TODAY'S PERFORMANCE IS TOMORROW'S STARTING POINT
Brand Situation
Starting up in Cluj-Napoca in 1992 and growing over a series of mergers and acquisitions, Astral Telecom emerged as the leader on TV cable market in Romania. The end of fix telephony state monopoly as of 2003 paved the way for Astral to become also a major player in integrated communications. Consequently, Astral wanted their brand to reinforce the new corporate vision and strategy and to reflect the growth-related changes in the organization. Brandient was appointed to carry out the rebranding.
Brandient’s Approach & Solutions
The brand audit revealed a company apparently heterogeneous (as a result of successive mergers and acquisitions), but kept together by strong values like courage, professional ethics, diligence and innovation. To match the organizational culture with a strong external promise, Brandient developed the Designed to Evolve (“Creat sa Evolueze”) brand slogan. This is both a diligence promise to the customer of technology-based services and a strong base for internal branding.
The corporate logo was designed as an open infinity symbol (lemniscate), that stands for the process of steady evolution Astral has embarked on. The logo and other graphic elements (fluid networks, stairs, grids) had to deliver the spirit of an organization engaged simultaneously in fluid evolution and Cartesian rigor. The whole visual platform respires the graphical synergy while the rich red and blue colors confer a dynamic elegance. The brand architecture (corporate type) brings under the same umbrella the different business units, communicating clearly the integration of cable TV, internet & data and fix telephony businesses. Brandient did the naming for the portfolio of services accordingly (Astral Triplay, Astral Telefix etc). Clear rules on corporate brand communication and a specific brand rhetoric have been employed to strengthen the core of the brand platform and everything is stated in the corporate ID book.
Astral is now better positioned to ripe the market opportunities and has a powerful tool to support internally the business vision.
Update 2005: Astral delivered huge shareholder value, being acquired by UPC (European arm of Liberty Global, the third global cable player) about USD 420 mil. This is the highest amount paid so far in Romania for a company built from scratch by local entrepreneurs. The brand played a strong role in the transition from a small cable player to a national leader in integrated telecommunications.
