Stepping into a new Grand & Toy store, shoppers will immediately notice a significant change in the retailer’s in-store strategy.

Five of Grand & Toy’s Toronto locations have been transformed into one-stop small-business shops, featuring printers for customer use, a ‘tech bar’ of scanners and printers, and graphic designers available to help the retailer’s new target audience of small business owners.

To promote this new direction, Grand & Toy has launched a media buy spanning OOH, print and in-flight marketing.

The redesigned stores are located in Toronto’s neighbourhoods like College Park, King West and Yorkville where small businesses tend to cluster, so TSAs in these areas are targeting the owners with a campaign created by Toronto-based Extreme Group and AOR Media, who handled the buy.

Nationally, the brand is targeting business travellers through ads in Toronto Pearson International Airport, in-flight through Air Canada’s En Route magazine and ads in the Globe and Mail.

After closing many locations over the last five years, Grand & Toy underwent a fundamental shift to target an underserved market – small business owners with companies of about five to 25-plus employees.

Although retail is only about 9% of Grand & Toy’s business, ‘it’s a very important part because it’s been the most visible part of our brand for 125 years,’ says Kevin Edwards, VP marketing at Grand & Toy.

With files from Emily Wexler, Strategy magazine.