Continental

The Future in Motion.

From tyre manufacturer to innovative company.

In just a few years Continental, which had been founded in Hanover in 1871, developed from a modest tyre manufacturer into one of the world’s largest suppliers of the automotive industry. While continuing to produce tyres today, their portfolio also now includes systems for brakes, gears, chassis and power steering, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics and network communication technology.

The rapid growth of Continental, alongside an ever increasing diversification of core activities, meant that a change was needed within its corporate culture and new brand architecture was required. The positioning of Continental as a master brand not only needed greater clarity within its markets, but also to highlight the collaboration of all its corporate divisions more effectively. This was necessary to modernise its brand identity and prepare it for the future, while maintaining essential aspects of its 140-year tradition.

We have accompanied Continental every step of the way on their journey, from strategic consultation right through to facilitating change communication, overseeing a new corporate redesign and creating an updated image communication for their new master brand.

Awarded with:

Corporate Design Preis 2014, Rebranding – Award

Continental AG

Continental AG is based in Hanover and is one of the world's leading automotive suppliers. Within its five divisions of Chassis & Safety, Interior, Powertrain, Tyres and ContiTech the company posted provisional sales of around 34.5 billion Euros in 2014 and currently employs approximately 200,000 people in 53 countries.

Unity instead of division

Formerly, the primary operative divisions of Continental were namely Chassis & Safety, Powertrain, Interior and Tyres. While these divisions have remained, our task has been to consistently and uniformly align them with the master brand Continental and unite them together under a new tagline "The Future in Motion".

We have successfully enabled this realignment. Having initially worked together with Continental to identify a vision, mission and values for their brand we then supported their global management in setting up the right internal communication processes and facilitated the necessary cultural shift which would then take the brand into the future.

“The Peter Schmidt Group has found the right way evolutionary way forward for us and helped Continental to establish a single, strong brand identity for the future.”
Dr. Felix Gress,
Director of Corporate Communication, Continental AG

Brand identity

The new brand identity conveys the power and leading position of the brand, yet is much friendlier through using a high proportion of white in its design. The black logo is typically placed on a yellow background and the result offers a seal of quality that can be used more confidently and freely.

In developing this new corporate design, we additionally placed great emphasis on the potential, easiest implementation and practical handling of every brand application right from the outset. As a result, the simple, clear layout scheme and new, character-building typeface of the Continental Stag now combine the heterogeneous areas of the company under one visual roof.

Trademark

A major challenge was to modernize the logo, which had remained almost unchanged since the 1920s, without weakening its valuable recognisable qualities.

The focus was to create a perfect, universal application for its many different uses, from its traditional embossment on tyres to being incorporated into modern, digital media forms.

The distinctive CO alignment, the style-defining strength of the letters and the sertif typeface have been preserved yet the legibility of the word mark has been greatly improved.

It has changed in detail alongside larger, more dynamic letter spacing, even though it takes up less space. Thus, the entire logo now appears more prominently even on small, and especially digital, applications. The legibility and reproduction quality of the brand word have improved significantly.

We have greatly simplified the logo and freed the horse from its enclosing ring form. The Continental horse is now far more agile and significantly more visible, as it rears next to the word mark, and thus the two are now in clear unity with one another.

The new brand identity was presented at the Annual General Meeting on May 15, 2013.

At the same time, a global rollout of the new brand identity also began over five of its corporate divisions within 49 countries.

"With the new logo and uniform corporate identity we can now ensure that our brand characteristics are perceived uniquely."
Thomas Roehrich,
Head of Brand Communication, Continental AG

As part of Continental’s repositioning we have designed and implemented a new image communication for the brand which contains a promise that goes beyond any specific technology. It offers an emotional relevance for all of Continental’s different target groups and demonstrates how the company is effectively presenting itself in today’s world.

In the long-term, Continental’s image is diverging from purely being a "manufacturer of tyres" towards a more "innovative company for mobility." This is a direct reference to the essence of the brand, its DNA, which promotes personal mobility as a basic human need alongside how Continental engages with people at the forefront of its leading technologies to find solutions within mega trends of safety, sustainability and automated driving which additionally illustrate its many competences.

A key element of this new image communication is the Continental Innovation Stream - a connecting, radiant form whose technical appearance aptly illustrates innovation, while its dynamics additionally symbolise freedom and fresh thinking for the future of mobility.

Kristin Janoschka
Executive Director Consulting

Tel.+49 69 850993-0
kristin.janoschka@peter-schmidt-group.de