This case study discusses how Colorama, Scandinavia's leading retail chain of paint, implemented franchise software, retail software, franchise intranet, and operations manuals.

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Customer Case
1
Business
Retail store with paint,
flooring, wallpaper and
accessories etc.
Active markets
1 country, 175 units
www.colorama.se
Helping Colorama Retail Network Unify Under
One Retail Software Platform And Establish A
Leading National Store Brand
With CCM by Chainformation, Colorama has transformed from a
disparate network of stores to a leading Scandinavian retail star
equipped with best practice work processes. In hindsight, the strategy
has worked well for Colorama. They have carved out a clear leadership
role in a short time and continue to expand.
About Colorama
Colorama was founded in 2007 as the result of a confederation of three independent
retail chains in Scandinavia: Spektrum (Sweden) and Färgtema (Sweden). With 175
retail outlets in Sweden, and a purchasing alliance in Norway and Finland, Colorama is
the largest independent retail chain for paint in Northern Europe.
Each store in the Colorama network is owned by the individual store owner. Each owner
maintains individual responsibility over marketing and sales, and enjoys democratic
influence over the central governance of the retail chain.
In addition to paint and accessories, the Colorama assortment also includes wall paper,
flooring and ceramic tiles.
In Sweden alone, the chain is approaching annual sales of 2.5 billion SEK (455 Million
USD) and operates with the vision to be Scandinavians leading retail chain of paint.
Unified under a one-brand umbrella, Colorama believes in a disciplined approach to
branding, where brand consistency is critical to success, including the implementation
of central campaigns, cross network use of manuals, training and ability to distribute
content seamlessly across operations.
Business Challenge
As Colorama was established over five years ago, the Scandinavian retail chain began
moving assertively to leverage its size to achieve cost savings through increased buying
power, and focusing its marketing efforts to establish Colorama as a national brand
with top of mind consumer awareness.
Said a company spokesperson at the inception of Colorama in 2007: “This is a step
towards the goal: one single Scandinavian chain. The size is the only thing that matters
to the suppliers”
While buying power is one of the immediate and apparent benefits when forming an
alliance, there are many other roadblocks to overcome.
For example, a centrally owned company has a board with ultimate voting power and
ability to enforce centrally coordinated program. But a network built up from individual
stores, with brand legacies and systems of their own, compliance and cooperation can
only be achieved by reaching consensus and agreement.

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Customer Case
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And growing from a multi-branded retail environment to a centrally coordinated
mono-brand retail chain doesn’t come without its fair share of headaches.
Immediately at its inception, Colorama put a strong focus on creating an aggressive
central branding platform, which included campaigns that included TV, Radio, Media
and events.
As many owners of retail chains will testify, brand consistency and compliance can
only be achieved if communication from the top is crystal clear and the right tools
are in place. Without the right tools and processes in place, retail chains struggle to
overcome these challenges, and grow effectively.
To further complicate the realization of its goals to build a national brand rapidly, the
network of chains now operating as Colorama, operated on more than five different
store software platforms.
So with over 1,000 employees, Colorama acknowledged that communicating
effectively, and under one synchronizing platform, would be critical to its success.
Thecompanydecidedtolaserfocusonimplementingitsmonobrandplatform,unifying
its retail network with a highly integrated and flexible work platform that enabled
communication, collaboration and content to be shared with speed and efficiency.
By doing so, the company believed it would be better equipped to manage its brand.
According to Anders Lundblad, Marketing Director at Colorama, “Managing a large
retail network with individual store owners requires a great need for communicating
clearly and effectively. We have a responsibility to provide the members with the tools
they require to succeed, while at the same time establishing a framework which is
easy to follow and implement. In a nutshell, you need an intelligent software platform
that facilitates day-to-day communications that is also able to guide and educate your
organization about your brand concept in a manner that is approachable for all stores
in real time.”
As a first step to laser focus on brand compliance, the
executive leadership team at Colorama decided to implement
a group-wide approach that would help:
• Bring together retail communications into one single
platform
• Store, share, and maintain manuals, documents, and
marketing materials in a one-stop platform
• Facilitate the design and execution of customer loyalty
programs and marketing promotions while respecting the
Colorama brand guidelines and standards
This approach would set it apart from the competition and
provide what Chainformation terms “distinctive capability,”
a retail chain’s unique formula for business success aimed
at securing brand compliance while outperforming the
competition.
For help in realizing an Intranet-based communication
platform, Colorama wanted to team with a partner that would
bring not only expertise in technical environments and system
integration, but also bringing a deep understanding of the
retail industry.
Chainformation was the logical choice. Over the past twelve years, Chainformation has
provided retail- and franchise-software for some of Scandinavia’s largest franchise-
and retail-chains, including industry leaders such as IC Company, Iduna and IKEA.
“You need an intel-
ligent software plat-
form that facilitates
day-to-day commu-
nications that is also
able to guide and
educate your organ-
ization about your
brand concept.”
Anders Lundblad,
Marketing Director
Colorama

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Customer Case
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How we helped
In partnering with Chainformation, Colorama were able to leverage a retail specific
solution based on proven technologies.
The move gave Colorama instant access to a high powered Intranet that would function
as the retail chain’s delivery vehicle for know-how, business data and content for the
daily operations including:
• Faster, role-based communication
• Brand and Identity Guidelines
• Marketing Design Templates and Execution tools
• Daily Sales Reporting
While CCM is ready to be used out of the box and can be implemented in just 2-4
weeks, Colorama worked with Chainformation’s team of development experts to
realize a number of features to be used across the retail network including:
• Customer Loyalty Program Management and Mailing Features
• Access to preferred vendors and procurement processes
• E-mail and Text Message Marketing tool to drive customer traffic
• Access to purchasing agreements, discounts and vendors
“Having partnered with Chainformation since our inception, we have continuously
worked with their team of experts to align the CCM platform with our business
objectives and creating useful tools for the members of our retail network. For
instance, we can use CCM to communicate with any, or all of our members of our
loyalty program. We can send out mass mailings or test messages with special in store
promotions,” says Anders Lundblad.
Another popular component of the CCM platform is the
Colorama College – an individual module that offers
e-learning directly to the store staff, regardless of their
location.
This means that any employee with access to the
Colorama network can access training programs, such
as the “new recruitment training” or product specific
training programs. As students go through various stages
of interactive training programs, they then take tests
online.
Some of the information shared via CCM is either
confidential or business sensitive. But the retail software
is completely role-based so that users will only see what
they need to see. For instance, CCM captures critical sales
information which is made available only to the central
finance department.
More than just a gatekeeper of confidential information,
CCM also helps streamline communication so that
employees are not over-informed.
Perhaps one of the most useful features included with the retail software platform, is
the Web Content Management Plug-in. This plug-in provides Colorama with the ability
to publish and manage content on local store website.
“Having partnered
with Chainforma-
tion since our incep-
tion, we have con-
tinuously worked
with their team of
experts to align the
CCM platform with
our business objec-
tives.”
Anders Lundblad,
Marketing Director
Colorama

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Customer Case
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With pre-approved web-page templates and role-based user rights, Colorama can rely
on the plug-in to published content according to pre-approved brand standards, and
that websites will look the same in every location and geography.
How the implementation was done
In rolling out CCM in the Colorama network, Chainformation was
committed to designing, testing and implementing CCM with minimal
disruptions to existing daily business.
Chainformation deployed a team of professionals who were involved
in all aspects of project delivery, beginning with analysing Colorama
key processes, and business drivers. Through a series of requirements-
gathering workshops and functional design sessions, Chainformation
were able to frame a customer unique solution that supported
Colorama in each of its focus areas, including guest management,
brand management and staff education.
Once the functional design was in place, the team worked quickly
to complete the CCM-platform customized for Colorama, including
technical design, development and testing and system integration.
The primary solution components included:
• The roll-out of CCM, a state of the art retail software and single point of entry and
for the Colorama network.
• This customized approach of an out-of-the-box solution was designed to meet all
the system-, knowledge delivery- and communication-needs of the Colorama network.
• The solution equips the members of the franchise network with a tool that makes
daily operations easier and more transparent, while at the same time providing head
office with a tool that helps secure brand compliance, improve communication flow
and deplete operational deficiencies:
• A user friendly-interface for speedy publication of news and updates
• Real-time access to manuals, Brand Guidelines, and Identity Standards
• A media asset manager that contains brand-compliant visual elements such as
images, logos and document templates.
• A design tool that enables the design of local promotions and e-mail campaigns
• A management tool for the Colorama loyalty club program
• A SMS Text Message Marketing Tool for executing campaigns that drive customer
traffic
• Customer feedback functionality
High performance Delivered
With CCM by Chainformation, Colorama has transformed from a disparate network of
stores to a leading Scandinavian retail star equipped with best practice work processes.
Says Anders Hall, Sales & Marketing Manager at Chainformation: “In 2007, Colorama
was operating on five individual store software systems which made it incredibly
difficult to capture relevant information on sales, and communicating effectively
across the stores. By implementing CCM by Chainformation, we have been able to
synchronize and funnel information from all legacy systems, while providing one single
platform for store staff to use in day-to-day retail operations.”
Every Colorama location now has one single point of entry from which it can access
manuals and marketing modules, communicate and cross-collaborate, while also
receiving important updates and news from Colorama’s head office

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Customer Case
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As campaigns and marketing materials are made available in real-time, CCM also
enables Colorama to see if individual staff member have missed to take part of
important documents or content. The system even keeps track if anything has been
printed out.
“The success of any retail chain begins with people and communications. With CCM by
Chainformation, we have equipped our organization with a state of the art tool which
allows us to maximize and fully leverage the potential of the Colorama network, from
purchasing information to brand building. As we laser focus on building Scandinavia’s
leading retail chain in our segment, we can implement large scale changes and keep
our network informed in seconds,” explains Anders Lundblad.
In hindsight, the strategy has worked well for Colorama. They have carved out a clear
leadership role in a short time and continue to expand. According to a recent internal
report, Colorama has become one Sweden’s most recognized consumer brands, with
a brand awareness of 25 per cent (closest competitor at 9%), and top of mind brand
awareness for TV commercials.
According to Anders Hall, Sales and Marketing Manager at Chainformation, “Partnering
with Colorama, we were able funnel the wealth of information flowing through five
legacy computer systems in play across the Colorama network, while also providing
a communication platform where Colorama could communicate and share business
critical information. This is a great example of how Chainformation is able to rapidly
deploy a unifying approach and help deliver business critical knowledge when large
chains and alliances are born.”
CHAINFORMATION
We help equip your franchise network with
timely, relevant and critical know-how.