Automind

Situation

Opened since 1982 with a long history of outstanding craftsmanship and customer satisfaction, AutoMind Collision has become one of the leading auto body repair chains in the Greater Vancouver region. In 1998, Automind came to Formation SD to revitalize its aging image with a new progressive visual identity more closely aligned with its business growth. It was then a purely visual identity design program suitable to their needs at the time, which gave birth to one of the most admired brand identity systems in the industry. The new AutoMind logo we created was recognized as the most advanced and visually inspiring automotive symbol in town. Over the next 5 years, expansion occurred rapidly and the AutoMind management found themselves in need of a more sophisticated corporate identity and service branding program, developing a message that would reinforce their success and drive continued expansion across the province of British Columbia. Once again, AutoMind entrusted its promising brand future to us.

Challenge

Our challenge was to evolve the AutoMind brand that would reunite the company beyond visuals, firmly focusing all levels of its management and stakeholders on a single goal. We were instructed to avoid essential design overhaul so the company could still enjoy the strong visual acceptance from the original visual identity system we first created in 1998. In essence, the main challenge lies on the determination of AutoMind's authentic brand spirit and how this spirit would be manifested at the highest possible level of impact and efficiency.

Brand Advantage™

To focus the enterprise around a single goal, we had to first uncover the strength and opportunity in AutoMind's future. Our research insights showed that the marketplace was still developing with most consumers mistrusting the entire industry, thus came to the conclusion that the "Trust" factor could be a viable center piece of AutoMind's brand growth. After confirming that the company had the means and potential to dominate the valuable "Trust" brand position, we then began the search for the essential AutoMind brand catalyst in the form of the BAM™ (Brand Advantage Motivator™). To effectively motivate a collective action from all AutoMind brand stakeholders in support of the Trust calling, we ultimately created the phrase "Open Up" as the brand's BAM™. With this powerful, memorable and actionable calling, a stage was then set for a solid brand to rise. The impact of the AutoMind BAM™ was strong and immediate: numerous aspects of the new AutoMind branding, such as the visual identity system, marketing strategies and even the operation & customer service protocols, were directly inspired by the "Open Up" calling. We were able to retain the essence of the powerful visual system that we had created back in 1998 by developing a highly efficient, systematic visual evolution that rejuvenated and streamlined all AutoMind brand touch points, reinforcing the company's industry benchmarks for transparency, stakeholder morale and customer satisfaction. Thanks to the support of this comprehensive brand development campaign, AutoMind has now become a clear auto body repair leader in customer trust, operation efficiency and business growth.