BKW

Country Base: Switzerland
Industry/Sector/Keywords: Energy & Utilities, Public Services
Below: Before and After Images in Slide Show, Summary, Credits

Industry Setting

Switzerland’s third, largest energy provider, BKW, is making a 180-degree about-face. It is currently transforming itself from a state-owned (and hence quasi-monopoly), regional electricity provider into a customer-focused, nation-wide energy consultant that is seeking to nudge the entire industry in a new direction.

Challenge

Imagine the product you are selling actually costs more to produce than it fetches on the market. Sooner or later, this fact will force you out of business. Companies facing such a prospect must reinvent themselves, and this is precisely what BKW had to do. This implied they had to come up with uncomplicated service solutions that perfectly fit individual customer needs—needs the customer is currently unaware exist. They also had to build a trusting, supportive, and service-oriented relationship with the customer. The logo, being recently redone, could not be changed as part of the reinvention effort.

Strategy

We worked with BKW to develop a brand that applied to the entire organization, not just limited to the Marketing and Communications departments. We combined BKWs unique strengths and traditional heritage with a new vision.

Result

The result is a contemporary, user-relevant positioning. The new brand is anchored in a set of guiding principles. Some of these resonate emotionally (e.g. “affinity,” “equal partnership” or “speaking the same language”). Other principles are more rational (e.g. “simplify, bundle, distill”). Finally, we have a guiding principle (featuring phrases like “embrace the future”) that articulates the notion of moving forward. The beauty of these principles is their flexibility.

The most important elements of the new brand design are its powerful use of color and a bespoke pictogram style that has been enhanced with “scribbles” – hand-drawn sketches with a clear communicative purpose: drawing a vision. In all, the new BKW brand provides a welcome visual contrast to the dispassionate and overly technical design approaches typical of the sector.

Client: BKW – www.bkw.ch/en/

Brand Strategists/Designers: Process Brand Evolution – www.process-group.com/en

Creative Director: B_rbel Fritz
Consulting Director:
Rudolf Rodenburg
Martin Fawer
Brand Designer:
Selina Eugster
Andy Lang
Sonja R_ssler
Dominique Hufschmid
Lucia Pigliapochi
Julian Huber
Brand Consultant:
Elmar Müller
Katharina Frank
Account Manager: Julia Wieler
Motion Designer: Levin Bissig