FIAT GROUP:

New:  Corporate brand and logo, adding "Group"

Launched:  October 26, 2005

Story in brief:
Not long ago, two of three cars sold in Italy were Fiats; now it's less than one of three, and the auto unit has been unprofitable since 2000. In September, Fiat converted billions of debt into new equity, which reduced the founding Gabetti family's ownership from 30% TO 23% and seemed to presage a sale. The family responded by buying 82 million shares, restoring its control to 30% and reducing the risk that an outsider could "steal the company from under our nose." Needless to say, this infusion of capital and vote of confidence (and a reportedly promising new product lineup) heartened the leadership team.

In this context the launch, a month later, of a new corporate brand can be seen as an expression of that confidence, and an effort to pump up employees, and at the same time as a tactic to add strategic flexibility. A Fiat Group can more easily add to its current portfolio of category brands (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and Ferrari), and also communicate its industrial breadth beyond autos.

As expressed in the October 26 press release, the design intention was to express a company "that is making deep seated changes in its culture and the mentality of its people, and whose resurgence will hinge on fast-paced, ongoing product renewal and technological research."

Credits:
C.E.O. - Sergio Marchionne
Chairman - Luca Cordero di Montezemolo
Design - Robilant Associati, Milan; Roberto di Robilant

First Impressions:
Strategy: unquestionably sound. When your corporate brand is also a category brand, it's almost always helpful to distinguish them.  (See Ford Motor Company example.)
Execution: disappointing. A rush job, Roberto? Dignified, but unnecessarily boring. The soft gray 'silver' square (in the blue Web header it seems a dirty white) is so lacking in definition it sometimes requires a border. The red line means nothing, adds little.  It's hard to see this mark driving a "fast-paced" high technology culture.

2007 update:
The corporate logo is unchanged, but the car brand logo and badge were modified 29 June 2007 to replace blue with red, and compress the letterforms in a grill-like shape within the round badge, reminiscent of Fiat's 1932 badge.