Spain’s largest insurance company, Mapfre, has refreshed its branding after nearly 93 years in a move designed to better reflect the business following what it describes as an “intense transformation.”
Juan Frances, group head of brand and reputation at Mapfre, said the decision to update the identity stemmed from a growing misalignment between how the company had evolved internally in recent years and how it was still perceived externally.
Over the past 10–15 years, the insurer has undergone significant internal change, including upgrades to its digital capabilities, its value proposition, the way it relates to clients and even its organisational structure, he explained. However, the brand identity had not kept pace.
“The image that we were projecting to the outside was pretty much the same that we had like 40 years ago, which was the last time that we had evolved the brand identity,” he said.
“So, there was a misalignment because we were not being able to convey an image of a company that had transformed in the past few years.”
As a result, Mapfre has introduced a more vibrant and confident version of its signature red, a renewed clover logo designed to feel more contemporary and appealing, and lowercase typography to convey greater approachability.
However, Frances emphasised that the rebrand was not about changing the company’s core identity but rather aligning its external image with its existing values and purpose.
He notes that during the process of updating the brand identity, the company began with reaffirming the company’s guiding principles, including the fundamental “why”, “what for” and “how” that underpin its purpose.
“We had a couple elements that were a core part of the company that we are not planning to change,” he said.
The company had long-standing values and a purpose of caring about what matters to customers, which remained unchanged.
However, it introduced additional brand positioning to better reflect its identity and modernise how it is perceived. While its traditional role in insurance positioned it as a caregiver, the company felt this could come across as paternalistic, implying customers needed to be looked after. To move away from this, it repositioned itself as an “ally” rather than a caregiver.
“We evolved this positioning and we have tried to convey this new vision of ourselves as the ally to our clients in all the materials that we’re sharing with the new brand and an advertising campaign,” he said.