FOUR COMPANIES – ONE BRAND

The brand of a company plays an important role in how it is perceived by everyone around it. Companies that succeed in creating a unique and memorable brand can establish a strong positioning in the market. This lays a solid foundation for successful corporate development going forward. But what is the best way to establish a common brand identity after a merger involving four companies? How can product offerings and services be made understandable and clear to customers? How should sales and perception be promoted when a company is rationalizing its product range? The answers to these questions, and how it’s done successfully, were discovered by four companies from Bremen after working with experts at the Institute for Integrated Design (i/i/d Steinbeis Transfer Center).

Four companies – HASECO ZÖGER (Bremen/Hamburg), STETTNER (Erkrath), NordCap (Bremen), and NordCook (Hamburg) – have decided to merge and accordingly, they want to realign their business strategies. The firms’ core field of business was originally refrigeration solutions for restaurants, catering, and store fitting. Together, the four companies can offer a new portfolio of products and a variety of services for fitting technical equipment in restaurants, catering, and store interiors.

The product range is also being reorganized and divided into three fields of business: refrigeration, cooking, and dishwashing. Products and services are no longer communicated and promoted on a company or business level. Instead, they are combined with suitable products matched to specific customer groups.

A crucial ingredient of this hybrid marketing model is a clear and recognizable brand strategy. The NordCap brand, which is no longer just a product name but also the name of the new company after the merger, should convey comprehensive expertise in industrial chilling, cooking, and dishwashing technology, as well as matching products and end-to-end solutions aimed at a variety of sectors of industry (bakeries, confectionery stores, butchers, small and medium-sized restaurants, industrial kitchen operators, and much more), not to mention different types of applications (warehousing, preparation, production, presentation, bars and drinks, and cleaning).

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NORDCAP: AN AGILE AND POWERFUL BRAND

This was the brief the four companies took to the i/i/d (Institute for Integrated Design, the Steinbeis Transfer Center in Bremen), which specializes in communication planning and designing marketing interactions, systems, structures, and processes, as well as specific design innovations for B2B and consumer goods, brands, enterprises, products, and spaces. The four firms found what they were looking for. The brand strategy, branding hierarchy, and visual imagery developed by the Steinbeis experts address all areas of media and communication, from printed materials to digital media, and spatial presentation formats such as exhibitions and trade shows.

The redesign allows the NordCap brand to present itself in a new light as an adaptable entity. The core brand values (“genes” of the brand) lay a credible and reliable foundation that conveys the proactive approach of the business in a new and memorable way.

Thanks to the support of the Steinbeis experts, NordCap now owns a powerful brand and product promise, an effective media plan for future corporate campaigns, a clear strategic positioning, an assortment of products matched to market requirements, a strong brand, and a clear branding hierarchy. The Steinbeis experts are continuing to support the NordCap group of companies with advice, not only in order to help the business with strategic issues, such as corporate positioning, but also when it comes to the actual design of specific media (such as materials used for trade shows). Everything revolves around doing what’s right for the brand and the customer.