Horosmart (digital service industry), a servicing company of time management and implementation of smart cards. Launched in 2000.

CONTEXT

At the beginning of 2000, a conglomerate was made by acquiring 11 companies existing in different countries in Europe. Each company had its own customer base and legacy, and all these companies were providing the service of time management and implementation of smart cards in their own countries.

PURPOSE

The new owner appointed us to find a sharp direction that will facilitate the clients of the 11 different acquired companies to understand in a lucid manner the upgraded services they would now be provided with. The owner wanted all companies to coherently provide technology services for time management in business and access control.

OBJECTIVE

The 11 companies give the same service but in 11 different ways. How to make a single focused company to empower the conglomerate without losing the strength that the individual companies had in the market.

STRATEGIC EXECUTION

To create a single focus for the 11 acquired companies, we had to find a name and identity that would bind them together as one corporate group. The name Horosmart had belonged to one of the acquired companies. As Horo in Latin connoted time, and adding Smart to it was already giving the group name an elevated classic contemporary effect: Horo is classic and Smart is contemporary. Also, time management and smart card implementation were the common services provided by all the companies. When we projected this idea first to the clients of the different companies in the different countries, they found it to be a very elevated and refreshing proposition, saying they feel they are getting smart time management and refreshing solutions. The symbol of a yellow lime with a chip inside it created a very humanised symbol, a visual that was quite unusual in the technology world. To the clients this symbol communicated all-time refreshing and ever-smart solutions. After creating the branding, it was a big task to convince the other 10 acquired companies mainly because one of them was previously called Horosmart. We had to persuasively explain to them that the earlier Horosmart was not in any way superior, but that the name was very apt as per customer voice because its connotation was relevant to the service all the 11 companies provided.


So our repositioning converged the 11 acquisitions from different countries to create a single focus European corporation for time management and smart card implementation called Horosmart with the positioning we created of “Refreshing e-solutions.”