Listening to the sound of writing with ballpoint pens, CARAN D’ACHE?noticed that the differences between each letter’s shape and number of strokes led to different sounds. The brand built on this by developing combinations of letters that sound like passages from classical music pieces. For example, writing the letters ‘vivid, vivid, vivid, color!’ sounds like a passage from the famous ‘Gavotte’. This was adapted to an original paper for test-writing that was placed at the storefront of stationery shops, urging people to try its pens out.

Since test-writing at the storefront is the most important touch point when considering stationery, CARAN D’ACHE took advantage of this by placing a special test-writing paper that introduced shoppers to The Melody of Letters.

The test-writing paper is designed in the form of a musical score. On the cover is the title of the piece, and staves are printed on both pages inside. The ‘melodic letters’ are printed like notes on the stave on the left page, and the customer is to fill in the blank stave on the right page following the example presented on the left page. By designing test-writing paper like a musical score, the brand drew the interest of customers amidst the clutter of information within stationery shops and encouraged them to try its pens out.

The Melody of Letters drew people’s interest and many customers tried it out, leading to an extension in the time people spent checking CARAN D’ACHE products out at the storefront. The campaign let people experience the functionality of the brand’s products and urged them to purchase. Also, by adding an unprecedented fun factor to test-writing at the storefront, the brand strongly conveyed a playful image.