oors on 18 May in Serangoon Nex shopping mall. Sanae Inada, the general manager of Rive Gauche, said this new branding initiative reflects the brand’s evolution over the last three decades. “Our customers can look forward to a refreshed experience, including the relaunch of our website with a new online experience in two months and rollout of the revamped store design across all our other seven outlets by the end of September this year,” she told Inside Retail. The story so far When she first took the reins of the business earlier this year, Inada was quite surprised to find out that most of the items on sale had not really changed in the 30 years of operation. The first order of business was to freshen things up to attract a broader swath of customers. “It’s quite a miracle for these items to have such staying power, but on the other hand, it’s also behind the trends,” she said. “I didn’t want to change everything, because of the history and the heritage of the brand in the Singapore market, but we also recognised the need to spice things up a little bit to attract more customers. So, that’s what we are doing now.” Inada said that the brand has conducted several surveys to gauge the understanding of the brand among local Singaporeans, and found out that while many had great memories of the brand when they were much younger, they had lost touch as they got older. Now, by adding a larger focus on social media into the mix, Rive Gauche is reaching a new audience. “We are attracting a much younger crowd now, it used to be only the over 35 demographic, but now we are getting more traction on social media, so it’s great that we are connecting to a much broader audience,” she enthused. Authentic, not fusion Most Singaporeans generally think that Rive Gauche has a 50:50 split between Japanese and French influences, and they are not wrong, according to Inada. She said that while the brand sells very traditional Japanese strawberry shortcakes, it also uses authentic French recipes. “We are using some modern yet trendy ingredients, like matcha and miso, but we are still using old-school French traditional recipes that are very tough to replicate as it’s time consuming and one can’t cut corners to get it right,” she elaborated. Interestingly, she has observed that there are a lot of companies and brands in the F&B business in Singapore that are offering a range of fusion offerings in this space, and that is something she is steering away from. “We don’t want to confuse customers with this fusion approach. It doesn’t jive with our brand, and we are going to stay true to our strengths and focus on our traditional recipes but with updated ingredients to create a differentiation in the marketplace,” she added. The delivery phenomenon During the height of the pandemic, the brand managed to weather the storm by focusing on partnering with delivery operators. Inada said that customers were craving comfort foods during this time, and Rive Gauche managed to fill this need. “I would like to say that we were able to spread some comfort and joy during this time. I wouldn’t say we had amazing delivery sales, but at the same time, I don’t think we had much difficulty in staying afloat. Also, the Singapore government was really helping the F&B sector at that time,” she noted. The brand recently launched its new loyalty program ‘RG Sweeties’, which offers discount vouchers, exclusive member benefits, birthday vouchers and point rewards too.  A hands-on approach Inada is a baker by profession, and makes it a point to get together with her team and bake new creations. In a lot of ways, it boosts team morale and it’s also a great way to brainstorm and get feedback on recipes. “It may sound selfish, but we are trying to create items that you would want to eat every day. We want customers to come back when they want to treat themselves to something heavenly, that’s our mission,” she added. She is also focused on increasing the brand’s outreach through social media by creating a ‘love letter’ approach to customer engagement. For her, it’s not just about blasting information all the time, but more about creating a human connection with customers. “We want to educate our customers about what we stand for, but also get to know them better and really express our key strengths. From sending birthday messages to getting feedback on their favourite cakes or requests, this is all part of the plan,” she concluded.