The Sony Gallery - the brand's third in the world after Tokyo and New York - has been created to provide a total experience of the brand to Chinese consumers.
Situated in Shanghai's main retail district of Huaihai Road, the gallery combines experiential branding, interior design, merchandising and construction to allow shoppers to immerse themselves in the Sony brand experience.
Fallon's design subsidiary, Duffy Asia, and the agency's Tokyo office led the project in collaboration with Duffy US, international architectural firm, Perkins & Will and Shanghai-based EDG on the project, which reportedly cost US$1.5 million.
"The vision of the gallery is as a place where consumers are able to walk and immerse themselves into the whole Sony brand experience, with demonstrations of how Sony can enrich their lifestyle through its (product range)," said Chris Lee, creative director of Duffy Asia.
"We did a lot of research on Shanghai and a lot of the design was inspired by that.
"We had old and new built into the gallery, and there were parts that will be changed every few months to keep it fresh. Shanghai is all about change."
Duffy was tasked to create the Shanghai outlet without duplicating the look and feel of the other two galleries.
Occupying 1,050 square metres of space, the gallery juxtaposes Chinese elements with a contemporary style. According to Duffy, it fused old and new Shanghai design elements, with features such as marbled dragon columns and stoned walls.
The design divides the space into different stations based on product type - there is a Digital Tunnel, Wega Stage, a Playstation and Cybershot area, an automobile station as well as a full home display area in the form of a floating room surrounded by a digital wall that extends across the three levels.
Sony faces intense competition in China, not just from Japanese rivals, but Korea's Samsung and Chinese brands such as Haier and Chang Hong. The Japanese CE giant has plans to push China sales from US$1 billion in the 2003 financial year to $8 billion by 2008/09, making the mainland its second-largest market after the US.
