Revitalizing a brand identity involves more than coming up with an attractive logo. For International Truck and Engine Corporation, it was a soul-searching odyssey that led to defining who they are, what they stand for and why customers should place their faith in their products.

As CEO John Horne tells it, he first realized that the company he headed needed to clarify its identity when he asked for a two-page summary of International's brand identity and got back 20 pages. "It said to me that we really didn't know what made us special," he says. "We needed a brand that our people would be proud of, that would let them say, `This is who we are and what we are.' We wanted customers to see our trucks and say, `That's an International.'"

Restructuring from a decade earlier, however, had left customers and even employees confused about International's identity. Previously known as International Harvester, the 171-year-old company had sold off its legendary farm equipment unit in 1983 and dropped the "tractor-inspired" logo, designed by Raymond Loewy. The parent company adopted Navistar International for its corporate name, but kept International Truck and Engine as the brand name for its remaining business unit. As a result, some employees weren't sure whether they worked for Navistar or International, and some consumers thought the company still made tractors. Still others thought that Navistar was the name of one of its truck models.

Knowing it needed help, International turned to brand advertising specialist Fallon Minneapolis and its design division, Duffy, to bring clarity to its brand. First off, Fallon/Duffy went on a round of interviews with dealers, owners, drivers, maintenance people and employees to learn just how the company was perceived. On the positive side, they heard that International was grounded in solid Midwestern work ethics reliable, honest, hard-working, with pride in a job well done, common sense and ingenuity. Unfortunately, the brand was also still linked to farmers, which, to many, connoted old-fashioned, unchanging, plain and dull.

The positive attributes, however, were "the glue that began to hold it together," says Duffy account director Chris Heimbold. "We realized that anything we created, whether it be the logo or a trade show exhibit, needed to reflect that personality, those values that International shared with the consumer."

Fallon/Duffy were also mindful of bringing forth the brand's existing equity. In focus groups, they asked people for their impressions of the company's blue triple diamond logo from the '30s and the then-current orange diamond logo. The blue triple diamond with outlined edges evoked animated emotions. "People who weren't even around when the logo was in use talked at length about its hand-crafted, forged from steel, industrial look," says Heimbold.

On the other hand, people recognized the orange logo, which was dubbed the "Diamond Road" when it was created in the 1980s. But they failed to see how the two triangles were meant to suggest a road disappearing into the distance. "Some said it was a monument in the middle or two triangles back-to-back," says Heimbold. "Others linked the shape and orange color to a highway construction sign, which a few read to mean caution." People attached the orange logo to International, but gave it no further meaning.

Creative director Joe Duffy adds, "We heard over and over from customers and people inside that the diamond was generic-looking. It didn't speak to the quality of the product, nor reflect the craftsmanship and all the care and concern that went into their product."

Still, for better or worse, International owned the color orange and the diamond symbol, so "it was an instance of asking how we could make something we would be proud of out of that," Duffy says.

More pragmatically, Duffy recognized that International had hundreds of dealerships across the country and thousands of trucks bearing the old orange logo. "We knew that the company couldn't take the capital expense hit to change out all of those immediately," says Heimbold. "It would have to be a multiyear process. We couldn't be in conflict with the existing logo."

"We wanted the change to be a transition from where they were as opposed to a complete redesign," Duffy adds. "We wanted to retain the brand elements that International truly owned, while making the logo more contemporary and reflective of the company's positive attributes."

The need to stick with the orange wasn't mandated by International. Horne admits that some executives used to refer to it as "circus orange," so he was not against making a change. "When Joe asked if we had to keep the orange, my response was `not unless we need to.'" Horne adds admiringly, "Joe went back and brightened and sharpened the orange. Duffy looked at our heritage and history, the way International was written across our old logo, and brought that forward."

For the designers, the process was iterative. Duffy tested different concepts out on focus groups. To get around the farmer image, one version included the words "truck and engine," but respondents considered that unnecessary, pointing out that the logo would be seen on trucks. Another version placed the diamond within a circle, but it was ruled out because it made the diamond-shape harder to see. The version that was finally selected by management threw out everything that was superfluous, pulling the company name within the framework of the mark and dimensionalizing elements through a silver outline. The effect was medallion-like. "It looked like someone went into a factory and forged the thing out of steel," says Heimbold.

Duffy adds, "The three-dimensional quality gave the logo the bold industrial feel of a product built to last. It suggested that this company makes a great product for the road. That was what we were trying to express."

It also dovetailed with International's new brand positioning, summed up in a succinct 20-word Brand Promise: "International listens, understands, and delivers the best ways to move our customers ahead. On the road and in their business." For the company, clarifying that message also entailed dropping the Navistar name on everything but its Wall Street listing. "International is who we are as a company. It's how our customers see us. We support a single brand," management declared.

Both Duffy and International management were committed to launching the new identity in an unequivocal way so that customers and employees alike would know that this was more than a cosmetic change a revitalized look matched by a re-energized philosophy.

Duffy tested the logo for consistency in various applications and treatments in one color, two colors, flat colors, three-dimension, stitched on cloth, stamped on leather, and molded out of metal. "We studied how this would have to live in a detailed way," says Duffy. Perhaps the most challenging aspect was fitting the logo on the hood of the truck grill. The logo had to work within a predetermined diamond space (one reason a circular shape was quickly ruled out), and Duffy designers collaborated with manufacturing engineers to create a precise dimensional fit for the hood ornament.

Legibility on a moving truck, however, was not a concern. "We knew full well that from not too far away you weren't going to be able to read `International,'" says Duffy. "Our goal was to make the mark, the shape and overall presence familiar, as opposed to reading it. No one needs to read McDonald's or any other famous brand to know what it is."

Duffy also wanted to distinguish between promoting the brand and overusing it to the point of tedium. "We did a range of iconography to create an overall look for the brand, as opposed to just taking the same logo and applying it over and over again," he says.

Jacket sleeve patches and T-shirts followed the brand vocabulary in typography and style, but did not include the logo, somewhat to the chagrin of International. "For once they had a rallying point and that was the logo, and they wanted to use it as much as possible," says Heimbold. "Our tendency was to take it a step further and create a visual vocabulary for them." Duffy also met with merchandise licensees to talk over the kinds of products and the quality of materials that would reflect well on the brand.

Additionally, Duffy developed a materials board and style guide to help explain the graphic character of the brand to dealership architects and exhibit designers. "We created a collage of materials that was nothing more than a big rock, meant to symbolize a piece of concrete, with metal grating and fencing. We would bring that to meetings when we were working with architects," says Heimbold. Exhibit Works in Detroit used metal, steel and huge nuts-and-bolts to translate these emotional qualities into an exhibit booth. "It launched at Mid-America and blew people away," says Heimbold. "No one had seen anything like this from International."

For International the launch of the new brand was more than the unveiling of a new logo. In order to arrive at a symbol that aptly represented them in the 21st century, they looked closely at both their strengths and their weaknesses. "When you start talking about things like that, you really start saying that our brand is not only what our customers see in the product, but it is also a beacon that guides the behavior of all the people in the company," says Horne.

Horne's understanding of why the brand program was essential facilitated the design process. "Some people who head up companies feel that it is a necessary evil or something that isn't all that important," Duffy says. "But John embraced it as a symbol of change and moving forward and improvement. He made a very big deal about it, not only in our initial work, but in launching it. He wanted to do it right."

Doing it right meant seeking buy-in from employees, dealers, suppliers and customers so the conversion, which inevitably entails a fair amount of expense, would go smoothly. To help launch the new identity, the company asked Duffy to create a brand building kit for distribution to International's Leadership Council, CD-ROM, poster campaign, website and other materials. Importantly, International not only unveiled its new mark with fanfare, it explained the strategy behind it and why it should make a difference to the future of the company.

The reaction from employees, dealers, customers and suppliers has been enthusiastic, says Horne. And it has resulted in a new attitude and fresh look at the company all to the good. "We used to be called ailing-and failing. Now we are called a very good company, and we are working on becoming a very great company," says Horne. "Without a great brand identity and a great Brand Promise, you will become a commodity rather than a great brand."