Circle develops strategy for Middle East autocare brand

Circle has been appointed to a six-figure brief to develop a new vehicle services brand for Middle Eastern energy company Adnoc Distribution.

Adnoc, whose main business is petrol retailing, and which is owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, is planning to launch an autocare service comparable to Kwik-Fit in the UK, offering oil- and tyre-changing, among other facilities, in early 2010.

The service will sit within the existing corporate brand, designed by Minale Tattersfield, according to Circle managing director Claire Livesey.

Circle, which was appointed last month after being invited to a four-way competitive pitch in June last year, will develop the brand, from establishing strategy through to all aspects of design including corporate identity, architecture and communications work.

‘We didn’t do any creative work, having worked with Adnoc for about three years. It was more of a formal technical and commercial proposal,’ says Livesey.

‘We have been working with Adnoc creating guidelines for the corporate identity. We’ve been developing a lubricant brand for them, and are just about to start developing a natural gas offer,’ she adds.

The list of deliverables includes strategy, naming, conceptual design and detailed design, exploring how Adnoc would market the new service at corporate level, and detailed planning of modular sites that can be scaled up or down.