Blake Howard
Host
00:01
This episode of a change of brand is brought to you by Brandpad, a new standard of brand guidelines. Brandpad is an online platform made by designers for designers. Keep listening for a special code just for you, our listeners. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
00:17
It is about an awestruck feeling that we want people to have, and it's also about the sublime when you really see the brand, hear about the brand, want to have some, or talk about the brand itself in that same angle, it must always be sublime. And then, as we had to link it back to Etur Bogatki and his incomparability one very famous phrase that we then brought back to the core of the brand, which is if it's comparable, it's no longer Bogatki. 

Blake Howard
Host
00:59
Hey everyone, welcome to A Change of Brand, a show featuring behind the scenes stories of rebrand, glory, drama or disaster. I'm your host, blake Howard. Over the years, we've heard terms like hyper local, hyper fresh, hyper relevant, but what about hyper luxury? Today we get to take a stroll into the upper echelons of society with a brand made for the rich and famous. In some ways, it's a story of yet another car rebrand. From Cadillac to Kia, buick to BMW or Audi to Aston Martin, we have seen a lot of car brands modernize their visual identity over the last few years. However, today's brand is not just another car, it's a Bugatti. 

01:58
Here's how Car and Driver explains one of Bugatti's latest models. The highs look like nothing else. It costs more than everything else and is faster than everything else. The lows it's less practical than everything else, costs more than everything else, guzzles gas like nothing else. The overall verdict the Bugatti Chiron is an automotive apex predator that eats supercars for lunch. This particular Bugatti costs a cool 3 mil, with a 16 cylinder engine with 4 turbochargers, it cranks out 1500 horsepower and breaks speeds of over 300 miles an hour. It sounds more like a SpaceX rocket than a car. It simply is incomparable. Perhaps that's why Bugattis are often mentioned in pop culture or seen in celebrity photos. In 2018, leadership for the company started to dream about the future of the brand and a refresh was on the horizon, but of course, it wasn't without a few roadblocks. For more backstory and what led up to this change of brand, let's go to brand strategist Tracy Clark for our briefing. 

Linda Marquardt
Guest
03:12
Imagine this You're strolling through the French countryside in 1927. It's a beautiful summer day and everyone's out to enjoy it. Families are picnicking, a farmer's hauling his harvest to the nearest town, and over to your right is a splashing crystal clear stream. Oh yeah, and an upstart automotive brand is growing into an icon. The bone rattling roar you just heard was the Bugatti Type 35B, a French made Grand Prix racer that helped propel Bugatti into a position as one of the best known auto brands in history. 

03:48
Founded in 1909 by Italian engineer Ediré Bugatti, this car brand was born a premium racing brand. The beautifully designed and engineered cars were killers on the racetrack, quickly establishing the Bugatti name on the European racing scene. A Bugatti won the first ever Monaco Grand Prix in 1929. In the late 1930s it won the 24-hour Ironman race at Le Mans twice and regularly won Grand Prix races across continental Europe with ease. The Type 35 alone picked up over 2,000 podium finishes in its 10-year lifespan. 

04:27
But Bugatti was distinguished by more than just its racing record. The cars themselves were widely considered to be among the most finely designed and engineered race cars in the world, famed for their craftsmanship, precision and attention to detail. Engine blocks were hand scraped to limit the need for gaskets. Axles were custom forged to minimize the number of parts in the car. Even the wiring was exquisite, intricately threaded to save every gram of weight they could. Ediré Bugatti took great pride in his designs and great shots at his competitors, including Bentley, which he famously described as the world's fastest lorries. For our American listeners, that's British English for Semi-Truck. 

05:10
The emphasis on design extended to the brand's visual identity, which is among the most iconic in the industry. The brilliant red badge was created upon the company's founding by Bugatti's father, Carlo, a famed jewelry designer and artist in Italy. It remained unchanged for more than 50 years, With a proud place on the hood of each car. The Bugatti logo was first across the finish line in countless races spanning the 1920s and 30s. 

05:37
Despite its racing prowess, the Bugatti brand fell in hard times in 1939, beginning with the tragic test track death of Ediré's son and heir, Jean. World War II began just a few days later and the Mollsheim Manufacturing Facility was quickly occupied by the German army as part of Hitler's Blitzkrieg. Though the factory was returned to the Bugatti family following the war, Ediré died in 1947 and Bugatti formally ceased production less than 10 years later. The brand languished until 1998, until it was acquired by Volkswagen, who sought to revive Bugatti as an ultra-premium line of hypersports cars. The acquisition brought new life to the Bugatti brand, which was once again designing and producing some of the world's fastest and finely designed cars from its ancestral home of Mollsheim, France, including the widely acclaimed Veyron and Chiron models. What made them so special? Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson has the details on the Bugatti Veyron. 

Speaker 4
Host
06:37
Part of it is the phenomenal speed. I mean you might think it's not that much faster than a McLaren, the F1, the last fastest car in the world, but it's still 141,. Ok, you put an F1 and this on the line together, you can let the McLaren get to 120 miles an hour before you set off and you'll beat it to 200. That's the real genius of it is how you keep it on the ground at 250 miles an hour. I mean, a jumbo is up and off at 150. This is still down. It actually changes shape the faster you go. This is so much more than any car you've ever seen. I mean, it's as easy to drive as a normal car, but it goes like a bullet. Not just the best car that's ever been made, but very possibly the best car we'll see in our lifetime. 

Linda Marquardt
Guest
07:19
The reinvigoration of this iconic brand, culminating in the first near production sports car to break the 300 mile per hour barrier, demanded a reimagination of its iconic identity. So how do you meaningfully and respectfully evolve the identity of one of the world's most illustrious brands, and what does a new logo say about the future of a company? Let's take a look under the hood and find out. 

Blake Howard
Host
07:46
A big part of the Bugatti brand identity is the emblem, which is lovingly referred to as the Macron. 

07:52
Like the little French cookie or pastry, it's a red oval badge that's been serving as the logo since around 1909. There's a monogram of the letters EB for the founder, Ettore Bugatti, sitting just above the Bugatti name in the middle. Along the edges of this red oval are 60 black dots. The meaning of these black dots faces a lot of speculation. Some say they represent an early design of safety wires found in the laced patterns of early Bugatti models. Others say the dots are gems, symbolizing Ettore's love for his vehicles, which he saw as fine jewels. Others, like me, think it's a secret treasure map created by Bugatti himself to find the 60 locations of his fortune hidden just before Hitler invaded France. If only I could crack the code, my life's work would be complete. If only Nicolas Cage could help me. Back to the logo. This little symbol sits on the hood of these powerful machines like a crown jewel. Outside of its placement on the car, however, it felt pretty clunky and dated. 

08:59
The 2022 refresh was created by Interbrand, a global brand consultancy. They led the way for brand strategy, messaging and visual identity for the car brand, Moving to a vibrant blue for the main brand color. They streamlined color usage and also introduced a custom typeface. Most notably, they turned up the use of the EB monogram and turned down the use of that red oval emblem. Additionally, this refresh included visual elements using harsh lighting to feature key curves or designs of the car. Overall, the new visual identity seems strong, refined and a great step up in the right direction. Be sure to see it for yourself. At achangeofbrandcom, Linda Marquette led the strategic effort for Interbrand. She's the head of strategy working out of their Cologne office. She's been with the firm for nearly 10 years and before this project she wasn't really a car person, so her perception of Bugatti was vague. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
09:57
For me it was all about hyperlactury, so I knew that it's super expensive and that it's a kind of product that I won't be able to afford. The other things that I just came to my mind were always Ronaldo, the hip-hop celebrities that mentioned the brand. 

Blake Howard
Host
10:16
Her creative partner in crime on the project was Juan Barrios ACD, out of the Interbrand Cologne office as well. He had similar perceptions of the brand like Linda, but also thought about the sheer mechanic muscle of Bugatti. 

Speaker 5
Host
10:30
But I did also hear about the Bugatti braking speed records. I remember that part also came from time to time in the news. 

Blake Howard
Host
10:39
Linda and Juan were steering the first engagement between Interbrand and Bugatti, focusing on research and strategy. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
10:45
I started to work with the brand in 2018 already, so before the design work actually started, I was already part of the Bugatti strategy team. To say so, that was actually quite special because we worked in different teams on different projects, and I still remember when our CEO came to my desk and he was like hey, linda, I think I have an interesting opportunity for you. Come, let's go into room. I'm going to show you what it is. When he does this, he actually was kind of a brand architectural work for a bank or another industry. That's also, of course, cool, but maybe not a comparison like this. Then he said well, actually it's a brand within the Volkswagen group and it's Bugatti. I said, whoa, really Bugatti? Yes, I'm completely in. This is then where the opportunity for Bugatti itself started. Of course, out of that relationship, we also stepped into talking about identity, et cetera work. 

Blake Howard
Host
11:51
They established a good relationship with Bugatti through their strategy work and were in the running for the visual update phase once the brand started looking for the right agency. To win the work, however, they needed to bring their A game and ratchet up their vision for what Bugatti could become. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
12:11
We actually took a special approach on luxury and we immersed into the world of luxury and how the definition of luxury per se is going to change and changes over the years. We didn't approach specifically on the product side to say, hey, this is a hypercar and you should develop identity compared to other cars. We really deep dive into looking into other industries and benchmarks on the level of hyperluxury in general and therefore also show our expertise in going away from a pure product brand to what it means to get into an experience brand and how we would then actually also have to look at brand and experience from a completely different angle than only from a product side. 

Blake Howard
Host
13:04
This angle was pretty smart. Afterwards Bugatti told Linda the other agencies were very much still approaching the brand through the lens of the luxury car market and they were the only ones asking bigger questions. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
13:16
And that actually opened their mind when they really thought about wow, that's actually an interesting question. If it wouldn't be the, if it isn't the car arena, the car industry, where do we actually have to compete in the future? So at the beginning, when they were still part of a Volkswagen, we really often discussed what is the real benefit of Bugatti 2 Volkswagen to the group itself, despite of having that specific car in the portfolio of brands. But what is the real benefit? What is Bugatti about? What should it represent in the future as a brand? And that was actually a very interesting question when the former president entered the company and he asked around his colleagues when he had his first meeting and he asked like hey, actually, please describe what is Bugatti for you in three words. And when we had the first meeting with him, he told us like no one could answer this question. No one had a picture in mind of what Bugatti should stand for and what Bugatti is for them. 

Blake Howard
Host
14:22
One thing that was important to enter brand was pushing Bugatti visually but not diluting the core they didn't want to refresh, to go so far as to pull out the essence of what made it special in the first place. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
14:37
How can we then extend the brand? What can we do with the brand without diluting also the core? Because it was clear and it's still clear, the car is going to be the core in terms of what that brand made it so special. But it's not the only thing you have to talk about, right? So it is not the only and the pure experience that you do just through the product, and that was the actual problem that they had. They had the product brand, they had the car and nothing else. 

Speaker 5
Host
15:09
Maybe just to add to that car design and the qualities of the car design world and the design identity. There was a clear gap and a clear disconnection between one and the other. So on one hand, you had this, you know, almost a piece of art for a car, you know, with prices that few people can afford, and on the other hand, you had an identity which, yes, it had a very recognizable element like the macarons, so this red oval that everybody can identify. But apart from that, there was not really a design system created around the brand or strong elements that could be, you know, playing different situations or in different channels. 

Blake Howard
Host
15:53
Visually, bugatti was most interested in an evolutionary approach. At first, they said the symbol, or the macron, was untouchable. It had been their symbol for well over 100 years, after all. Additionally, the Bugatti team was obsessed with this idea of being incomparable, which comes from the founder who used to say if it's comparable, it's no longer a Bugatti. Everything Juan Linda and the interbrand team produced needed to anchor back to that idea. Is this color incomparable? Is this type incomparable? Is this photographic treatment incomparable, which is almost impossible. But then again, ithori Bugatti did create a product that was in fact incomparable. So they had their work cut out for them. Before Interbrand won the visual portion of the project, they put the pedal to the metal, doing research, immersion and strategic explorations, deeply learning about Bugatti, the market and their audience. 

Speaker 5
Host
16:53
Obviously, things like the use of the design elements in the different touch points, digital and physical. So we literally immerse ourselves in order to understand the status quo of the brand and the use of the design elements for the brand. I think that was kind of the basics where we started, Just to mention before I forget. I think one of the challenges we had while doing this is that we had one of the peaks of the pandemic at this time, so we had to manage a lot digitally and we had to manage a lot with tools like what I just mentioned mural to be able to still keep the process going, but obviously with the limitations that brings. 

Blake Howard
Host
17:44
Before being relegated to a digital-only environment. However, linda and Juan got to tour the Bugatti headquarters, and by headquarters I mean castle. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
17:54
When you go to the castle. So when you go to the headquarters of Bugatti, they are situated in Moldesheim, in the Albrecht region of France, and when you say headquarter you always think of a big building with lots of offices in it, and for Bugatti it's a castle. It's the castle of where Etoro Bugatti lived, and that's on a green field with deers around you. Because he was an animal lover, he was a deer lover, so that's all impure nature, right. So over the years there were, unfortunately, car routes built, so it took away a little bit of that natural picture. If you enter the ground there and you see it opens up, you walk through that lane and then it opens up and you see the castle and just the old farmhouses around. This is, of course, something that was also very important for us to immerse ourselves into it. What was his feelings when he walked there? Why were deers so special animals to him? What was that kind of feeling of nature doing to him? 

19:05
And then, next to the castle, there's the manufacturing hall which, finally, is also built in the form of a macaroon. So if you look at it from a drone perspective, you see a big, big macaroon, but not in red, with a lot of glass. And then you walk in and you just see four people in a very in a completely clean white room with gloves and everything and they're working on these cars right. So you're walking through I don't know through. It feels like through a glass tunnel. You don't want to touch anything because you have the feeling you make something dirty. 

19:44
But you're in a car manufacturing hall where you actually perceive it's everything oily and dirty and they look black and they were all so clean. They looked at like you're entering an MS store and they open you the door and they show you the backs and they show you the cars right. And there was just an amazing feeling and very important for us to really get this full immersion of, on the one side, that specific artistry, flair and going into what the passion fields of the founder were. And then, on the other side, what was it? Where he lived, where people now also work. 

Blake Howard
Host
20:27
That sounds like really rough research. To go visit a castle in the French countryside and to stroll and to see deer off in the distance. Really rough research project, linda. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
20:42
Yeah, it was really hard. 

Blake Howard
Host
20:44
The trip to the Bugatti Castle left Linda and Juan feeling awestruck, and it was a helpful insight that eventually drove the design work forward. Okay, it's time for a quick pit stop. When we come back, we learn more about the design process and how one big curve in the road almost derailed the entire project. All that and more after the break. Hey, while we're taking this break, I want to give a huge shout out to Brandpad for sponsoring this episode. I love using Brandpad here at Matchstick where I work. Gone are the days of static and dusty brand guidelines Made by designers Ford Designers. Brandpad is easy to use and allows us and our clients to make updates instantly, because it's become our go-to platform for creating beautiful digital guidelines for clients. Our friends at Brandpad have given us a code to share with you in hopes that it helps you too. Use code CHANGE15 for 15% off of your next subscription. For more information, check out brandpadio. That's brandpadio. 

Linda Marquardt
Guest
21:58
Hey listeners, we have some exciting news here. At a change of brand, hq Blake, our fearless podcast host and dad joke expert, has written a book. What? Yes, it's totally true. It covers a range of brand identity topics and solutions to help CMOs and other brand leaders uncover a more radically relevant brand. In fact, that's the name Radically Relevant. And since we all love to take quizzes, it comes with an assessment too, so you can see how your brand stacks up against the competition. For more on the book or to take the free Radically Relevant Assessment, check out RadicallyRelevantBrandcom. Last but not least, don't forget to join the conversation on Instagram. See more about today's episode, share with a friend or send us an idea you have for a future episode at a change of brand. All right, let's get back to the show. 

Blake Howard
Host
22:58
When we left off, Juan and Linda were all struck by the Bugatti headquarters castle and we're using that inspiration to kickstart the design process. 

Speaker 5
Host
23:10
So, while trying to define this austere feel, we already started bringing in some mood boards in terms of color expression, in terms of playing with light, for example something you will see reflected later on in the photography concept or references like a strong link to Art Nouveau as a movement which, by the way, it has also great influence in the brand because it was the movement of the time when the Torre Bugatti founded the company and it also it personally had a big influence on him because his father was also a renowned artist of the movement. So all these things that we start bringing as a reference to find the right feel, how we can describe that feeling, will obviously set the foundation for design decisions later on. And we got to test with the Interbrand network of designers. So what we did back then is to create a story where we described that feel. We said you know, for us, Bugatti feels this way, should feel this way, how would you interpret that in terms of design decisions? 

24:24
And we gave them more or less freedom to explore in terms of color photography expression, layout system, and that was kind of a sprint. So, if I remember well, that was one week more or less. We got them into this process we got all sorts of inputs, from the more, I would say, conservative, traditional, to the more extreme, probably too extreme. Some of them we didn't even get to show to the client because they were too much. But that was a great foundation for our design work later on to go to create specific design routes. 

Blake Howard
Host
25:04
So after that exploration, what happened next? Was there a big, significant moment that you had to present some of the thinking to the Bugatti core team and sort of one of those moments that you get a little nervous about and you really hope it goes well because you have a lot invested? Was there a moment in time like that? Oh, yes, it was. 

Speaker 5
Host
25:26
Actually, I think there were two of those moments where we really crossed our fingers and we hoped for the best, but we were obviously very convinced that what we were presenting really reflected this idea of Austro-Canada. And I think just a little parenthesis I think the advantage is when you are aligned with the client in terms of what do you want people to feel, so when you talk about, when you bring them on board into this idea of the field, the link to then going to design decisions, in my opinion, is much easier. The moment where we presented three creative routes I would say the three of them obviously responded to that specific field, but in various ways, so they were all pointing in different directions, obviously having in common this trying to evoke that Austro-feel it was the first time we showed them a complete story, or three complete stories, of how there work could look like. It was not completely new for them because we have been working in a collaborative way, but let's say there was a little bit of new elements that we were bringing into this presentation. 

26:41
I think we realized with this presentation that we could go a bit further in terms of design decisions than we thought at the beginning. So I think we realized that, for example, suddenly the macaron, I would say, wasn't that untouchable for the design system. So maybe we could build an identity where the macaron could have a slightly different role and not slapping it all over the place on the website, on social media, but maybe could have a more different logic within the system. 

Blake Howard
Host
27:14
This was all good news for Juan and Linda. After seeing a few design directions, the Bugatti team were more open-minded than they originally thought. Initially, discussions seemed to suggest a more traditional take on things like type, where they maybe expected a serif, but after this presentation the team responded positively to the modern sans serif for the brand. Perhaps they were more open to change simply because Linda and Juan had led the relationship in the right way. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
27:40
How do we approach the people in the right way so that they know, not block themselves? After the first sentence they can say but continue to listen. And we do want to have critique right. We love conversations where it's a very cool constructive criticism discussion around, because otherwise we think you don't get better and you don't develop in the right direction. But it's really also with them. It was really hard to click at the beginning because we knew that they are so deep with the brand that we didn't want to tell them like hey, now we are the new people that are going to tell you how you have to do it right. 

Blake Howard
Host
28:21
After this presentation, the Bugatti team selected one direction to move forward with, but wanted to incorporate some elements from the other directions as well Hashtag, classic, client ask. But Juan overall was cool with it. He felt like it was all still coherent and connected to the all-struck idea. The historic red oval symbol was being reserved for the hood of the car only, while the new EB monogram was rising in status as the new shorthand symbol for the overall visual identity system. Additionally, the custom typeface was being designed and the blue was being refined. The Interbrand team had some momentum after the presentation with the core team, but now they had to get buy-in from a much larger cross-functional group which included sales, production, design and executive leadership. 

Speaker 5
Host
29:09
So it was a larger group. Obviously, we felt a bit more nervous. I think we managed to create a convincing story and also bringing some you know motion inputs and some sound inputs into the whole story. That, I think, allowed the people to feel in the right way to then, after present, what the identity could look like. I remember I mean I don't know if we can just talk about this openly, but let's do it but I remember the feedback from the director of the car design part of the company. So we finished the presentation and he was the first one on raising his hand and giving us the feedback and I remember he said Well, you're supposed to start always with good feedback, say what you really think about something, right. But it turned out to be very, very constructive and very good feedback at the end, and not only trying to look at it from the positive side, but at the end. 

30:13
I think most of the let's say negative or negative feedbacks or things to change were more on the craft. Let's be careful with the proportions of how you're treating the symbol here. Or let's maybe double check the approach on color there. This type of feedback is always obviously very easy to change and very. That's why you're pitching an idea at that point. So the detailing part is obviously still to come. So the most important thing is that he felt identified with the concept, with the field. He bought into this idea of bringing what people already feel for this masterpiece which is the car into something bigger, which could be potentially an experience for the whole brand. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
30:59
At the end. It was a funny moment right, and I think what also led to this okay moment for him was the clip that we used and that we also did. It did it everything in dark. So it was a little bit like he started his car design shows. Always, everything in dark car is not able to be seen. 

31:22
You have the lights just at one spot, dark music getting a little louder and we have also taken this to also bringing into this moment. Like he makes people feel when he wants to see the car for the first time. So we also made him feel buying into that, hey, we have that movie for you. Please all be silent, try to put yourself also in a kind of dark background. I had the feeling he really liked as well and then he was like, okay, I let them sweat a little bit to tell them that actually I have a lot of negative feedback. But then at the end and he then I think he excused himself out of the meeting and said, okay, this is great, sounds that a lot of money needs to go into that. Let me go to the bank and get my gold nuggets out there. 

Blake Howard
Host
32:15
The head of design was off to the central bank and the inner brand team was ecstatic. Getting this group's approval was a massive win. However, they were about to encounter one very big curve in the road ahead. In November 2021, volkswagen sold the Bugatti brand to the Remark Group, and it was an all stop on the project. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
32:41
When we heard it we first heard it through the press also that the company was now sold. And then the team told us and they were all also like hey, we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know where we're going to move if our contract stays. We don't know. So we thought like, okay, if they don't know what happened with them, how shall we continue, as the agency that was onboarded with another kind of board of management, like the president, left. 

33:13
So we really felt frightened bad, because this is not a brand like any other brand you work for. It's just to be true and honest. We put our complete passion into this brand. The whole team does, and so we really wanted to continue. We really wanted not to have this landed somewhere. It's never seen again, and that was a really hard moment. I remember myself riding on teams like guys, please pray, I can't tell you anything else. I don't know. We're in constant contact with the team, but I don't know they can tell us we are very sorry, not going to continue this complete new team, complete new project. So this was nothing really amusing, nothing really fun, that we like to think back on this moment, because it was really just frightened and somehow we had to continue to work right. So you're working on something and you are passionate about something, and you don't know how it survives. 

Blake Howard
Host
34:21
The Interbrand team was devastated, and I've been there. To be so close on completing a dream project, only to have something like an acquisition, pause or cancel the project at the last minute is crushing. One time we had a project that we had been working on for about eight months rebranding a tech unicorn. It was a great opportunity. Things were going really well, in fact. The CEO had just shared the new and much improved logo to the entire company on a whim. Then, a few days later, the company was acquired. We had hoped the work might stand, but eventually it was clear the project was lost, doomed to sit dormant on servers and our memories. However, as the days went on, for Linda Juan and the Interbrand team, hope renewed as they got word. The new CEO was interested in their work. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
35:12
We had to pitch it again. So we had to pitch to the new CEO, not as an open pitch, so not against other agencies, but as a mini pitch for us and also our core team within Bugatti, because when Rimas then took it over, he wasn't told that we are in a complete rebranding phase, so he bought into a different, a little different kind of brand right. 

Blake Howard
Host
35:38
The Bugatti team backed up Juan and Linda co-presenting alongside them. After understanding more of the strategy and vision for the new branding and being reassured that the rest of the company leadership was on board with this change, the new CEO said let's go. There were some decisions in the design work that might have raised some yellow caution flags in the mind of the new CEO at first glance. Perhaps that was why he felt like he needed more information. One of those decisions had to do with the new lead color. For years the Bugatti brand mark had been this maroon oval, but now Interbrand was proposing that they become a blue brand, not just a little blue, but like a lot of blue. So I asked Juan about that decision. 

Speaker 5
Host
36:19
Pitching this idea of having an elite color for the brand, because the principle of choosing a color that represents brand, at least in the automotive industry, comes from the racing history. So back at the beginning of the 20th century, at some point in one of the competitions I don't remember where in the north, in Great Britain I think every country represented by a car brand had to pick a color to differentiate themselves. So that was the moment where, for example, italy started to go for the red, belgium started to go for the yellow, germany started to go for the silver white and France picked the blue as the color to be used in this type of races. And Bugatti was one of the first brands adopting that, choosing a color to a blue tone to represent France in certain competitions. So from that angle, from the history perspective, there was already that part that gave us a lot of background to take such a decision. 

37:26
Along the history there was always the Bugatti blue, but that blue had different tonalities, had different shapes and evolved through the time. So from a brand perspective, there was no, there was not. The thinking of this brand is blue, this brand is represented by this tonality, but it was more kept at a product level in terms of our more representative models, will be painted in blue. There are different stories and myths around the use of the blue. So, for example, there is a story that says that Etode Bugatti chose the first blue color based on a pack of cigarettes, a French brand of cigarettes that his wife used to smoke. So he got inspired by this tonality and that's how he chose the first Bugatti blue. 

Blake Howard
Host
38:19
One continued to explain that in reality, bugatti has always been a blue brand, but previously the visual identity system only had the logo to rely on, which was Maroon. So, with limited assets, the logo was the most consistently used element and skewed the color equity. The red oval logo was, and is, an important symbol for dealers, showrooms and fans, so the change needed to be managed carefully. Enter brand and Bugatti worked together, integrating the change management plan. The president sent out a letter internally about the brand update. They launched trainings and immersed the company into the new identity. A joint press release was also sent out, so there were no surprises. Specifically for the dealers and the fans, this is when they started to tell the story that the historic Bugatti symbol was the crown jewel for the car, but it didn't need to live everywhere throughout all brand touch points. 

Speaker 5
Host
39:15
Because this macaron is so special and it's actually a physical element. It's something tangible for the brand that is made out of silver, that is handcrafted. It's, in a way, also even contradicted the principles of performance of the car, because it's a very heavy piece of silver attached to the car. If this is so special, let's keep it at that level of if you want to get the macaron, you have to get the car, otherwise you can't. It's such a special element that we wanted to also elevate it in terms of the role that it plays for the brand, and I think that logic resonated very well with the people. They say alright, this is a kind of piece of jewel, let's just treat it like we should. 

Blake Howard
Host
40:07
So far, the response for the new Bugatti look and feel, which has been partially rolled out, has been warm. There haven't been any major protests or Twitter campaigns to bring back the old red oval logo, so I think that's a good sign. Also, I think that's due to a few things that Linda and Juan got right. First off is they shrunk the change. In Dan and Chip Heath's book Switch, which is a must read on change management, they talk about this principle of shrinking the change. When you introduce a difficult change idea, one way is to frame it that it minimizes the overall impact. 

40:43
The old clunky red oval logo was a problem for the brand, but instead of suggesting they just throw it out or replace it, which could have ruffled a few feathers, they simply said let's minimize how we use it. Let's shrink the change. They simply said let's minimize how we use it because it's so special. It was like a Jedi mind trick. Or it's like saying look, grandma, you're so special, we have a nice assisted living facility for you to live in. You don't want to live in our basement. You're too one of a kind for that. 

41:15
Additionally, I like how they approached this overall problem as a visual system to solve, like a good kid of parts. They just needed a few more assets or tools to work with. The custom type unique photography and the EB monogram helped them create that all struck feeling. Lastly, I like how Juan, as the ACD, partnered so closely with Linda the strategist. This kind of work takes both mindsets. It's not just design for vanity's sake and it's not strategy for strategy's sake. It is the blend of the two that creates a strategic rationale manifested through smart design decisions. There was one thing, however, I was really disappointed by. 

Speaker 4
Host
41:58
And what? 

Blake Howard
Host
41:58
about either of you get to drive a Bugatti. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
42:02
Well, really, I really hope that you won't ask this question because we're still in the making. We didn't, and I don't know, we still didn't make it to the driving part, and sometimes I feel that the clients forgot about it because they thought that we have done it already Many, many times, I think. So we are very working hard to get our first test drive back still. 

Blake Howard
Host
42:30
You're still waiting. I wasn't sure if you were just afraid to get your test drive. So you're like, please don't. I don't want them to know, but you're eagerly waiting. Maybe they'll hear this episode and they'll be like we got to do the test drive. Maybe some, maybe Ronaldo. Maybe Ronaldo or some rapper or some famous person will be like, hey, we need to let those people get a ride. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
42:54
Right. 

Blake Howard
Host
42:56
Despite not driving a Bugatti yet, they are still very proud of this process and the work. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
43:01
They call us every day to ask for advice. Such kind of a brand calls us to ask for advice. Everyone in the team they ask for advice. They love us as a team. They bought us in as their partners in crime and they do not see us anymore as an agency. So it really feels like we're working with colleagues and this on a daily basis, and it's just that just really fills me with pride. 

Speaker 5
Host
43:31
Definitely the collaboration aspect of this project, and obviously here I refer to the way we bond and connect, because, especially in these crucial moments of having to repeat the concept to the new CEO or having to convince sales that the macaron that has been there for years now is gone and now we have more the EB and the Bugatti as a flexible set of logos, this connection we created with the Bugatti team is something that I feel very proud of. 

44:06
And I think it helped us a lot to move things forward, but also with the team here at our office. I think this is a project where we all feel proud and we all celebrate. I would say the entire team in a way got involved in the project in one part or the other. 

Juan Barrios
Guest
44:23
And last but not least also that we conquered incomparability. I would say we managed to stay incomparable and we will in the future as well. 

Blake Howard
Host
44:39
Okay, that's a wrap. Special thanks to Linda and Juan for giving us the inside look into this change of brand. To see more visuals from today's episode, head on over to achangeofbrandcom and, if you liked today's show, share it with a friend or leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Today's episode was edited by Gabe Kitzman, fact checked by Jill Jeffries, written in part by Cameron Labreck and produced by Patrice Fielder. Special thanks to Tracy Clark for the brief in and Rachel Jackson for today's artwork. I'm your host. Blake Howard signing off.