Dream big

SKJ Systems Ltd Oy (formerly Finnish Cash Registers Ltd) is one of Finland’s leading suppliers of cash register, ERP and e-commerce systems. SKJ creates success for its customers by designing and implementing multi-channel cash flow solutions. Not something most of us think about every day, but still certainly a big part of our everyday lives considering roughly one billion credit card transactions happen each day. 

The cornerstones of SKJ Systems are the company’s strong business understanding and continuous product development. In 2017 we were given the task of renewing the SKJ brand. New players had entered their already competitive market quickly and were aggressively marketing and they wanted to make sure they didn’t get lost in the shuffle.

We had the perfect ingredients for a brand revitalization. The company’s product was strong. Even better than the competitors’ products in many ways, but the company had difficulty communicating its product offering to prospective customers. And the company’s existing brand image no longer represented the way the company and product had evolved over the years. This seemed to be limiting the company’s growth and it was an obstacle to internationalization.

A brand can reinvent itself

The aim of our work with SKJ was to build a brand that reflected its decades of experience, strong reputation, and its top-tier product offering. We also wanted to enhance the company’s appeal overall and solve how SKJ should speak to two very different target groups: small, single-store establishments and e-commerce and large chain companies.

New building blocks

We worked closely with SKJ and held a workshop with them to better understand the company’s business and target groups. Together we defined the company’s vision and mission and developed a strategy that put us in a much better position to think about internationalisation.

Making two sub-brands shine

Next, we clarified the company’s brand hierarchy. Because prospective customers were looking for specific, ready-to-use cash flow solution products, we decided to create two product sub-brands, Jeemly and Flowvy, names that were both unique and complementary, as well as easily recognizable and representative of each product’s capabilities. We also created an online presence for each. Giving the company’s two key products a unique brand identity allowed each to stand on its own. We also gave the company a new name, SKJ Systems Ltd Oy, which became the umbrella brand, or parent company, to Jeemly and Flowvy. This put the company in a better position to market itself internationally. 

Creative storytelling

Together with SKJ, the Ahooy strategy and creative teams developed the two new sub-brands at the same time. This included the separate visual identities as well as internal messaging for the company and its partners and external messaging to target a variety of potential users. SKJ helped us to better understand how their clients’ businesses operated and that in turn helped us to use storytelling to connect with SKJ’s existing and prospective customers on a more personal level.

“The more you learn about a client and their industry, the more interesting the topic becomes. It helps you create a strong, personal bond with the customer base. The most rewarding thing was realising that a brand like SKJ, which has products that might appear dry or overly technical, can be brought to life with new visual identities and creative messaging, making both the products and the company more approachable and appealing.”
–Jaakko Forss, Art Director, Ahooy Creative

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“We unveiled our new company brand and sub-brand product names and visual identities at an industry fair in the spring of 2018. To our advantage, we quickly realised that our new look and messaging stood out from our competitors. We now have a dynamic, fresh and recognizable look!”
–Aarno Hartikainen, President and CEO, SKJ Systems Oy Ltd.