After 18 years, Mercedes-Benz has announced that it is renewing its brand identity across all business units. The new, standardized brand identity will be introduced in all corporate units - from Passenger Cars to Commercial Vehicles - and in all the world’s markets from November 1, 2007.
It was developed because of the brand’s history, and concludes the process of a more sharply focused brand positioning which began in 2006. The central theme of the new identity is the motto ‘The Star always shines from above’. With the launch of the C-Class Estate, the new brand design will be applied to a product campaign for the first time in November.
Over the last 120 years, Mercedes-Benz has worked to achieve this position with trailblazing innovations, a clear brand positioning and management, and targeted expansion of its model portfolio.
Mercedes-Benz has always emphasized on the company’s position as the world’s most traditional automobile manufacturer, and has always reflected innovative creations.
The Mercedes-Benz star as the starting point for the new visualization
Mercedes-Benz has one of the world’s most recognized trademarks in the form of the three-pointed star. Accordingly, Mercedes-Benz is also giving this world-renowned logo a central position in its future communications activities.
Dr. Klaus Maier, Executive Vice President Mercedes Car Group, responsible for Sales and Marketing said:
The image that has established our brand identity over the decades is and remains the star. In the future we will be featuring this even more prominently, where it is visible to our customers.
As a major innovation, the star as the central symbol of the brand always shines from above in the new brand design. Reproductions will show the star in two-dimensional form (for example in the print media), but it remains three-dimensional in physical representations (for example on vehicles or dealerships).
Moreover, the star and the written trademark will be shown separately in communications activities in future. In this way, the star shining above the written trademark will create a communicative linking effect. Whether in the form of an image or written communication, each core message will be visually placed between the star and the written trademark.
New imagery reflects the brand’s personality
In order to reflect the wide variety of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars and commercial vehicles, the focus of the new design will be on uniform imagery. In future, the various communications activities will not only feature images of automobiles, but also photos of architecture, people and landscapes.
Generous compositions with unusual perspectives and specific use of lighting will create excitement and illustrate the personality of the brand. Vitality and dynamism are major components of the visual idiom, as are the inventive use of focal depth and unfocused images.
The signature color for the Mercedes-Benz brand will be the elegant ‘arrow silver’. The primary color for signage in the dealerships will be the powerful ‘midnight blue’.
An in-house project team working in cooperation with the agency Claus Koch Identity GmbH developed the new design for the Mercedes-Benz brand.
[Source: Daimler]
