• New brand reflects fundamental transformation to diversified industrial group
• Brand promise places focus on customers
• Brand to be introduced gradually: no lavish advertising campaign
In the future thyssenkrupp will use one common brand the world over. The redevelopment of the brand reflects the transformation of the Essen-based technology company to a diversified industrial group. “thyssenkrupp has changed in recent years. We are a different company today. We have become more diversified and as a result more stable,” says Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of thyssenkrupp.
“However, we are not yet perceived everywhere as the high-performance industrial group we are and want to become even more. That’s why we decided to redevelop the brand,” adds communications chief Alexander Wilke. The new brand puts a stronger focus on customers. It communicates the company’s positioning as a diversified industrial group and its aspiration to work in an integrated way, leveraging internal synergies and creating added value for customers, employees and shareholders.
The new branding is based on a survey of more than 6,000 customers, employees, applicants, investors, works council members, public figures and consumers. The findings: thyssenkrupp scores highly on engineering. The company and its employees and products are seen as high-quality and reliable. The new brand identity builds on this image and at the same time puts an even stronger focus on customer requirements.
The new brand condenses what thyssenkrupp stands for in a logo, a slogan, and new colors. Wilke: “But these are only the visible elements of our brand. At its core is our brand promise – because it places the focus on customers and says how we want to advance them.”
“The new brand does not mean that we have reached the end of our transformation. But it is designed to give a further boost to our change process both inside and outside the company,” Hiesinger continues. That is why thyssenkrupp will use one common brand in the future. Over 180 different brand identities currently exist side-by-side within the Group. That results in complexity and an inefficient use of resources. The single brand will create a unified image among customers and employees. This is also underlined by the new logo. The Thyssen and Krupp signets, previously separate, now form a single element.
The new slogan engineering. tomorrow. together. condenses the brand promise “and describes in three words who we are, what we do and how we do it,” says Wilke. The new brand deliberately represents an evolution. thyssenkrupp will be introducing the new brand gradually and in accordance with the company’s financial situation. There will be no lavish advertising campaign. Service vehicles, trucks used by the logistics unit, office stationery, work clothes, etc. will only appear in the new brand look when they are due to be replaced anyway. Overall thyssenkrupp is investing a mid-single-digit million euro amount in the new brand.