Brand architecture
Single brand strategy
Scania pursues a single brand strategy. The Scania brand is always the same, regardless of geographical market or product segment.
This means that all branding and communication is specifically designed to position and reinforce the Scania master brand, at all times.
The visual identity, with a proper and consistent use of our corporate trademark — the wordmark, symbol and logotype — is paramount to promote the single brand, Scania.
There are several advantages with a monolithic brand strategy. For example:
- A combined entity has more staying power, maintains focus and strength, and is easier to remember and recognise.
- It helps maintain clarity and unity in branding and communication.
- It creates synergies across the product-service-solution portfolio.
- It enables easier customer navigation and a homogeneous brand experience, regardless of point of interaction (online, offline).
- It brings established associations, credibility and brand value from the master brand into new launches and initiatives – and as well strengthens the master brand and employer brand by associating with the new offering.
- Using the strong brand equity and loyalty shortens the time to establish the desired market position for new solutions, and thus enables a first mover advantage or trying out different business opportunities.
Summary
- The Scania brand is the same, in all markets, for all products
- We do not create or use separate brands and labels or logotypes
- New business areas are integrated as brand extensions – as part of our offering
- All communication should position and reinforce the Scania master brand
- Communication should blend into the Scania visual identity rather than to stand out
- We don’t use taglines and slogans
- Descriptive names are used for naming
The single brand strategy means that we avoid creating or using separate brands or brand-like phenomena within Scania. Names and visuals are used according to the guidelines in this portal and support our single brand strategy. Targeted messaging and offers are presented under the Scania brand, and in line with our brand platform and identity.
Hence, all branding and communication should be conducted in a way so that it strengthens the master brand Scania.
Regardless of what your role is at Scania, each piece of communication you create should aim to blend into the Scania visual identity rather than to stand out. Only together can we make the Scania brand stronger.
Taglines
At Scania we don't use any kinds of taglines or slogans (neither in written nor oral communication). There are several reasons for this:
- The Scania name already is well known, and has a strong business personality, values and engagement. Our single brand strategy aims to reinforce Scania as a master brand.
- Scania is active in many different segments and towards many stakeholders. The messaging therefore needs to be flexible to be relevant. A tagline written with the intention to suit everyone would be too generic and non distinctive, saying nothing to no one.
- Campaigns can use their own messages, and call to action, but never expressed as a tagline.
- What makes sense in English may be interpreted very differently by another culture or in another language when translated.
- Today we have an overwhelmingly visual culture and a flood of marketing messages. We therefore need to work with a wider range of communication means to come across, and a brand architecture and clear visual identity without unnecessary elements.
- “Driving the shift” is short for our purpose, but should be conveyed through our actions and not as empty words. The expression is too vague and abstract for those that are not familiar with the context.
Scania brand architecture
In short – the purpose of the brand architecture is to make Scania easy to navigate and easy to understand. It's a system of governing principles that structures and communicates the relationships between the organisation as a whole, its divisions, business units, joint ventures and alliances and its products, services and brand-building activities, to maximise brand value. It is about how we link our brand to our business activities to enable the customer to understand the offer. It describes relationships, ensures relevance and expresses our strategy and positioning.
We use different categories to explain how different parts of Scania relate to and use our brand elements, both visually and verbally. The categories should not be confused with an organisational chart and there is no hierarchy of any sort between them. They serve to illustrate the interrelation between the categories and the different branding devices used for each, within the Scania brand architecture.
The main categories are described below.
1. Scania master brand
The master brand is our most distinct form of branding. It is the first impression we make, it is how we present ourselves to the world.
The master brand category is divided into three sub-categories to give more clarity to the use of the master brand, depending on the sender and the execution at hand:
- Master brand
- Scania Group
- Scania legal entities and business units
Our monolithic brand architecture and single brand strategy serves to focus all our efforts around the master brand, and we want everything we do to reflect our master brand and thus fill it with even greater equity and value for the future.
Scania Group is the name used to describe the whole of Scania including all Scania companies. Scania Group is primarily used in plain text (no logotype other than Scania) to describe the Scania organisational structure and company interrelations.
Scania companies with legal entities are names of companies within the Scania Group. They are branded with Scania master branding with respective legal entity in conjunction – in plain text. It is used when a legal entity is required. For instance on letterheads and in document footers used for formal/legal documentation.
2. Business areas
Scania’s business areas are the divisions within Scania responsible for the products, services and solutions offered by Scania. Business areas are names, they have no logotypes of their own. They are expressed verbally and textually and always within a Scania context. Primarily used for internal and external navigation, for example on a sign or a webpage.
Use title case (capital letters to start the principal words) for all official names of business areas including Scania as a prefix, and write ‘and’ instead of &. The only exception is established acronyms, for example R&D, S&M, P&L.
Use sentence case when not using the official names of business areas, e.g. when excluding Scania as a prefix. In this case only capitalise the first letter of the first word in a heading or sentence.
3. Products, services and solutions
Products, services and solutions must be communicated in a consistent way linked to the Scania brand in order to capitalise on the trust associated with Scania. There should be no doubt that it is Scania that is behind all communication, regardless of whether it is about products, services or solutions. We must avoid creating sub-brands that dilute the strength inherent in the Scania brand. In the long run, this consistent approach is also the most economical.
Scania’s products, services and solutions include both tangible and intangible value propositions that Scania offer its customers to purchase. A solution is a combination, or a bundle, of products and services tailor-made for the customer.
Service, singular, is, by most, understood as the service performed on a vehicle in a workshop. Services, plural, is more often understood as a range of intangible services provided by a company.
In general products, services and solutions have no logotypes or branding devices. They, like Scania’s business areas, are names and descriptors for easy navigation of our offer and performance steps. Expressed verbally and textually and always within a Scania context. Exceptions include the physical type designations on the products, such as series or model numbers – 500 R etc. The physical type designators on the products should never be emulated or used off product.
Use title case (capital letters to start the principal words) for all official names. Commercial names and designations are decided by Scania Designation Committee in accordance with Scania’s naming strategy.
4. Labels
Labels are exceptions from Scania’s monolithic brand strategy and are restricted to the V8 and XT symbols only.
These labels are connected to the physical products and their purpose is to promote and strengthen the product offering (V8 engines and construction vehicles).
No other labels or exceptions from Scania's monolithic brand strategy are allowed. The reason for this is that every time we create a new label, we risk diluting the Scania brand itself.
For information about the Cropped griffin and King of the road, please visit the Logotype page.
All decisions regarding Scania's brand strategy and brand architecture are handled by the central Brand Management department.
Any questions (including requests for guidelines and original artworks for V8 and XT) are directed to Scania Identity Helpdesk.
5. Initiatives and events
Scania locations and initiatives are physical spaces or events that exist to create excitement about Scania and engage both internal and external audiences. We want to leverage the equity in these initiatives by linking them clearly to the Scania master brand.
Examples of locations are: Scania Demo Centre and Scania Technical Centre and initiatives: Scania Top Team and Scania Sports Camp.
Both the physical locations and branded initiatives are to be named according to the Scania naming strategy (descriptive and functional) and executed as names within the Scania brand identity. In signage and display material the names are often set in Scania Sans Headline and are always used in a Scania context, preferably in conjunction to Scania master branding. No other logotype is used for the location or initiative.
Questions regarding the brand architecture and the visual identity may be submitted through Scania identity helpdesk at identity@scania.com.
6. Distributors and dealers
Customers expect to receive the same level of services no matter where they meet the Scania name and logotype, but different rules for the use of the Scania brand apply, depending on the ownership.
There are four general types of authorised retail partners:
- Scania distributors (or business units)
- Captive dealers with Scania branding
- Independent dealers, only representing Scania
- Independent dealers, representing several brands (multibrand)
On an overarching level captive distributors and dealers use the Scania name and logotype to represent both the legal company and the marketed products and services, whereas independent companies only use the Scania name and logotype for the marketed Scania products and services.
Co-branding
7. Co-branding
When communicating together with partners, we need to make sure that we do it in an appropriate and consistent way, to secure that it strengthens the Scania brand, and that the Scania logotype and other brand assets are used correctly. To not delute the value and impact of our brand, we are relatively restrictive when it comes to co-branding. The main exemptions include sponsoring and strategic partnerships.
Please note that trademarks and logotypes are protected by trademark laws. To be able to use another company's logotype (or image or any other protected asset), a written approval by the owner is needed. This is applicable both for partners that want to use the Scania logotype (or other assets), but also for us at Scania, if we want to use another company’s logotype or other asset.
Contact Scania Identity Helpdesk at identity@scania.com for more information, advice and approval of any co-branding.
Powered by Scania
"By Scania" must never be used in co-branding and connected to another brand or company. The only exemption is the sticker "Powered by Scania", used for marketing purposes on Power Solutions end products, e.g. on boats, stonecrushers, gensets etc. that are powered by Scania engines/powertrains.
Suppliers
Scania is a strong and well-known brand, which means that many suppliers want to be associated with us. The goal of Scania's brand communication is to strengthen our brand, hence we must as far as possible also control how the brand is used. Therefore our brand is as a general rule only to be communicated by us and not by other brands or companies where Scania's brand often only is used as "clickbait".
To keep control, the general policy is that no suppliers may use Scania's name or logotype in their marketing, to refer to Scania as a customer of theirs, e.g. on their website or pressreleases. The only exceptions are sponsoring activities, specific situations and strategic partnerships where Scania has made an active choice to participate, because it is valuable for Scania to be seen together with and associated with that specific partner or in the specific situation.
Any exemptions and all decisions regarding supplier marketing (i.e. any external use of the Scania name or logotype) are made by Scania's Communications department. No employee may participate in customer cases, as references and similar without permission from the Communications department.
Any requests regarding this are sent to identity@scania.com.
Companies with own identity
8. Companies with own identity
In most cases the master brand contributes to the offering, and following the single brand strategy will add most value for both existing and new business areas. There are however a few exceptions with companies marketed using their own separate brand identity.
These companies are owned by Scania, but normally have other target groups and associations and act in non-core business areas, either in an adjacent or in a new market space. Hence a company in this category operates as a separate brand with its own brand identity, own communication channels and budget. Examples are LOTS Group, Svempas and start-ups like Gaia.
The connection with Scania can be well known or not, but there is no strong endorsement by Scania or linked name.
The reason for a separate brand can be that there is a compelling need to avoid any associations with Scania (e.g. seen as competing interest), to create and own a completely new association, or to handle a channel conflict (e.g. mixed fleets or platforms). There are also cases where strechting the brand can dilute and weaken the product brand.
Examples:
LOTS Group
LOTS Group is a transport company offering industry leading transport services within heavy industry globally. LOTS owns the vehicles, employ the drivers, and implement their own digital tools and software solutions to better analyze flows, locate bottle necks, to find and improve deviations. LOTS seamlessly integrates into their customers’ supply chain to deliver lasting value.
Svempas
For many years, Svempas has had a strong connection to Scania when it comes to so called show vehicles and custom styling. In 2021 the Svempas trademark was acquired by Scania. The Svempa brand is handled as a separate brand in relation to the Scania brand (no co-branding) and it will mainly be used for show vehicles, limited edition vehicles and a small collection of merchandise. Please note that the Scania branded merchandise assortment is the main assortment to be used to represent Scania, e.g. in employer branding, market introductions, at exhibitions etc.
Since Svempas will continue with their heavy vehicle recovery operations, they will also continue to use the company name and trademark, and they may also promote the Svempas merchandise collection.
Gaia Generation
Gaia Generation is an intrapreneurial project financed by Scania CV AB. Gaia empowers IT enterprises to engage their development teams and leaders to get sustainability into the DNA by using trustworthy and secure analytic tools to make their IT systems environmental efficient.
Gaia Generation is not linked to Scania's core business in the transport industry, and they target companies in different industries with their solutions to minimize the CO2e footprint from IT systems.
TRATON Group
Scania is part (a member of) TRATON Group, but just like the other companies within TRATON Group, Scania is to be promoted and communicated as a separate brand. Hence, we use Scania's graphic profile (our name, logotype, typeface, templates etc.) in all external communication and in most internal communication.
For internal material that will be shared with and used by employees also at other companies within TRATON Group, TRATON's graphic profile and templates may however be used. The reason is to make the branding more neutral and by that make it easier to share and reuse the material within TRATON Group (without having to change to each company's respective graphic profile). Examples include internal manuals, guidelines and training material.
Please note that such common TRATON branded material must never be used externally by the individual companies within TRATON Group. For all external communication and material to be used externally (outside TRATON Group) each company's respective graphic profile must be used.
Visit TRATON brand portal to access and download TRATON guidelines and templates (e.g. for PowerPoint).
TENTIK
TENTIK is a trademark exclusively used for "common marking" parts, e.g. selected parts commonly used in the TRATON Group. Use and marking is regulated in STD 19 Marking of parts.
Brand architecture
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