HERO HONDA

The year 2010 marked the end of one of the world’s most successful corporate marriages – Hero Honda and a new beginning for The Munjals of the Hero Cycles Ltd. Back in 1984, the two firms shared a common belief that India with its burgeoning population, low per capita income and unorganized public transport system, would be in need of frugal means of personal transportation. Hero with its inherent knowledge of selling products in India was the champion in Sales & Marketing and Honda was the undisputed leader in two wheeler technologies worldwide. After 26 years of sharing technology to makethe most economical and fuel efficient motorcycles for the Indian consumers, Honda Motors decided to move out of the joint venture. This divorce enables the Hero Group to export its motorcycles to other nations which was not possible earlier and brings us to an exciting birth of a new brand – Hero MotoCorp.

The world’s largest manufacturer of two-wheelers by volume sales for nine consecutive years since 2001and one of The Forbes 200 Most Respected Companies in the world – Hero Honda has come a long way. With a massive 5 million strong consumer base and more than 20 million two-wheelers on Indian roads, Hero Honda truly became Desh Ki Dhadkan with DhakDhak image touching the hearts and strings of everyone across the nation.Rebranding this big a brand would be a mammoth task in order to move out of the mould of Hero Honda and ride into newer and different horizons. The Hero Group roped in London-based Wolff Olins -a global brand and innovation specialist, to work on its new identity including the brand architecture, brand name, brand logo and brand positioningwith an underlying theme of Creation, Renewal and Re-energizingthe brand.The entire re-branding exercise would involve a gradual shrinkage of brand Honda and place Brand ‘Hero’ on all its products by 2014.

The new logo shows the letter ‘H’ in capital with a clear white background along with ‘Hero’ written beneath in Red. The black color in the logo stands for solidity and premium-ness while the Red gives a feeling of energy, passion, and confidence. To represent ‘Hero’ in 3D, the logo even has a triangle, trapezoid and a parallelogram in the first letter of its name. The sharp edgesdepict style, engineering and innovation. The new logo is designed to relate to the youth and their 'can do' spirit.