Private investors´ start-up `Grúas Hormiga Negra´. A service provider for public and private transport infrastructure, construction and petroleum industries in Latin America.
GHN entered the market with a small but agile selection of equipment and we decided to challenge the leader directly as they had a similar much larger fleet of equipment.
The Key insights were that using the regular industry colour scheme would not make the company recognisable on-site. The main competitor had built its position around a powerful, but extinct animal and had chosen a clever alternative colour scheme. We decided to focus on team work rather than individual performance and compliance as a `black and white issue´. Years later, the competitor did indeed become extinct and GHN has grown to fill that void.
1. Crane hire
A start-up in transportation infrastructure, construction and oil Industries
GRÚAS HORMIGA NEGRA
2. Business Purpose
Crane hire to oil, contruction, civil engineering and mining.
Power, Teamwork and Safety.
Heavy lifting is a ‘All-hands-on-deck’, activity, requiring
special attention to preparation, coordination and safety.
Market Drivers
Reliability, stability and efficiency
Practice & Procedure.
Responsive and well coordinated.
Compliance: Corporate, institutional, legal,
governmental, H&S.
In Latin America these differentiating factors
are more important than in D, S, N, Japan or USA.
Research & Insights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadwheel_crane
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/03/
history-of-human-powered-cranes.html
3. Mamut Andino demonstrates an awareness of Category Meaning
Incongrous: Romantic sunset and
rolling waves on a sunset beach???
Inconsistent with market drivers and
category meaning.
Gruas Atlas attempts to position
itself as ‘International’.
Foreign companies viewed
favorably because of their
reputation for better practice,
training, safety, compliance and
paying.
Strongest in the market, and it shows.
Emphasis on power and solidity.
Inconsistent usage:
Competition
Gruas Atlas
Grupo Noroccidental Mamut Andino
4. Communication Codes: Yellow & black
Leaders, Caterpillar and JCB, ‘own’, the industry colour scheme.
Demonstrate and deliver a safety benefit.
The anonymous herd.
5. Positioning concept against Market Leader
Gruas Hormiga Negra
(Black Ant Cranes)
X non- differentiator.
X
Mamut Andino, defends
the entire, ‘Safety Colour’,
territory.
Footprint
Black and White:
Power, stability & absolute control.
The ant is a symbol of teamwork, agile strength relative
to size and coordination; important values within the category.
X
X
Dinosaurs? Extinct and reptilian.
Elephants? Weaker than mammoth
Mamut Andino logo occupies a higher space relative to its width.
The ‘Gruas Hormiga Negro’, logo appears ‘squashed’;
a metaphor which must be avoided at all costs.
Colour
Name
6. 1. Perspective: Make the ant appear larger.
2. A solid black block was introduced to lift the ant
higher and make the footprint of the logo proportionally
taller. The block also gives a solidity and strength to
the image that makes the ant a ‘winner’, as if recieving
a medal.
3. Abdomen rounded to avoid association with a ‘sting’.
1 2 3
4 5 6
Message Refinements
7. GHN
*
Refinements: Message Density
Grúas Hormiga Negra
40° angle
45° angle
4. The antenna gives the ‘ant’a sensitivity to its environment
and keeps it well-informed.
5. Head tilted to create a powerful ‘Hero- Warrior’, (See
athletic, warrior and martial postures).
6. The footprint now shows the GHN logo proportionally
taller than Mamut Andino’s.
