Learning Activity – Understanding Ideals – Week04/05

• TASK: What brand identity element are they using in their logo (e.g. abstract mark or word mark)?

Biltema’s logo has evolved a little over time, but this earlier version showed its original focus on car parts and supplies. The squares before the name are associated with flags used in car sports to mark the beginning of a race, an easily recognizable feature.
The logo used in our local store has only kept the name. The blue, sturdy, and straightforward design of the font and plainness of the logo itself suits the customer type it seeks and is so easily recognizable, the squares are no longer needed and are removed for clearity.

• What do you think their brand ideal is?

Their brand ideal of the company is supplying the car owner with whatever he or she needs at a low price. Over time the products available have expanded into a car and home owner’s needs, but the vehicle remains its focus.

• How do they remain true to their brand ideal within their shops?

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Here we see the new Biltema store from the outside. It has a straightforward design (a square/squares) with its easily recognizable logo. The opening times are written in the same blue in a font suitable to the logo font, and we’ll discover that it is used almost exclusively throughout the interior.

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As we can see from the pictures, Biltema uses the same blue colour throughout, only broken by signal colours on isles, making it clear to the customers which part of the store they are. We also see that the opening times font from the exterior repeated on the inside.

Biltema carries a lot of their own products which all have the blue and sturdy design in some form, making them easily recognizable. The employees also wear the blue and the logo, making them easily accessible.

Curiously, the cafe doesn’t carry the logo of the brand but uses the font used elsewhere. I think it would have worked better with the logo.

• Evaluate the customer experience according to the brand ideal. (For example, if the brand ideal is “innovation”, do you get a sense of that ideal when you visit the outlet?)

Biltema is one of the most thoroughly designed stores I know of, definitely so here in my home town. It is so incredibly recognisable; it can’t pass for any other brand or store. The new store is a lot easier to move through than the older one, letting the brand’s intentions understood. It does indeed seem reliable, sturdy, down to earth and complete with whatever a car owner may need at a low price.