Project overview
The multinational hotels group Accor was opening its first high-end Pullman brand hotel in Japan, the Pullman Tokyo Tamachi. The leadership team asked Paradigm to name and brand the hotel’s two food and beverage outlets.
What’s in a name?
First, we needed to come up with a name for the restaurant.
The Pullman team told us that the restaurant would offer freshly prepared Mediterranean-style dishes with a Japanese twist, so we needed to find a unique name that would work well across those diverse cuisines. Also, we learned that the interior design of the restaurant had been inspired by the famous kabuki play Sukeroku. In the play, the eponymous lead character always carries an umbrella. After conducting market research, mapping out a long list of possibilities, and presenting of a number of possible candidates, we agreed on the name Kasa.
Kasa, the word for umbrella in Japanese, was an apt choice because its phonetic equivalent, casa, means “home” in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. It communicates both the Japanese and Mediterranean aspects of the restaurant, while also reflecting its welcoming atmosphere.
Next, we needed a name for the bar.
From the ninth floor of the hotel, the stylish rooftop bar overlooks Tokyo’s iconic Yamanote line, the Shinkansen, and a number of other rail tracks. Pullman’s historic connection to rail transport, and the hotel’s close proximity to Tamachi Station, led us to the name Platform 9.
Once the names were chosen, we developed unique, stylish identities for each outlet.
After the hotel opened, Paradigm acted as the Pullman’s retained creative and PR agency in Japan. We created brand-application guidelines and a wide range of collateral. For example, we designed a visually rich, booklet-sized cocktail menu as well as coasters for the bar.
We also planned a number of promotional events. Most notably, we arranged for Pullman Tokyo Tamachi to be the location for an episode of Guru-guru Nainti Nain, a popular comedy (and food) variety show, which has been airing on Nippon Television since 1994.
