Is it difficult to develop a corporate identity for a group of engineering companies with international goals? Ten offices in different countries, more than 5000 employees, huge marketing desk. And an owner who has managed to build his successful "empire" for 25 years, in love with his current logo, but realizing that the time has come for a change. The Spectrum Group project was just that. We will tell you about the way the relations with the client were built, how the design of corporate style was developed and to what extent the client's representatives were involved in the process below.
Brief - the basis of any project to develop a corporate identity. Very often the customer has a superficial attitude to the filling of this document. Often they answer in one or two sentences, sometimes they skip questions, and sometimes they get off with generalities. "It can be seen after presentation of the first variants of new logo design which the client cancels and we are forced to return to the beginning of the project and discuss goals, objectives and expectations of the client," says Aija Chmil, 3CUBA project manager.
But this was not the case with the Spectrum Group project. It is hard to remember a more detailed brief in terms of general information, competitive environment, marketing objectives, strategic planning in our agency. The document which usually takes two or three pages, increased to almost ten. Plus it was accompanied by multi-page reports of foresight sessions on the strategic development and management of the company. But the main thing Spectrum Group's marketing department voiced in the following sentences: "Active participation in investment markets, in the development of infrastructure, real estate in Russia, Europe and Asia. Our benchmarks - Arup, Aecom, Buro Happold - are the world's top engineers".
“It was important for the customer to maintain visual continuity. We understood that it was a waste of time to offer options radically different from the current version of the logo,” says Alexander Ushakov, creative director of the 3CUBA agency.
The name Spectrum and the variety of services provided by the company pushed designers and marketers to a certain visual image. The decision was made to keep the use of a wide color palette.
For the first presentation, our agency traditionally prepares three conceptually different versions of the logo. We show possible options for using these logos, justify this or that choice, point out strengths and weaknesses, explain positioning, and anticipate the market reaction. In this case, the customer could not decide between the two concepts. It was decided to pass the options through three focus groups and, based on this marketing research, approve the logo. Why three? The marketing department wanted to get a cross section of three sociological groups: the younger generation, middle management and top executives. The winner was determined by open voting. After that, the customer turned to an independent patent agency with a request to check the new logo for uniqueness and register it as a trademark.
