Established nearly 15 years ago, GR Japan is a pioneer of government relations consulting in Japan. Advising local and national governments, multi-national corporations, as well as public institutions and non-profits, they have built up a deep understanding and expertise in navigating the complex realms of business and public policy.

With a core presence in Japan and a supporting office in London, GR Japan expanded its reach by launching GR Korea to enter the Korean market and establishing an additional supporting office in Washington D.C. Simultaneously, the company formed an umbrella organization, GR Group, to unite all its entities. It also had a big ambition to extend into Singapore.

But the group faced challenges in clarity and consistency in how it communicated to clients and prospects as well as among its people. It prevented the firm from fully leveraging its potential to build equity and competitive advantage. With their expansion plan accelerating, GR Japan turned to Eat to get their brand set up for a bold new chapter.

We began our brand evolution work with a critical insights phase. We interviewed leadership and employees across their offices, benchmarked the group in terms of identity and communications against its competitors, and investigated how its branded materials were being developed and used.

Our learnings revealed the need for a clear and authentic story that connected the group with how employees felt about the work they did – that they were providing exceptional government relations and public affairs services at the highest levels. This became the heart of the new brand story and positioning.

We further helped to clarify and consolidate the different entities and offices in the group’s business – the growth centers of GR Japan and GR Korea, as well as their supporting offices. As part of this effort, we rebranded the group as ’The GR Company’.

In order to stand out from the competition, we developed an evolved visual and verbal identity for The GR Company– consolidating their suite of logos into a single unified mark, defining a distinctive colour palette, typography and tone of voice. We also created a dynamic and sophisticated graphic device inspired by topographical maps. This reflects the navigational expertise that The GR Company provides to help their clients and partners achieve their goals.

To bring the new story and assets into the real world, we did a complete redesign of the websites – a rebranded group website for The GR Company, alongside with revamping the websites for GR Japan and GR Korea.

And to ensure consistency of execution, we created a suite of tools and templates, as well as delivering training, that guides all employees at The GR Company on best practices of presentation design and delivery.

With the launch of the evolved group brand in October 2023, The GR Company has the clarity it needs to expand its international reach while building equity and competitive advantage with a distinctive and industry-leading brand.