DDG was charged with creating a fresh brand identity for Penfold Motors, a well-established Melbourne new car retailer with multiple dealerships, multiple sites and several sales and service offerings. Penfold Motors began more than 40 years ago. The business has an enviable reputation for high volume sales and excellence in service delivery.

The challenge: to develop an engaging overall brand presence with sufficient flow-on to drive the numerous sub-brands.

The process: a close collaboration between DDG and Penfold’s senior personnel to understand the business structure, commercial objectives and brand personality.

Consultation identified that Penfold’s point of difference is the actual “experience” offered to customers (and potential customers). This experience is purpose-created in the way every customer is treated from the moment they enter a Penfold car showroom, right through the sales and service process. Penfold sets the benchmark for customer care in the automotive industry, recognising that many dealers just sell cars. Penfold markets the “experience” of selecting and purchasing a car to really ignite buy-in and loyalty to the relationship itself. This is expressed with the tagline “our experience is your experience”. Replicating the benefits of the buying relationship is a crucial element of the brand design and will be a strong theme in the new website.

DDG’s Creative Director, Fred Thompson, explained that, “Central to this creative development was our team’s understanding of the business structure, where the various brands sit, how they relate to one another, how they leverage from the parent brand and how we can express that visually. It’s about strong core elements that drive the overall look and feel of the image by cutting through the busy-ness of the sub-brands and specific product data.”

Fundamental to the DDG solution is a distinctive Penfold wordmark, which showcases an original, custom-created font. Simple, unique and very, very ownable.

The bold wordmark is softened against a sleek and curved graphic element. As a potential backdrop to multi-brand product and service propositions, the brand is expressed in an uncomplicated black/grey/white colourway. Perfect for reproduction in print or electronic format and a polished performance in vehicle livery, on-site signage and promotional merchandise.

This uncluttered treatment complements the very different personalities of the sub-brands which range from prestige European vehicles through to Aussie-made family-focused cars, used cars, and tyre and service outlets. It’s a broad demographic … so it demands an intelligent brand expression that doesn’t estrange any single sub-sector.

Now rolling-out across Penfold sites around Melbourne and a soon-to-be-launched website, the new Penfold Experience offers consumers (and prospective consumers) the security of a recognisable over-arching brand alongside their individual choice of well-known and favourite brands. The uncomplicated creative allows these already high-positioned brands (including Audi, Mazda, Holden and Mitsubishi) to speak for themselves.

While every brand within the business gets a voice and its own expression, the “Penfolds Experience” is clearly the relationship that links the consumer to the other considerable brand benefits.