TOYOTA BRAND COLLATERAL
Toyota Material Handling, USA
Brand IdentitySales Channel Support
The Goal
We were tasked with rebranding Toyota®’s material handling division, including revamping their sales collateral, product support and even brand guidelines. No easy task, considering the variety of classes and functionality in the Toyota line-up. We chose a clean, functional design and confident tone that better aligned the material handling division with the premium position of the Toyota brand. We also focused on Toyota’s heritage, reputation and manufacturing philosophy, as well as their employees who helped them achieve and maintain their leadership position.
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Telling the Story
Branding projects of this scale need an anchor — a principle or piece of work that sets the stage in style, tone and language for the work to come. For Toyota Material Handling, that work was the brand book, a printed piece that showcases how the legacy of the Toyota brand lives in its forklift products as it does throughout the company.
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Style & Substance
The refreshed identity that began in the brand book was cemented in the product class brochures. We established an entire system of typography, colors, iconography and layouts for use across print and digital applications and packaged it into a set of brand guidelines for use among internal teams and external partners.
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From Top to Bottom
Prior to working with us, much of Toyota’s sales collateral, spec sheets and technical manuals were outdated when it came to branding and didn't properly represent the brand's full-featured product line. Our task was to establish consistency and ensure that every piece aligned with to the premium, trusted nature of the Toyota brand.
Life Behind the Forklifts
We knew from the start that the brand book needed to feature Toyota’s greatest assets: its people. So we spent some time at the Toyota Industrial Equipment factory and headquarters in Columbus, Indiana, photographing and hearing the stories of employees so we could have the brand book convey what sets the brand — and its forklifts — apart.
A Reminder of Better
Class brochures offered a bold, clean look that provided dealers and customers the opportunity to get reacquainted with the world’s number one material handling brand to inspire confidence in each dealer’s sales process and the customer’s choice to buy Toyota.
Building the Library
Marketing and specification materials were created for more than 30 forklift products during our initial rebrand, with a library of layouts, templates and tutorials generated to accommodate for product updates and line growth.
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Beyond the Sales Channel
We also developed a number of print ads and direct mail pieces to start the conversation with prospective customers — and introduce a new look for the world's most trusted forklift brand.
