Eva Andres
Social Media Specialist
Our coworkers at Ubeeqo, a leading startup in carsharing and company cars in Europe, have redesigned their brand, adjusting it to their new positioning. This rebranding comes at a key moment for the company, which is in full growth and needed its new identity to reflect this evolution. In this post we tell you everything that a brand redesign entails and Beatriz Alberti, Head of Design at Ubeeqo, explains how they have worked on this brand development.
The beginnings of Ubeeqo in Barcelona
The Ubeeqo team arrived at Aticco two years ago with 6 employees. Most of them belonged to Bluemove, a Madrid startup that in 2008 launched itself into car rental by the hour. Its founders, Gabriel Herrero-Beaumont and Jorge González saw an unmet need in the market and decided to try their luck with four cars in the capital. In a few months they expanded their fleet to 10 and developed an app that would allow users to use the service easily.
The project continued to grow, until Europcar, an international company and leader in car rental, saw that its traditional offer in mobility products needed to be expanded and decided to acquire startups that were working on new mobility products. This is how they bought Ubeeqo, a French carsharing company focused on companies, and Bluemove, aimed more at individuals.
Thus began this synergy between two different worlds. After living with two brands and two products at the same time, they decided it was time to propose an identity that encompassed everything in order to position themselves in a clearer and more direct way in the market. We wanted to interview Beatriz Albert because she was present from the beginning, and has been responsible for the redesign project.
What was your story when you joined Ubeeqo?
I had been freelancing for 5 years with different clients and one of them was Bluemove, a car rental company in Madrid, which started in 2008. Through a common contact with one of the founders, I started to make the first website, in wordpress and the first app.
Working with them on a project basis, there was a good relationship between us and Gabo, who was one of the founders, contacted me one day to tell me that Europcar had acquired them and offered me to be part of this great project.
Why did the need to redesign the brand arise?
Both Ubeeqo and Bluemove initially outsourced their technical development providers. When the two companies merged, it was decided to build a product from scratch and so this technological hub was created in Barcelona, creating a project called Phoenix, with an in-house technical team.
The decision was made to continue with the name Ubeeqo and say goodbye to Bluemove and we started working on the definition of our values. Our goal: to provide an alternative to the private car and to have different target profiles, from companies to individuals.
What was the workflow like in the brand redesign?
The redesign started when we hired a designer to help me with the brand development, Raul Sualdea, a crack. For the values and brand definition we worked with two consultants.
We specified what values we could promise to our users; diversity of car models that can be used, diversity of culture, type of user, product uses etc.
What inspired you to give this new image to Ubeeqo?
In the values of diversity and mobility. From the beginning, the idea was to represent the user's journey, his experience. A journey that tells a story, a story that leaves a trace, a memory, hence »the trace» as the basis of our brand. Each story is different because each person is different and has their own journey.
Do changes in the visual identity lead to internal changes in the company?
Especially in the creation of processes to align ourselves with the different countries, so that they would understand the brand and apply it correctly. At the level of team structure and process definition.
What were the objectives of the new branding?
The objectives of the new branding were to reposition Ubeeqo as a lifestyle brand, marked by a new era of growth and engagement. An expressive brand identity that would respond to users' interests beyond the purely transactional.
What response has the rebranding gotten from new users?
Users have had positive feedback and the change has also been positive internally, our colleagues are very happy with the new brand.
What is the secret to good design?
That you like it, that you love the detail, that it adds value, that it transmits and communicates.
In the case of our team, we have two types of designers: product designers and branding designers. The product designers work on making the user experience the best possible, the branding designers work on how to transmit that experience. We always try to make sure that what we do adds value, not just aesthetic value.
What are the next steps?
Continue with the brand strategy and the global strategy, continuing with the evolution of the brand.
We thank Bea for explaining the whole process of change. It makes us aware of the need to have brands that identify us and that adjust to the evolution of our business.
