A brand that leads the charge
ChargeNet work – Brand workshops | Consumer research | Brand research | Competitive Analysis | Positioning | Brand Strategy | Brand design | Website design and build | Signage | Collateral | Social Media
ChargeNet
Steve West – Co-founder and CEO
Background
As recently as 2015 New Zealand Electric Vehicles (EVs) owners could not charge their vehicles beyond their house. Steve West, one of the founders set about changing that – building the largest privately-owned EV charging network in the Southern Hemisphere.
However, over time, the brand became outdated and lost touch with its target audiences. One of the main issues was the inconsistent branding of its 260 EV stations across the country. As a result, the brand needed to evolve and establish itself as a prominent player in the New Zealand EV industry.
“The rebrand came at a time when the brand, deliberately or not, was coming of age. While the startup brand had got them off the ground and gained traction we knew it was now time to stand up, be noticed, be respected and take ownership of this marketplace.”
STEVE WEST – CO-FOUNDER AND CEO
“The new brand takes ChargeNet from a start-up, to a more easily recognisable and modern brand with a bold identity. The brand has evolved to command attention and stand out from competitors and it is now a true reflection of the unique value proposition that ChargeNet represents.”
JASMINE ROXBOROUGH – YHI ENERGYGENET
Brand Research
To begin the process of improving the brand, we conducted a Brand Assessment for the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). This allowed them to gain a comprehensive understanding of the entire brand and its current state of inconsistency and incoherence.
Following this, we facilitated a workshop to assess their strategic direction, areas of uniqueness, challenges faced, and the key traits that underpin their business. This allowed us to identify the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, and to develop a strategic plan for how to address them.
To gain further insights into the brand’s perception among its key audiences, we conducted in-depth interviews with two groups: key partners and EV drivers (customers). Through these interviews, we discovered that while people loved the concept behind ChargeNet, they did not feel the same level of enthusiasm for the brand itself.
Our analysis revealed that if we could elevate the brand to match the positive experience and ideal that people were buying into, we would be able to achieve success and win over customers.
Challenge
Initially, ChargeNet recognized that their brand was outdated and not resonating with their key audiences. As a result, they sought to update their website and refresh their brand image. While the original brief was focused on modernizing the brand and website, we identified the potential for even greater value by improving the visibility of the charging network and strengthening connections with a business audience, which was a new market for them.
Creativity
The outcomes were creatively innovative in a number of ways:
1. Connects to Audience
“Loving the new colours and branding, very fresh and stands out significantly more than it used to. Makes seeing and finding ChargeNet chargers when travelling really easy and a great improvement to the image of ChargeNet, well done with the update.”
GRAEME FENEMOR – CUSTOMER AND EV DRIVER
“Our old branding was inconsistent and often muddled due to a lack of brand ownership. In this process we have had to step back to review our messaging and customer touchpoints in order to build a purpose driven brand. Our new brand messages are clear and concise and allow us to quickly convey what is often seen as a confusing topic.”
BAILEY GORST, MARKETING MANAGER OF CHARGENET
2. Maturity of Brand
“The rebranding efforts come at a pivotal moment in the EV movement in New Zealand with the market shifting more positively towards electric vehicles. With our expertise and track record, along with our new identity ChargeNet has established ourselves as an industry leader.”
STEVE WEST – CO-FOUNDER AND CEO
LOGO
The intention was always a simple brand evolution. To simplify the logo as far as possible whilst retaining the brand recognition. To improve street visibility.
COLOUR PALETTE
The old colour palette was too busy with black, red and orange being used inconsistently. We consolidated this palette down to one colour – red – to make it easy for drivers to find on the street.
CHARGING NETWORK DESIGN
A key aspect of this project was the signage on the chargers. They had various designs on them – some even featuring lightning bolts! They also had advertising all over them giving advertisers priority to the detriment of ChargeNet’s own brand. The more they added, the more brand-invisible they became.
We reclaimed these ‘billboards’ for ChargeNet by making them clean modern, easy to find and ensured they promoted ChargeNet first, advertisers second.
The Results
“Since launching the new brand we have seen a noticeable increase across the board. Our sales team is busier than ever with an upsurge in commercial sales enquiries, our social media engagement has increased 650% year-on-year and our new website is seeing a significant boost in page views, new user visits and a longer average session duration.”
BAILEY GORST – MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
“Since the first of the year of ChargeNet providing Fast Chargers for Electric Vehicles in the South Island of New Zealand I have been an enthusiastic customer and supporter of the company and its ideals. I thought the original logo was brilliant – the positive and negative signs indicative of a battery and the inclusion of the smiling face.”
MARTIN KANE – CUSTOMER AND EV DRIVER
CEO’s comment on the brand
“We’re incredibly proud to launch ChargeNet’s brand refresh, which is the first update to the brand since our first charging station launched more than five years ago with a logo created in Photoshop.
Keeping the core elements of our previous logo allows us to update our existing network gradually while we put most of our resources into expanding our nationwide network of chargers for our valued and loyal customers.
Our research revealed that most people who recognised our brand were those who dealt with us on a regular basis, such as our commercial partners and existing customers. We wanted to boost visibility of our brand and make our driver collateral such as key fobs a desirable product that users were proud to show off.
Our new, modern branding aligns with the next phase of our business strategy, which is focused on educating the general public about the extensive network of chargers already available and to encourage more New Zealand businesses to adopt EVs as fleet vehicles.
The rebranding efforts come at a pivotal moment in the EV movement in New Zealand with the market shifting more positively towards electric vehicles. With our expertise and track record, along with our new identity ChargeNet has established ourselves as an industry leader.”
STEVE WEST, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF CHARGENET
