Minale Tattersfield fuels Indian company’s revamp

Minale Tattersfield & Partners is completing an identity revamp and retail expansion project for Indian petroleum giant Reliance, as the company takes a major step into both the consumer petrol and communications markets.

The 12-month project, worth £1.3m in creative fees to the consultancy, rolls out from next month. It includes a revamp of Reliance’s identity and retail concepts for 3000 petrol stations, and the development of a sub-brand and retail concepts for a new ‘Web stores’ venture, interiors for four flagship Web stores and branding for telecommunication towers.

Reliance is India’s largest privately owned company and owns one of the biggest oil refineries in southern Asia. It is expanding into the consumer sector for the first time following the Indian government’s deregulation of the petrol market earlier this year.

The company has also identified an opportunity in the communications sector and will launch over 1000 ‘Web stores’ selling telephones, phone cards and with Internet café facilities, says Minale Tattersfield managing director Marcello Minale jnr.

‘We’ve decided to keep the name Reliance, but are making [the identity] more friendly. We created a fantail to represent a peacock’s tail, because the peacock is the national bird of India. We wanted to avoid Indian colours, but give the subtle message that [Reliance] is an Indian company and proud of that,’ he explains.

‘The fantail will be used as a device to communicate different products and link back to the overall brand,’ adds Minale.

Minale Tattersfield was initially appointed to create branding and retail interiors for the company’s petrol stations following its response to an invitation to tender.

Minale, associate designer Peter Brown and partner David Davis are creative leads on the project.