Interior Transmission Shifts its Marketing into Overdrive with New Logo

Interior Transmission, here in Vernon, B.C., recently worked with my company, Lava Marketing, to develop a new logo (pictured above). When I started this project, I didn't know anything about transmissions. I actually think that was a good thing. It allowed me to leave all assumptions aside and create an image that an uneducated customer, like me, could relate to at-a-glance.

In fact, transmissions aren't sexy at all from an imagery standpoint. They don't really look like anything one would recognize. And most people don't know what they look like. There are many styles of transmissions too, so there is no ONE icon to represent them. Not like Michael Jackson's glove, or Nike's checkmark, or McDonald's yellow arches, or Dolly Parton's....well....you get the point.

When I sat down to talk to Cindy and Kim Myers about their company, I asked them to describe the symptoms of a broken transmission. Kim told me they are a clutch that won't go into gear, a clutch that grinds, leaky fluid, pink puddles, a burnt smell, a "check engine" light coming on, jerking, banging and overdrive lights flashing.

So there are lots of things going WRONG with the interior workings of the car when the transmission is not behaving.

But, how could we get that across with imagery? Well, first, we came up with this:

The logo above was a good start. But the colour was all wrong, the car was the wrong style and its interior workings were too intricate. A logo should be clean, simple, modern and reflective of its owner's values. A logo should be easy to recognize when it is very small and details should be kept to a minimum.

In comes the sexy 1963 Split Window Corvette aka...the Sting Ray. Here is the image my client asked me to replicate in their logo:

Now, this image doesn't say anything about Transmissions, except that if you have one, you would probably want it to be sitting in this car....right? Yah......! I know I would.

But this image DOES say a lot about Kim and Cindy Myers. They like classic cars. Kim likes to fix them. And they REALLY like the Sting Ray. In fact, they might even own one. (Maybe they'll take me for a cruise in it sometime.)

Hence....the creation of the Interior Transmission 2010 logo:

I can't take credit for "Get Your Shift Together." They already had that tagline picked out. But I sure do like the logo....and the hot colour. What do you think? Please leave a comment on my blog by clicking the comments link at the bottom of it.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher (Wishing I was sitting in a hot red Sting Ray cruising by Okanagan Lake with my good-looking husband right now.)

p.s. If you have any of the symptoms of a mis-behaving transmission, go see Interior Transmission in Vernon. According to Cindy, Kim is a genius when it comes to fixing transmissions. He's honest too. And if his wife trusts him, I would too. Shouldn't you?

p.s.s. I would like to give a photo credit for the photo of the Sting Ray above...but I don't know where this photo came from. If you come across it, send me the link so I can link to it.

Comments

[Zurino]

The logo pops. And its clean and clear. Next time you are in Kelowna, take me for a spin in that Vette! wow
+ best tag line I've seen in years. Ha!

[Don Osborne]

My opinion of the red logo it adds excitement and professionaly done Good job guys POP.

[Kim& Cindy Myers]

What I appreciate most about working with Courtenay is her commitment & the timely manner with which she completed this project. She was very open to listening & actually "hearing" the input from Kim & I in regard to the logo design. You nailed it Courtenay!
Thank you
Kim & Cindy Myers

[Courtenay Pitcher]

We tried the car in red, but it didn't look as good.

[Lynda Fraser]

I love the puchiness of the new logo. With the name in red it really stands out - as it should. Congrats to all involved... p.s. I trust Kim too!

[Bev Sheldon]

Looks good. I would be curious to see what it looked like if the care was red.