It’s not often that a Campbell River business gets to debut a national corporate redesign but that’s what Scott Kilby’s new Campbell River Hyundai building will do.
The automobile company’s Canadian arm is launching a new look for its dealerships across the country just when Campbell River Hyundai is building a new store in a new location in North Campbell River.
That means Campbell River Hyundai will be in the first wave of dealerships to sport the new corporate image.
“I am going to be one of the first stores in Canada and the first in B.C. to have that look,” Kilby said.
The fortunate set of circumstances even earned Campbell River Hyundai a mention in a write up in a national automobile magazine, Canadian Auto World, in its September 2014 edition entitled “Hyundai’s striking new image program turning heads.”
“Construction has already begun on Scott Kilby’s store in tiny Campbell River, B.C. – scheduled to be one of the first to sport the new image,” writer Jackson Hayes says in Canadian Auto World.
Hyundai’s Global Dealership Image Space identity program features the most striking visual departure in recent memory, Canadian Auto World says.
The current blue colour scheme will be replaced with bronze in an effort to distinguish itself from all the other auto dealerships. With red and blue predominating in the automobile industry, Hyundai wanted to back away from using primary colours to attract attention. Instead, according to Canadian Auto World, Hyundai wanted customers to think of the cars first when they thought of the company and not a corporate colour scheme. So they picked a premium look and feel that would let them stand apart. The new design will utilize metallic and earth tones. The program also incorporates new technologies in the retail operations.
In the process of designing his new dealership location, Kilby was contacted by Hyundai head office and given the option of incorporating the new look.
“They said, ‘You can stay with Hyundai blue (the current colour scheme) or you can be a leader in the industry and change and we’ll work with you,’” Kilby said.
It took a lot of back and forth between Kilby and his partner Garry Thulin’s architect and Hyundai’s architect, Kilby said, but through a concerted team effort, the new image scheme is being incorporated into the new building at its Highway 19 and Meredith Road location in North Campbell River. Campbell River Hyundai is currently located just a couple of blocks away on Coulter Road, a block east of Highway 19 in North Campbell River.