After hiring a traditional ad agency to develop a brand for their expanding family of businesses and being unsatisfied with the results, Swedish Engineering owner Joe Meza took matters into his own hands and assembled a group of long-time customers, staff members and friends.  Over dinner and drinks at his family home, the group of about 30, first discussed the values of the business and then developed a long list of new name ideas. The net result is the new moniker “ArborMOTION,” to serve as a parent name for the five businesses Meza owns, which include Swedish Engineering.

Meza began Swedish Engineering, which services Volvos, in 1981 out of his home and built the business almost entirely on word-of-mouth.  “My wife would pick up and deliver the cars, and I would fix them in the garage,” says Meza.  “We would drive around town and put business cards on Volvos.”

Meza expanded the business in 2004 to include Asian Import Repair (which services Lexus, Toyota and Hybrids) and Ann Arbor Tire (which features performance Nokian tires).  In 2006, he purchased Eurotec (which services VW, Audi,  Mercedes and other German performance vehicles) and moved into the current location on State Circle near State and I-94.  This year, he launched Attention to Detail, an auto and fleet detailing business.  “As we began to develop signs and collateral for the new location, we realized that we needed a single brand name that would encapsulate all the we do, which is now so much more than Volvo repair and maintenance,” says Meza.

“We had acquired these new brands, but the core values that built Swedish Engineering were still there. We are still locally-owned, committed to the community and focused on finding and nurturing master technicians.  We needed a new name for all the brands, an ‘umbrella’ name,  that would reflect our values, but also with an eye towards our commitment to focus on developing technologies such as hybrids and alternative fuels.”

They choose to hire an ad agency to develop brand names for the business, but Meza simply felt that none of the names reflected what the business is.  “We needed to work with people who ‘got’ our business,” says Meza, “so we thought, “Who better than our customers, staff and friends?”

The entire session lasted over four hours. First, Meza and general manager, James Snider, explained the purpose of the session and gave some background on the company history and future vision.  Then, the group was split into smaller groups of 4 to 6, to generate words that reflected the values of the business. The group reconvened to share their lists and determine common themes.  They then broke into smaller groups to work on brand name ideas.

“What was great about this process, was that people weren’t fixated on ‘branding’,” says Meza.  Instead, they were free-associating with words and ideas that stemmed from the foundation of the core values of the company.  “We generated a list of at least 40 names, 5 or so of which were really great.”  They finally settled on “ArborMOTION.” The individual company names will remain, but ArborMOTION will allow them to connect the formerly disparate businesses so that the newer businesses can tap into some of the brand equity Swedish Engineering has built over the years.

Media Contact: James Snider, General Manager, ArborMOTION, 734-761-1088

ArborMOTION
669 State Circle,
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
734-761-1088