The disappearance of one of its best-known brands was a major reason diversified multinational industrial services and retail group, Imperial Holdings developed a new look that was unveiled in late September.

lmperial Car Rental, which was the group’s most visible presence even though it contributed only 13% to profits, had evolved into Europcar just four months previously. Said group CEO Hubert Brody: “We felt it was important to determine whether we could reposition Imperial as more than just a car and truck rental company. Branding has become a central tool in business competitiveness, and we realised that more effective branding could provide a competitive advantage in our markets.” Adoption of a new look and feel followed a comprehensive review and restructuring of the group following Brody’s appointment two years ago.

All of the hundreds of companies in the group will now adopt logos that identify them as part of Imperial. The group, which is involved in logistics, vehicle distribution and retailing and insurance, has adopted the strapline of Fast Moving, Forward Thinking. Brody says the new statement embodies the energy and dynamism of the new Imperial brand, and confirms the group’s chosen focus areas of expansion: logistics, tourism and selected aspects of financial services. Early this year, Imperial’s executive committee appointed an internal senior brand team under Tak Hiemstra, executive director strategic development, to investigate the merits of establishing an umbrella brand to unite the group. Black Branding was the successful agency out of the four that pitched for the project. “The timeline was really driven by the announcement of our annual results because we wanted to use the new look in the annual report, which is a document that lives for at least a year,” said Hiemstra, for whom a rebranding was a new experience. “It was a lot more scientific and complicated than I would ever have imagined. The agency did comprehensive research among staff and customers before coming up with its proposals. I would not have thought that so much work goes into turning images and names into meaning and expression of ideas.” The agency suggested, and Imperial chose, a hybrid brand architecture structure.

“This is the best for our diversified and entrepreneurial business. We will retain some strong individual brands that already have an entrenched market presence, and at the same time, re-invent, and strengthen the Imperial brand,” says Hiemstra. “We have learnt that you can recognise different brands within the group if you have a disciplined architecture approach that acknowledges the holding company but gives the individual brands the freedom to express what they do.” He said the task now was to get staff to continue to buy into and use the new look and feel. A comprehensive brand book had been produced and up to 200 staff who worked most closely with brand instruments would be given comprehensive training so that they could make the most of the new image tools. Brody said consistent branding enabled the group to capitalise on the synergies between its various businesses. “Our large corporate customers prefer to do business with an Imperial company – they recognise the strength of the Imperial name.” Dawn Nathan-Jones, chief executive officer of Europcar South Africa, said a main reason for the name change of the vehicle hire company was that almost a fifth of its income was from international business coming into the country.

Further, many corporates were taking purchasing decisions at their head offices in other countries and a domestic South Africa brand such as Imperial was losing out to those that were known international names. Europcar had already felt the benefit of the name change, she said. “If I had to do it again, there’s only one thing I would do differently and that’s do it quicker. We ran the Europcar and Imperial hire brands in parallel for two years before the amalgamation. I think that was too long, but it was the careful, gradual approach. What is absolutely essential is to get your staff on side. You need to take them through the whole process very carefully. Old brands sometimes die hard so you need to give them a proper farewell and be sensitive to emotions.” In the Imperial Holdings annual report released in September, Brody says in a section of his CEO’s report under the heading of future strategic focus, that “tourism has significant potential and (we) will investigate related opportunities carefully with the intention of expanding the business in a manner that amplifies our current strong base in inbound tour operations and coach touring.” “The strategy to limit the group’s relative exposure to the motor retailing industry continues. Far-reaching steps have been taken to right-size our motor operations in line with our expectations for motor vehicle demand and our requirements for return on capital,” Brody says. Gareth Richards chewed as many as 50 Imperial Mints during the writing of this article.