Topaz Energy

New:  Name, logo and retail presence

Launched:  February 19, 2008

Story in brief:
This new brand will saturate roadside Ireland, replacing both the Shell and the Statoil brands on some 350 petrol service stations.

In 2005, Shell Oil decided to vacate the Irish market, and put its assets out for bid. Shell gave each bidder an alias, the name of a gem, and an Irish consortium led by Ion Equity got the code name "Topaz."  Their bid won. With ongoing but limited rights to the Shell brand, they chose to start up with their code name as a placeholder... "Topaz Distribution & Logistics," later shortened to "Topaz Energy." Then in 2006, Topaz acquired Statoil's stations too, and the use of the Statoil brand for up to three years. 

Led by CEO Danny Murray, the all-Irish team of managers felt it better to create their own retail brand sooner rather than later. And why not! If you consider the huge cost of new signs, and new station livery,  not as an incremental rebranding expense but as a routine periodic facilities upgrade, then you get brand awareness for free, delivered by millions of daily roadside brand exposures to your target market at no incremental cost per exposure.

To plan, name and design a completely new brand, Murray's team hired CBX (aka Coleman Brandworx in New York), experienced in designing retail environments for Chevron and others.  CBX generated 'tons of name ideas' but found nothing available that felt better than Topaz. CBX then designed a strong focal symbol... playful, rather than corporate... not trying to out-green BP's flower-star, yet with a natural feel, somewhere between a sun and a sunflower, with a little Irish in it too.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Danny Murray
Identity design - CBX, NY
Joseph Bona, planning; David Weinberger, design
 

First Impressions:
Name: A lucky break indeed, for someone arbitrarily to assign to you a code name that's distinctive, short, taken from nature and legally available.
Design: Symbolically nice and visually strong. There's something hypnotic there, like a big eye on the horizon, staring back at you.

Other comments:
David Weinberger, CBX: We call the logo the Earthmark as opposed to a sun or a flower. The blue/green represents the Earth while the yellow glow represents energy and optimism.