Diamond Realty Investments, the U.S.-based real estate investment division of Mitsubishi Corporation, had invested more than $7.8 billion and was referred to Macy + Associates to create and implement a national branding and marketing campaign.

The goal of the campaign was to showcase the firm’s national real estate portfolio of  student housing, multifamily, industrial, senior housing and medical office properties to future joint venture partners.

Challenges:

• Refine the Diamond Realty Logo to better represent the firm’s quality, strength, and vision, without losing the brand equity of the original.
• Develop a mobile first web platform to deliver Diamond Realty’s national portfolio of properties to prospective JV partners nationwide.
• Create a new corporate capabilities brochure that enhances the Diamond Realty brand via both look and feel, delivering a superior brand experience.
• Reintroduce Diamond Realty Investments to the national industrial market after a 10-year absence.

Strategies:

The Agency worked with Diamond Realty’s executive committee to distill the existing brand down its core attributes and promise. Agency then applied those aspects the existing logo, delivering a new simplified mark that represents what makes Diamond Realty stand apart and above its competition – strength, stability, and vision. The new mark’s improved proportions increased both its usability and flexibility.  The Agency then developed a new graphic standards guide and corporate stationery system in both electronic and print editions.

Utilizing the new logo and branding guide, Agency then developed a new corporate capabilities brochure featuring a clean modern design, distinctive die cuts that pay homage to the name and logo, and a custom cotton paper cover – delivering a contemporary brochure with clean lines, engaging copy, and a superior tactile feel.

Once the art direction of the brochure was approved, Agency began the simultaneous development of a new mobile first website. Agency deftly applied approved art direction to a fully responsive website that dynamically scales from mobile to desktop, delivering a superior brand expectation to clients and potential partners.

Results:

When viewed together, the entire campaign delivers a modern, consistent and impactful new brand for the firm, while standing atop the foundation of the original mark. The transformation has been so successful that the Agency was retained by Diamond Realty’s national development partners to design a new corporate capabilities brochure, based upon their positive impressions of the DRI work. Additionally, Macy + Associates was referred to yet another division of Mitsubishi, Diamond Realty Management America, for a corporate website. That website now boasts high search results and conveys a solid brand identity for its U.S.-based operations.