New chapter for an industrial leader

Today Metafrax Group is the largest methanol producer in Russia and Europe. Methanol and its derivatives are essential for production of thousands of everyday items – from pharmaceuticals to furniture and fuel. Over its 65 years of history and as a result of strategic acquisitions and organic growth Metafrax Group has become a company with a multi-billion revenue and production assets in Russia, Austria and Korea.

Metafrax Group needed to bring its brand in line with its business strategy. As the company was starting a new chapter of its development, our agency was engaged to develop a new brand for Metafrax Group.

The new brand positioning has to highlight the role of Metafrax Group in the chemical industry for everyone, including both the external audiences – clients, partners, government and the society – and the internal audiences – company’s employees in multiple countries.

Following ambitions of the company, our strategists looked beyond methanol production and considered the business dynamics of Metafrax Group from the viewpoint of the global chemical industry trends. We developed the brand proposition «Foundation of Tomorrow».

This new brand promise on the one hand emphasizes on the reliability and stability of the company, and on the other hand takes us to the future, demonstrating that Metafrax Group doesn’t stop on what it has already achieved but is ready to do more and to do better. To enhance the new positioning, we have also created a brand movie.

Our designers created three unique design worlds. During one of the strategic sessions with Metafrax Group, its top management voted to pick one of them. The selected design concept was called «Living System». Its conceptual description is as follows: Our Company's operation and business processes form a continuous system of communications. As new elements are added, the Group's architecture evolves like a living matter, sustaining ecological, social and business environment.

Our visual breakthrough was the corporate color: Metafrax purple, which was hard to sell to the members of the Board. Purple is a unique and noble color and symbolizes transformation.

To implement the new brand into digital we developed a corporate website for Metafrax Group. We also produced a brand movie that shows the future path of the brand. The brand movie was screened at the grand opening event in the presence of industry leaders and government officials.

Our goal was to create a new brand that would connect all daughter companies, create a single mother brand and a visual language that united them all. Now all subsidiaries in Russia, Switzerland, Austria and Korea operate under the same brand, which enhances the brand value.

The new brand helped the company be understood by all audiences, both external – clients, partners, government and society – and internal – company’s employees in multiple countries.

Moreover, the new brand values provide rationale on why the company is involved in corporate social responsibility. Metafrax Group has always been active in giving back to the community, but with the previous brand communication, which was very formal and B2B, the company’s charitable actions seemed to be disconnected from the brand. Now, when the brand communication is B2B2C and its brand values are clear, the company’s social responsibility serves an integral part of the brand.