Interview
From OEM to brand: PRORIL's new journey
PRORIL, a pump brand from Taiwan, received the Corporate Identity/Branding Award for Communication at the 2017 iF DESIGN AWARD in Germany. The brand's standard color scheme of impressive blue and orange symbolizes the maritime spirit and warm sunshine of Kaohsiung Harbor in Southern Taiwan, while the brand name combines the meanings of Professional and Reliable, highlighting the two most important elements of the pump industry.
PRORIL Brand Design Files
Title: PRORIL Brand Design
Category: 3.04 Corporate Identity / Brand Identity
Designer: Process Pro Brand
Manufacturer/Customer：Fang Sheng Mechanical & Electrical Co.
Design description: PRORIL transformed from the traditional pump OEM to establish its own brand, and create a dynamic and professional brand image for the international market. The brand identity is formed by simplifying the concept of upward rotation of water in the pumping process. In the design and application of the dynamic visual structure of the unique identification elements, and other competing brands to make a comparison, the visual performance of the variability, but also have a consistent brand characteristics.
Founded 38 years ago, PRORIL, like many small and medium-sized traditional industries in Taiwan, has gone through the years of manufacturing and designing and producing for other brands, and is a typical OEM industry, surviving on meager margins. However, decades of experience and development, coupled with a new generation of succession, today's PRORIL is no longer just a brand-name manufacturer, but an international pump brand that integrates R&D, design, manufacturing and marketing. EPILEDS YEH, Creative Director of Process Pro brand, who is in charge of this project, said, "Winning the iF design award can make PRORIL's distributors and retailers gain more trust in the brand. Especially in the European, American and Middle Eastern markets where there are many brands, it will make the distributors notice PRORIL's dedication to the brand, and they will be given more chances to represent the brand.
Brand Skepticism in OEM Transformation
During the OEM period, PRORIL was able to generate more than NT$200 million a year, a relatively stable performance for a medium-sized enterprise. However, after the second generation took over, they believed that although the company could still operate steadily in the short term, they would actively transform into a branding company for the sake of their future development in the next 10 to 20 years. However, at that time, many design companies and government-commissioned units, in contact with PRORIL, this kind of OEM background of the company does not seem to be very suitable for branding, or the industry do not know how to start, and then PRORIL turned to the Process Pro brand, and has since embarked on the road of brand transformation.
In the face of this concern, the brand designer speculates, "Perhaps most Taiwanese designers were dealing with B2C (Business to Consumer) cases at the time, and the packaging was more fancy; or perhaps this type of industry, even if they put a lot of effort into the design, the result is still not very different, which is why there is such a concern. In fact, in Europe and the United States, this type of industry has been transforming into a brand for many years and is quite mature."
The transition from OEM to branding has been a painful one for PRORIL. The costs of both OEM and branding are considerable in terms of money, labor and time. Therefore, after a period of time of OEM branding, PRORIL gradually shifted to branding under the advice of Pro Branding, and has now almost recovered the revenue scale of the OEM period.
5 Steps for Brands to Find New Value
Recalling his initial impression of visiting PRORIL, the brand designer said, "At that time, PRORIL was a factory located on the farmland, a typical enterprise in south-central Taiwan, and had not independently developed the international market for more than 20 years, so its own image was very weak; however, they have strong professional resources, so in terms of branding, we first had to clarify the target audience that PRORIL was in contact with, and therefore, we were able to identify the main customers that PRORIL was in contact with. After interviews, we finally confirmed that PRORIL's main customers are agents, purchasing executives, senior businessmen, etc., rather than general consumers; in addition, we also understand their end product aspirations, so the design should not be too fancy, but should create a sense of professionalism and trust, and highlight its technical connotations.".
We can learn from others. PRORIL adopts benchmark analysis, from Europe and the United States to Japan, focusing on the market to do a comprehensive understanding of competing brands, in addition to the design of the logo, corporate colors, images, but also includes manuals, data sheet design applications, style analysis project, found that most of the brands in the industry are dominated by the blue color, with a small number of red and yellow colors; at the same time, the "price band" and "technology and emotion" as an indicator of positioning The analysis determined that PRORIL's brand design would convey a mid-to-high priced texture, with technology as the primary color and emotional colors as the secondary color, symbolizing professionalism, internationalism, and passion for Kaohsiung's local characteristics. In addition, we also needed to take into account the fact that people in the industrial sector are relatively older, and have a steady mindset, so in order to be favored, we took the "connection with the target audience" into account during the development stage of the design concepts.
Eventually, the brand's standard color of blue and orange was confirmed, and this was used to develop the corporate image. Artistic guidance from a designer and a series of photographs taken by a photographer showed the factories that PRORIL is proud of, emphasizing the sense of professionalism and technology, and was accompanied by images such as the pump being taken to the puddling area for a practical demonstration, in order to convey the brand's values in an easy-to-understand way.
The above process is the first 3 steps of the 5-step branding process: "Pre-analysis", "Brand Strategy Development" and "Design Concept Development", which allows the brand to be gradually developed and constructed on the basis of logic and consensus.
In the fourth step, "Design Application", PRORIL extended the design concept to the interface of brochures, information leaflets, quotations, websites, and exhibition layout, and made repeated adjustments to ensure that the best recognizable effect could be presented in different environments; in addition to maintaining the unified concept of brand identification, the paper quality had to be selected in order to be able to withstand the weight of the pumps to take into account both aesthetics and practicality. We maintain a precise and consistent brand image at all contact points, unifying the original different styles of product design, so that purchasers can recognize PRORIL's products at a glance, transforming the traditional OEM factory into a brand new brand.
A good brand design requires appropriate maintenance. PRORIL also utilizes the last step of the 5-step branding process - "Brand Management" - to help PRORIL continuously maintain its image and ensure the sustainable development of the corporate brand through regular review and revision of the direction.
Participation in the iF design award encourages the brand to continue to shine.
After completing the brand design of PRORIL, Process has become the long-term strategic partner of the client in maintaining the brand in the market. EPILEDS YEH recalls that at the initial stage, the owner hoped to add value to the brand by participating in relevant international awards, so that the brand could gain more trust and professional image in the international market. However, the situation at that time was that although the brand had unique visual elements, there was not enough extension in the application design. Therefore, ProTech suggested that the brand should first develop its own marketing applications and digital media interface according to the market demand, and then participate in the awards in the future when it is complete enough.
