Waking sleeping giants
Creating a brand architecture for construction conglomerate ACICO delivered not only a visual identity for this Kuwait-based company, but birthed a common sense of purpose and shaped an organisational structure that has created new business opportunities for the company, both in the Middle East and around the world.
ACICO’s business model is to own the full value chain in its sector, from quarries and concrete manufacture to architecture and property development, but a lack of structure and common vision meant that it was not leveraging this to full effect. And while the company had a logo, there was no real brand and hence no sense of what it meant to be ACICO.
The fact that ACICO is a family-run business that has grown organically over time is reflected in the multiple, incoherent identities spread throughout the corporation. The leadership of the company was convinced that the application of a global branding strategy could provide the company with the kind of professional image and purpose that would enable it to compete on a global stage.
The challenge for REX was to use design to bring about a fundamental change in the organisation. This was done by creating coherence that would bind all the different parts of the corporation together with a common purpose and a confident, contemporary identity.
During the design process, the REX team identified those elements of ACICO’s existing brandscape that could to be retained, and evolved them to create a new brand. In line with ACICO’s goal of entering the global business arena, it was important for REX to use universally symbolic language that would find resonance across culture. The selection of a circular element, strong word mark, universally recognisable Hebel symbol and single colour delivered on these objectives. The brand architecture is solidified under one name, one symbol, one mother brand. The ACICO name is used as the prefix to all of the company’s business units.
The result is so much more than just a visual identity. A renewed ACICO, once a sleeping giant, has now awoken with a new sense of self, a common vision and a unity that binds the once disparate parts of the company together. The people within the company have been given a sense of pride in what the brand stands for, and a sense of being part of the whole. This is a prime example of how design can deliver business efficiency and influence the financial bottom line, this sense of self and new-found pride has seen different ACICO business units marketing each other to clients, thereby enabling the company to take full advantage of its end-to-end value chain.
