Willard Marine's Rebranding
How a strategic rebranding made serious waves
Background
Willard Marine builds some of the toughest boats on the planet. Since its 1957 founding, Willard has primarily focused on building military watercraft for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, along with SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) boats.
Challenge
Having recently expanded its offerings to include law enforcement boats like patrol and first-responder craft, Willard needed a brand update to better align with its growth strategy – without alienating its core customer base. So, Rhythm took the helm.
SERVICES
Brand Strategy, Brand Development, Logo Design, Copywriting
INDUSTRY
Manufacturing
Solution
Just like a boat, it takes more than a fresh coat of paint to make a new brand float. To create a quality rebranding foundation, we began by performing extensive discovery and research through brand workshops with Willard’s leadership, employees and customers.
The insights gained from these sessions helped us identify unique brand attributes that formed the basis for Willard’s internal brand expressions including new mission, vision and purpose statements, as well as a company manifesto.
With a strong brand foundation in place, the next step was to completely redesign Willard’s logo. It was our goal to present an updated image of quality, strength and dependability. We did so by crafting the “W” in Willard into the form of a ship’s hull slicing through the water. This sleek design gives the logo a strong and modern look that also conveys a sense of action and purpose. The finishing touch was the addition of a star, which symbolizes accomplishment and underscores the “proven” tagline.
After the new identity proved more than seaworthy, we created a brand expression guide to ensure that Willard’s new verbals (voice and tone) and visuals (logo, images, fonts and colors) are always applied correctly in every application – from online to print and broadcast.
And last but not least, we gave Willard’s outdated web presence a significant refresh by incorporating the new visuals and brand language. The result is a fully responsive website that’s both easy on the eyes and simple to navigate from a desktop or smartphone. The header navigation makes it a breeze to quickly locate specific boat types and applications while well-placed CTAs drive users to request a quote, contact Willard’s bi-coastal service locations, or join the “Willard Waypoint” quarterly newsletter.
Their new look is making some serious waves. Not only have they made significant inroads in the law enforcement market, but they've also further solidified their standing as the boat of choice for commercial and military mariners worldwide.
