Born from Volkswagen. Built in China. JETTA helped put China on wheels nearly 30 years ago. Today, the iconic car is reimagined as a sub-brand. Designed for China’s young millennials. JETTA opens the door to a more mobile way of living in some of the world’s busiest cities.
The situation
As the largest automotive market in the world, China is a hugely crowded and competitive market. JETTA is designed specifically to provide affordable German design and engineering to compete with locally manufactured entry level brands. With first time-buyers the primary audience, this is an important offering given the desire and perceived value of German car brands.
While China has changed significantly in the decades since – JETTA’s purpose has not. The challenge lay in revitalizing the spirit of its pioneering days and reinventing JETTA with a younger personality, modern design language and attitude to appeal to a younger audience on a channel where they spend most of their time – mobile.
Our strategy
At the core of JETTA’s visual identity is a signature two-line graphic representing the brand’s “Proud Past, Bright Future”. This recognizes the model’s legacy and its transformation into a new sub-brand. The flexible supergraphic is integrated into a modular layout system that allows easy applications for all channels. Meanwhile, JETTA’s people-centric image style captures authentic life moments. Backed by a bold color palette, the overall visual feel is energetic, optimistic and young.
Recapturing its pioneer spirit, the JETTA brand goes beyond visual with a new sound signature that is confident and dynamic. Light tones capture the playful positivity of youth, while bassier notes evoke sure-footed confidence. Structurally, the sound follows the signature graphic, aurally building and opening towards the end.
What We Did
Assessed and recalibrating the Jetta brand strategy and target audience
Defined Jetta’s brand vision, mission, values and personality
Provided completely new corporate identity and design, including a sharp brandmark, authentic image style, striking brand claim and comprehensive visual guidelines that covers digital, print and everything in between
Established a fresh, modern concept and visual design for dealer stores
Developed a 360-degree sound brand that captures the optimistic spirit of Jetta
Our solution
With a bold and energetic identity, the JETTA brand has already began making waves in the Chinese auto market. During JETTA’s first 3 months of pre-sale for the VS5 model the orders have exceeded expectations by 230%. In 2020 JETTA will officially launch pre-sale for VS3 and VS7 which are expected to achieve similar success.