Enhanced Motors
Service
Branding, Marketing & Strategy
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
The Brand
We have always wanted to work with an automotive workshop and Enhanced Motors was the ideal team for us to work with. The Enhanced Motors team was an absolute charm to work with. Their brand vision worked hand-in-hand with our strategy and brand building ethos. Creating a holistic brand experience for their team and customers was always at the forefront of all conversations.
Founded by best mates Maya & Bhavin, Enhanced Motors is a brand that strives to provide the best customer experience in Auckland. As young professionals in the industry, their fresh ideas and holistic solutions helped customers understand, appreciate and love their cars. They help educate their customers on the value of maintaining their cars properly to ensure longevity.
The Challenges
Red Ocean, POD, brand loyalty, brand experience & consistency.
In a market that is overcrowded and constantly survives on price-beat strategies, the challenge they face is a colossal one. They know that this challenge is an on-going one, especially in Auckland. Everyone wants to find the cheapest fix for their vehicles because they see maintenance as an expense rather than an investment. The team at Enhanced Motors told us about several situations where customers come to them with a mess of a car after the cheap mechanic did a shotty job earlier. What shocked us was that safety gets jeopardised almost every time in their industry. We saw this as a strategic opportunity for their brand to stand out.
In this situation, of course, the price they charge is a factor, but it doesn’t need to be the defining one. Once a business enters the ruthless world of price battles, getting out of it becomes a huge problem. Over time, people see the brand as one that discounts their quality and service to get customers. To make things worse, this brand reputation attracts more bargain hunters that have near to no loyalty. From there it’s a downward spiral.
Our Solution
Brand Authenticity, Brand Vision & values, brand credibility, brand personality, brand language, unique value proposition
Our strategy was to build a brand that isn’t just another mechanic down the road. The key to standing out and avoiding the price battle of the industry is to build an exceptional brand experience that focuses on quality, education and safety. Every industry has a small percentage of the market that is bargain hunters. They want everything for $2. Often, the first question they ask is “Can you give me a discount?” I’m sure almost every service-based business has faced this customer at least once.
This is where the Brand Vision and Values come in. Understanding their ideal target consumer was vital in building a brand strategy that not only attracts the people that value quality, consistency and trust but repel the bargain hunters who don’t. We helped the Enhanced Motors team develop a comprehensive understanding of their customer in our Customer Segmentation Workshop included in our Brand Foundation Build package. This made it very easy for the team to determine which customer is or isn’t worth their time.
A startup doesn’t have to feel like a small business. Proper branding can help businesses build brand credibility and right from the start. We applied Enhanced Motor’s vision, Unique Value Proposition and Brand Ethos to every aspect of their business. From the look to the language, their team used with each other and the customers on a daily basis.
XX Caution; simple & effective at work.
The Enhanced Motors brand is all about the people who are focused on precision performance. This covers vehicles of all types built for all terrains. At the core of every vehicle driving experience is the gear stick. Even though stick-shift manual cars are harder to find nowadays, the joy of changing gears remains the same. After many concepts, we finalised the logo based on the core source of Maya and Bhavin’s love for the automotive industry; changing gears. The 6-speed gear-shift visual is instantly recognised by drivers of all ages around the world.
The upside to choosing a black and white colour combination for the brand is the natural beauty of contrast. We absolutely love the class this colour combination brings to all elements of branding. To align the brand to Enhanced Motor’s vision further, black and white are also the colours of New Zealand. The Enhanced Motors team is a huge fan of the New Zealand All Blacks and Black Caps which both use black and white as their primary colours. So that’s a win all around!
A technical upside to this colour scheme is that it makes printing of all the marketing collateral way more cost-effective. In the print world, black and white projects are easier to set up and print, which makes it cheaper than printing full colour. With the rest of Enhanced Motor’s competition choosing full-colour combinations, our brand concept helps EM stand out and boost Brand Recognition.
The Enhanced Motors’ founders being fresh young professionals, they are very active on social media. Which helps them attract their ideal target market; young generations that can prioritise investing in their vehicles as it’s seen as an extension of themselves.
Brand Credibility
Since Enhanced Motors was diving face first into a huge Red Ocean full of small businesses with no brand presence, we devised a simple yet effective strategy to help them get a head start. In our books, the best way to drive brand connection and brand loyalty is to offer customers a variety of relevant ways to show their support for the brand. This comes from knowing and understanding your ideal customer really really well.
Automotive enthusiasts love belonging to and representing a brand community. This is exactly what Enhanced Motors was able to achieve through their branding. They applied the Enhanced Motors brand to as many physical brand elements as possible. They offered their ideal customers a wide array of brand touch points. Starting with branded WiFi, pens, car chargers, street teardrop flags, waterproof stickers, centre-cap decals, vehicle vinyl decals and t-shirts and hoodies.
After completing extensive primary research ourselves, we learned that the majority of automotive workshops didn’t have a brand. This meant that they and their customers saw them as the mechanic down the road they visited once a year or when something needed fixing. That’s it!
Building A Brand Community
Consumers had developed a personal connection with the mechanics but not the business. We saw this as a huge opportunity to build a brand that not only provides the baseline services but goes above and beyond and offers an opportunity for the consumer to get involved with the brand and develop a strong, loyal brand connection.
Long story short, the Enhanced Motors Cruise was born. This is a complete Enhanced Motors branded and hosted event. Where automotive enthusiasts join the Enhanced Motors team on a set route for a cruise to enjoy the freedom felt driving down a long smooth road. These participants consisted of Enhanced Motors customers, their friends and local car fanatics that heard about it through word-of-mouth or via Enhanced Motors social media.
The Enhanced Motors team later went on to host their own Enhanced Motors Hard Park events where they offered a free BBQ, Enhanced Motors branded show car awards and a sponsored photo session of the cars and the event at large. Three years on, this interactive brand strategy helps them hit their business goals and continues to attract their ideal customers organically.
Here’s a quick snapshot of their engaged and loyal brand community in action:
Branding Insight – Invest in, protect & cherish your brand community.
Amit Anil
Crafting The Brand Persona
To continue to build their brand awareness and develop their very unique brand persona, their social media strategy had to be crafted specifically to suit their brand ethos and attract the ideal customers. The simple yet effective strategy was to showcase the kind of cars they worked on regularly. The psychological message was to allow consumers to choose Enhanced Motors based on the cars showcased. This clearly sent a message to the bargain hunters that Enhanced Motors wasn’t the place for them. All the while, sending a clear message to ideal customer. Boom!
Showcasing the Enhanced Motors logo alongside the exotic cars subliminally transferred the already present neural connections with the cars onto the Enhanced Motors brand. Simple & effective!
The Result
Established Brand Credibility, Authority & Brand Positioning
The Enhanced Motors team took their branding and marketing to the next level, putting their professional ability to the test in the public eye. Introducing Enhanced Motors Track Ready. The Enhanced Motors Racing team regularly takes part in the local track days to test out their workmanship, boost brand awareness, earn brand credibility and most importantly have fun doing it! To top it all off they produce a video series of their Enhanced Track Builds; track ready cars they build from scratch.
If you’re wondering how you can leverage your brand to build a highly engaging and loyal brand community contact us. We’re just a call away! 🤘
Related Projects
