Case study

Hitachi Global Brochure

“We need you to challenge us”

CLIENT Hitachi Construction Machinery & Hitachi, Ltd. INDUSTRY Technology / Construction Machinery / Mining / IT SERVICES Design
Brand Strategy
Copywriting PROJECT Printed + Digital
Global Mining Corporate Brochure

We’d been working for Hitachi Construction Machinery for a while

– designing their excavator and dump truck product brochures – when they came to us with quite a challenge. They needed a global brochure created: a piece of communication that their sales people and staff around the world could use to not only promote Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi Construction Machinery products, but that would provide an overview of the company’s activities as well.

We knew just how to help Hitachi stand out, be heard and grow…

As we interviewed Hitachi’s staff, we discovered that the company’s minimal marketing approach over the previous seven decades meant that their market wasn’t aware of the personality, drive and values behind their brand.

Given Hitachi’s origins as a Japanese company, the integrity and modesty of the brand meant they didn’t engage in aggressive marketing tactics. We recommended an approach that spoke loudly of their achievements without any pushy or inauthentic tactics.

The client asked us to challenge them and trusted us to think outside the conservative brief they brought to us.

We set out to write and design a brochure that would communicate not just the “facts” but the “essence” of the Hitachi brand as well.

After interviewing key staff at Hitachi Construction Machinery, we gathered an enormous pile of information (mostly spreadsheets and statistics). We dug deep to identify not only the diverse activities of the brand but also its values and key qualities.

We identified that the company was a blend of old-school traditional Japanese values and future-forward technical innovation, and we learned of the company’s honest intention and activities to support society and the planet.

We began our creative process by identifying the brand’s ideal readers. We imagined the brochure would be picked up and flicked through by busy people waiting for meetings or looking to fill in time waiting at a dealership.

These readers were unlikely to read the brochure cover-to-cover like a book. So, we set out to make every spread visually engaging and compelling to read, able to communicate the brand’s qualities independent of the rest of the brochure.

Lovehate Design+Brand presented us with inspiring, well thought out ideas

on how to bring the brochure to life and resonate with our customers, making our goal feel within reach. Plus, with their guidance and expertise, the entire creation process was exciting and rewarding.

Sarah Lispet – Marketing Manager Hitachi Construction Machinery

Our team conceived a coffee table book with beautiful full-colour images alongside content artfully typeset in the Hitachi Construction Machinery brand colours of orange and grey.

Rather than reproducing reams of data and statistics, we unearthed the stories that told the greater truth of the company.

What’s more compelling? A list of all Hitachi’s Corporate Social Responsibility projects for the year or detailing the story of how they support a shelter for rescued circus elephants that helps them live the rest of their lives comfortably and in peace?

Thanks to Hitachi Construction Machinery’s donation of an excavator and other equipment, the elephants’ keepers can dig generous mud baths for the elephants to wallow and relax in. The excavator is also used to create piles of dirt for elderly elephants who can no longer lie on the ground to lean against for a comfy-yet-upright night’s sleep.

We sifted through the copious amounts of information and created a theme that artfully wove information and stories together to tell the clients’ greater brand story.

We showed how Hitachi Construction Machinery truly cares for society and the planet rather than just telling it…

…and in the process, we explained Hitachi Construction Machinery not just to their clients, but to themselves.

Lovehate did the creative and strategic work to define our company as never before –

introducing us to our customers (and our employees) so completely, we feel like people now get the chance to really know our brand.

Sarah Lispet – Marketing manager Hitachi Construction Machinery

As well as helping sales staff around the world,

the Global Brochure / coffee table book we created quickly became known as the company “bible”, used to teach new (and old) employees not just what the company does but why they do it.

And customers reported that they loved reading it too.

The global brochure has been translated into several languages and shipped to dealers in hundreds of countries around the world in the Middle East, Europe, Japan, Russia and more, with extra print runs required as more and more employees and clients jostled for their own copy.

We’re currently working on our fourth edition with Hitachi, once again telling stories in partnership with this inspiring brand.

The Lovehate Design+Brand team will work with you to understand how they can support you in achieving your creative goals.

Call them and you’ll see how awesome they are!