Q&E gives life to CIC’s new brand identity

In 2011, leading Sri Lankan conglomerate CIC Holdings found itself at a crossroads: although the company had become synonymous with chemicals and paints, its dynamic growth was increasingly driven by its agricultural businesses, creating a disconnect in the minds of consumers.

The brand was in urgent need of more than just a fresh coat of paint, however. Instead, CIC needed to map out a fresh brand strategy that allowed it to bridge the gap between its actual positioning and consumers’ perceptions.

Q&E stepped into this gap, leveraging its team of brand architects and designers to create a new CIC brand identity that would help CIC build awareness of its strategic direction while solidifying its leadership position and enhancing customer loyalty.

As an insight-driven marketing and communications specialist, Q&E began the re-branding exercise by conducting extensive research to evaluate CIC’s vision, strategies, goals and values, as well as its existing brand architecture and stakeholder perceptions.

Working closely with key CIC decision-makers, Q&E then developed a positioning platform that exemplified the company’s unique blend of grassroots knowledge and technological expertise. As Q&E CEO Dilrukshi Wijeyekoon noted, “[we] crafted a new brand personality that reflected desired attributes, such as ‘nurturing’, ‘community-minded’, and ‘natural’, and transformed these into an iconic new brand identity for CIC.”

The resulting logo was contemporary, memorable, and easily understood by any audience and all communities. Featuring a pair of hands cradling a leaf, it is complemented by a new tagline that encapsulates the brand’s promise: “nurturing life.” The overall branding communicates CIC’s commitment to enhancing consumers’ quality of life through health, nutrition, lifestyle, and livelihood development.

Senior Managers from CIC’s subsidiaries were then able to align their business units with the re-imagined brand identity, establishing a unified brand architecture that seamlessly incorporated the company’s diverse commercial interests.

CIC leadership also ensured that stakeholder expectations were aligned accordingly, rolling out the new identity in stages – first in the company’s annual report, then in official stationery and the corporate website, and subsequently in television and press campaigns.

Q&E has helped many of Sri Lanka’s most important organisations navigate complex re-branding exercises, including the paradigm shift from Diesel and Motor Engineering to DIMO Technology.

For example, when the Colombo Stock Exchange was looking to rejuvenate its brand identity, the marketing and communications specialist devised a comprehensive brand architecture in line with its client’s position as one of Asia’s most dynamic bourses. Indeed, financial institutions have flocked to Q&E for its branding expertise, with the Central Bank and the Centre for Banking Studies relying on the company to reinvigorate their brand identities.

Approaching every branding exercise with the same conscientious attention to detail, Q&E has taken great pride in guiding companies large and small through its branding process.

From the energetic, rhythmic logo created for Fantasia Elastics to the quietly dignified brand mark designed for the exclusive Comilla Bungalow to the Sterifirst logotype done for Finlays, which depicts the process of medical waste disposal in an abstract but eminently readable manner, Q&E has crafted a diverse range of compelling brands by staying true to the fundamentals.

Founded in 1994 as an independent marketing and communications agency, Q&E has deployed its research-based process to provide the total solutions its clientele need. From logo designs to 360 degree advertising campaigns, Q&E ensures that its clients’ brands dazzle, delight, and endure.