The Making of Mer

Working on a one-off project can be very rewarding but getting involved in an ongoing project can be even more so – especially when you see a brand transformed and a range of products earning its rightful place at a premium level in-store.

And this has been the case with our involvement with Farécla and one of its key brands, Mer.

Mer is a range of car care products and has been around for years, gaining a huge number of supporters who regularly tweet and blog about its quality and effectiveness.

But when we were first asked to research the brand, its look was not exactly sending out the quality cues which many of these same supporters have long eschewed.

Enter a design team specialising in automotive work, WDA-automotive and cue more research looking at how Mer might throw off its old clothing and start to compete on a level playing field with the likes of Auto Glym.

And the key to unlock this Mer potential turned out to be the genuine heritage it holds in terms of the product itself and how it was originally developed.

Here we found that a certain Franz Billich was the original inventor and here we discovered its genuine German credentials which have now been used to amazing effect in the new range.

There followed more design work and more research in testing packaging which drew on this German-ness, along with a classy look and feel that looked capable of helping the brand emerge from the car care shadows.

The results, I’m sure you’ll agree, are stunning. And if you wander along to your local Halfords store you’ll see they look even more stunning in real life.

So our most recent work has involved interviewing people in-store and checking what they think of the new look Mer. This, as well as testing more ideas on how we can improve the brand still further.

As things stand, it looks like the making or re-making of Mer has been a great success.  It’s not only drawing in many new customers, it’s also keeping its loyal followers loyal – quite a feat in such a crowded marketplace.

And Mer’s been helped along by outstanding design work as well as various stages of research, including groups discussions and face-to-face depth interviews in-store.

So here’s to Mer and here’s to Auto Shine Technologie, a key element on which the new Mer range has been built.