The Insight
We embarked on our strategic and creative exploration by straddling the tension in our brief: Pay homage to category conventions that consumers weigh for decision-making, while developing something entirely new for ultra-luxury automobiles. So, we had to uncover the deeper drive behind a love for personal mobility. We moved the brand for this transformative vehicle away from the industry focus on speed and aggression, to an entrancing brand world that highlights the joy of driving and connects our audience with the freedom inherent to movement, not just its hair-raising potential.
The Idea
Starting with deep immersion in our founders’ vision and hours of research, we framed the opportunity in a positioning statement that set the tone for the entire approach to the brand: “Artfully engineered to transform the way we move through the world.” This would tie the whole brand to a rediscovery of the craft and consideration that made personal mobility so exciting to begin with.
For the luxury automotive industry, brand provenance and the mark of the maker are vital elements. But, just like the Dacora vehicle, this brand wouldn’t be like any others in the market. Instead of focusing solely on the founders, we tapped into the history of American innovators and vanguards who saw problems with the status quo and did not rest until they solved them — from Garrett Morgan with the traffic light, to R.G. Rhodes and his hearing aid. These fundamentally American stories built our visual references, too, and were as wide ranging as Frank Lloyd Wright, Josef Hoffmann, Raymond Loewy, land art, and Streamline Moderne.
Alluding to the engineering background that made founders Kristie and Eric perfect for new car manufacturing, we developed a signature-like logo out of the elements of binary code and paired it with an emblem that represents both the merger of engineering and design while containing the letters D and C, the founders’ surname initials. We activated this cohesive graphic system with art direction that feels more at home with lifestyle brands than aggressive muscle cars.
To ensure the brand sounded as uniquely captivating as it looked, we developed a full-service tone of voice, complete with a lexicon of luxury that ensured every word the brand spoke showcased our desire and ambition. We carried this through by naming the brand’s hospitality space and developing marketing materials that draw potential drivers into our world.
The Impact
Our brand added clarity to the Dacora team’s communications. The art direction and bespoke lexicon that we crafted positioned the brand as an irresistible offering in the luxury automotive market as the team embarked on sales conversations. The result? Dacora has marked its debut with reservations for the vehicle exceeding 150% of its planned first-year production capacity. The brand work has also been an indispensable tool for securing investment. As the founder noted, “Some investors were hesitant to back our first round until they experienced the power of our brand — an element that’s absolutely central to everything we do.” The development of Dacora’s signature brand of luxury also played a key role in landing the brand in the press, even securing an exclusive with Graydon Carter’s Air Mail.
