As part of next March’s Design Awards, GMR will be sponsoring the Corporate Identity category. Each month in the run-up to the awards, we’ll profile one example of great - and recent - work. This month, Khalid Ali Alturki & Sons of Saudi Arabia.
Brand: Alturki Group subsidiaries: Inma Technologies, Inma Steel, Inma Lumber, Inma Woodworks, Inma Pallets, Saudi
Readymix and Saudi Orbital.
Brief: To redesign the identity of the group’s seven wholly-owned Saudi-based subsidiaries, providing each with its own
independent brand personality but linking them visually to reinforce their group membership.
Background: A leading industrial conglomerate, operating for over 30 years, Alturki Group provides specialised services for major
industrial sectors such as construction, oil, gas, petrochemicals, utilities, power and telecommunications.
Agency: Intergraphic, London and Bahrain. [www.igcorporate.com]
Project Director: Mark Sutherland
Creative Director: John Harper Owen
Design Team: Trevor Halton, Adam Knapp, Scott Wilson, and Mohsin Dashty
Client Manager: Trevor Clark
At long last, family-owned businesses in Saudi Arabia are waking up to the importance of corporate image, branding and communications. As a substantial player in the kingdom’s private sector, they are now facing new challenges on two fronts - home and abroad.
At home, the private sector is having to become more visionary in its thinking in order to adapt to its new role as the “motor of economic reform and development”. Abroad, the advent of full WTO membership is quickening the pace of economic and commercial reforms in the Middle East, including market deregulation and the removal of protectionist trade barriers.
The potential effects of globalisation and increased competition have not been lost on some of the more forward-looking companies. They have taken steps to restructure their businesses, strengthen their management teams, enhance human and technical resources and adopt international standards and systems. But they have been slow to address the issue of corporate branding and communications, which many still view as an unnecessary and costly expense, rather than as a long-term strategic investment.
However, there are signs that this is changing. The management of family companies is passing to a younger generation, who are Western educated, more brand conscious and with a more modern business ethos. They realise the need to project a contemporary and professional image in order to attract new customers and form new strategic alliances with international players in order to maintain their companies’ competitive advantage.
One such example is the Khalid Ali Alturki & Sons group of companies (Alturki Group). Established in 1973, it has developed into a leading diversified industrial conglomerate, operating through a structure of wholly-owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and associate companies.
The group’s seven wholly-owned subsidiaries are all leaders in their respective fields, but their corporate branding and image did not reflect their business success or status. They all suffered from old-fashioned identities, while the majority did not have a website or marketing collateral. In addition, the subsidiaries’ disparate branding meant that they could not leverage the advantages of being seen to belong to a large and successful industrial group. Following a brand and communications audit, Intergraphic developed consistent brand architecture that utilised distinctive typography, sizing and layout to convey a cohesive corporate look and feel. At the same time, different colours and unique symbols were used to provide an individual brand personality and reinforce the industry sector specialisation of each subsidiary.
The new corporate identity was applied to each company’s stationery, signage and key collateral items, while new websites and marketing literature were also designed and produced. These incorporated a new group positioning statement and reinforced common group values of excellence, integrity, corporate responsibility, teamwork and investment in people.
The new corporate branding and communications framework will be used to support Alturki Group’s ongoing strategy of regional expansion and diversification.
© Gulf Marketing Review 2003
