all customers experience as they patronize and interact with the brand. This is a unique feeling and experience that cannot be replicated given the brand’s unique formula honed over the years, connecting with every customer from all over the world.

Subsequently, Labbrand also conducted a comprehensive naming assessment for the brand’s English and Chinese name via legal trademark and linguistic checks. Creative naming exploration was also done to create new names to be used in overseas markets that may face certain limitations. All proposed names have also undergone legal and linguistic checks to ensure relevance and usability.

Result

The solution designed by Labbrand has provided Tiong Bahru Bakery with a distinctive and meaningful brand that speaks for the brand’s unwavering passion, commitment to quality, bold and creative attitude, whilst also reflecting a unique flair that can speak collectively to consumers overseas. With Labbrand’s support, Tiong Bahru Bakery is now empowered to navigate the diverse global market, confidently serving authentic French pastries and breads handmade to the highest standards.