Rufus Leonard overhauls Shell’s marketing tools

Rufus Leonard has overhauled Shell Chemicals’ primary marketing tools for a fee of more than £100 000. The new design was unveiled yesterday (Thursday 28 February).

The project to revamp Shell Chemicals’ handbook and website took more than 10 months to complete and involved a global interview and research programme, says Rufus Leonard senior strategy consultant Hin-Yang Wong. The fee was ‘well over £100 000’, he claims.

Shell Chemicals uses the handbook to sell the client’s products and services around the world and distributes it to customers, employees, researchers and the media.

Wong says, ‘The handbook has been published for many years and the brief was quite open. Our idea was to integrate it with the website for the first time so that the handbook would have a longer shelf life and updates could be obtained from the Web.’

The handbook contains essential information, but each section points to a specific area of the website, which offers newer or more in-depth material, he says.

The creative team was led by Darrel Worthington, director of information architecture, with designers Dave Webb and Dave Adamson responsible for the print and Web design respectively.

The theme for the design was ‘clear, suggesting ease-of-use’, Wong adds. This is reflected in the choice of materials, use of photography and the tabular text, he says. The handbook has a clear polypropylene cover and divider pages and features ‘lifestyle’ images of objects like watches, chairs, pens and CD boxes, all of which are also made with clear plastics.

Shell Chemicals uses the handbook to differentiate itself from its competitors, says Wong. He adds, ‘the operating environment for a chemicals company is completely different today from when Shell Chemicals first published the handbook. By extending the longevity of the printed handbook, our approach is contributing to its sustainable development remit of being environmentally friendly and socially responsible.’

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