Fresh Image for Ground-breaking Contributions to Mobility
- Continental redesigns corporate and product brand
- Safe, clean, comfortable, and more easily accessible mobility as the brand essence
- The new tagline "The Future in Motion" stands for the corporation's product range
Hanover, June 11, 2013. With Continental, the future is starting earlier, the mobility of tomorrow is being shaped here today. The manufacturer that once concentrated solely on tires has now become one of the world's largest system suppliers for technologies improving safety, sustainability, information management, and comfort in mobility. With its new image, Continental is underlining the change it has undergone in recent years. The corporation's own goal is clearly formulated: “Our technological solutions are helping people to enrich the quality of their life through mobility and to structure their living space in a sustainable manner. We create fascinating solutions and products for volume production in reliable, first-class quality and faster than our competitors. Our brand symbolizes this goal and is the promise to our stake-holders by which we measure ourselves on a daily basis,” says Chief Executive Officer Dr. Elmar Degenhart.
Presented to the public for the first time at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting in mid-May in Hanover, the new logo stands for agility, passion, and innovation. Added to this is a revised design system with a new typeface and a clearly formulated brand claim: “Continental – The Future in Motion”. A rough explanation: “Continental moves the future, the future moves Continental.” The focus here is on the importance of mobility as a basic human need. Continental is playing an active role in shaping the future of mobility by making mobility and transport safer, cleaner, more comfortable, and more easily accessible for everyone.
The new image arose as part of a far-reaching project. Over the past two years, Continental has radically further developed its growth strategy, corporate culture, positioning, and brand architecture, because in over 140 years, the company has grown continuously, not just organically but also through the acquisition of more than 90 companies.
With its tire business, the technology company has been very successful for years and more recently has been increasingly on course for growth. The Continental tire brand is known worldwide and continues to form the foundation for Continental's brand awareness.
However, Continental now generates well over half of its annual sales in the automotive business. In particular, electronics in cars are taking on more and more functions. The share of the value of the electronics in a vehicle is therefore increasing more and more quickly. For this reason, Continental is growing very rapidly, at a faster rate than the market average. The strongly growing industrial sales of the ContiTech division, for example with customers from raw material extraction, also ensure that Continental is becoming less sensitive to economic fluctuations, particularly those of the automotive industry. The new corporate brand and redesigned product brand respond to this overall development. They are being gradually established in the new design throughout 2013.
The Continental brand is being used as the “Master brand” for the company, but also as a core product brand in all business units. During the development process, it was important to use the strong presence and significance of the tire brand. All in all, the new and modern look perfectly combines continuity and progress. It will further strengthen Continental's image while simultaneously reflecting the company's identity and tradition. The Continental logo has been enhanced and thus achieves a higher recognition value and better legibility in equal measure. With regard to the icon, the company is still using the trusted horse (traditionally, an image firmly connected to the Continental brand) but in a more prominent, more natural, and more dynamic position. When the icon is used without the logo, two circles supplemented by “Continental – since 1871” lend it stability. The icon thus gains the appearance of a quality stamp with direct reference to Continental's corporate history, which stretches back more than 140 years.
