OVERVIEW
Malibu Boats is a well known wake boat company with high quality products and known for their numerous innovations. Currently, Malibu Boats prides themselves in being known for world class innovation and operational excellence with premier boat building. Their dedication to innovation led them to be a world wide leader in water sport towboats as well as creations leading to industry firsts. My goal for this brand is to help Malibu Boats stand out against competitors by creating a logo with increased differentiation and to focus on being an affordable luxury to reach a wider audience.
RESEARCH
Through lots of online research, I learned more about Malibu Boats as a company. In 1982, six passionate waterskiers came together to create this brand. Their mission states, "At Malibu Boats we create the on-the-water-lifestyle.". Their vision for the company is to be recognized as having world-class product innovation and operational excellence with pride and passion. Their current branding is focused on high performance and new innovations. Major competitors include MasterCraft, Nautique, Tige, Axis, and Supra.
DIRECTION
The current positioning of Malibu Boats is highly innovative, premium, high performance, reliable, and stylish. The future positioning is luxury, quality, performance, leisurely, and welcoming. Yesterday's version of the company is premium performance. Tomorrow's version of the company is affordable luxury. The target market includes individuals such as young adults and young families.
IDEATION
I began sketching over 40 possible ideas for the logo with pen and paper. I experimented with uppercase, lowercase, cursive, manipulated letters, and so on. The main focus was to tie in a wave that wasn't cliche but in a way that elevated the brand to feel leisurely and luxury.
BRAND GUIDELINES
EXECUTION
Below are multiple examples of ways this new branding strategy can be applied. These include boat emblems, billboards, social media, life jackets, and surfboards. All of the images used are carefully AI generated to best execute the possible vision of the brand. These images act as placeholders to be later filled with directed and candid photography.
CONCLUSION
Malibu Boats has the opportunity to increase differentiation in brand recognition among competitors and expand to a wider audience by increasing affordability. Focusing the branding on aspects such as luxury, quality, performance, leisure, and being welcoming can be seen through the use of elevated typography, inviting graphic elements, and use of deliverables. These aspects will help the brand stand out from other brands and reach a wider audience by being seen as an affordable luxury.
