Welcome to myjunction ~ the junction for junctionites!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Evolution of Brand mjunction

~ Contributed by Deep Banerjee ~

OUR FIRST LOGO:
It’s been more than six years since the birth of mjunction. Junctionites, specially who have joined this ever growing family in the recent past, might not even be aware that in 2001, the company was incorporated as metaljunction.com private limited. Our Corporate logo at that time was as depicted below:







THE FIRST TRANSFORMATION:
We started our journey with our flagship portal www.metaljunction.com, and were a true dotcom company in our first avatar, i.e., we sold and bought materials for our clients online. We did not provide any fulfillment services to complete the sale or purchase. Realising that we would have to provide a complete solution to our clients, it was necessary for us to provide fulfillment services such as financial services, logistical services and inspection services. This was also an opportunity for us to grow beyond being merely a dotcom company. We therefore began seeking partnerships with leading multinationals, private sector and public sector banks and also with various leading logistic companies to complete our offerings. It was also at this time that the need was felt for us to become a public limited company. Taking the opportunity so presented we changed our name from metaljunction.com private limited to metaljunction services limited in January 2005. Furthermore, we added a byline to our new logo to tell the world at large that we were in the business of "transformational change through process innovation".

Our corporate logo was thus changed to:








THE SECOND TRANSFORMATION & LAUNCH OF AWWB CAMPAIGN:
By 2005, metaljunction had already become India’s largest eCommerce company having sold online over 3 million tonnes of Steel (making it the World’s largest Steel eMarketplace). We were growing profitably at a CAGR of over 150%, entering new business areas, launching new services…and hence it was thought appropriate at that time to define and articulate our branding philosophy. In order to deliver our services on a defined base of values and beliefs that would clearly communicate our identity, a new brand campaign under the banner “A World Without Barriers” was unveiled in January 2006. As our endeavour has been to create a barrier less world, a world where barriers of geography, barriers of outdated processes and systems, of bureaucracy and mentality, are broken down, we chose a few of the path breaking personalities e.g. Neil Armstrong who bridged the gap between man and the moon, Rosa Parks who demolished the colour divide and Roger Bannister who broke the four minute mile etc as our inspiration for this campaign. We also identified four distinct brand muscles – transparency, efficiency, convenience and innovation and internally we pledged that at every touch-point with our stakeholders we will attempt to bring alive our brand philosophy of making business transactions and systems simpler, more convenient, efficient and transparent through the innovative use of IT and the Internet and thereby empowering them in the process.

The new “AWWB” campaign along with our Brand Book was launched to communicate to all our stakeholders - who we are, what we stand for and what we would like to be known for. Though our Corporate logo was left unchanged, the new byline was incorporated as depicted below:










However owing to our rapid growth and entry into new verticals, we had started feeling that our name - metaljunction does not accurately reflect the businesses that we are in and the diverse industries we serve. The Corporate name was also conflicting with the name of our Steel eSales portal. This made us to think. We needed a New Corporate Identity for ourselves.

THE FRESH NEW LOOK:
As you would all be aware, we started operations in 2002 with just two portals - www.metaljunction.in and http://www.commercejunction.in/ (now http://www.buyjunction.in/). 2005 saw launch of www.coaljunction.in. Our automobiles portal www.autojunction.in was launched in September 2006, while our latest online initiative www.straightline.in was launched in October 2006.

Since our inception, we have been growing and adding value to the various supply chains we serve. In a similar way, we will keep entering new industry verticals and the number of junctions will keep growing. Our vision for the future takes us far beyond metals. To mark our foray into the world beyond metals and with the belief that our name should reflect our vision, we changed our Company name and came up with a new Corporate brand identity for ourselves. Hence w.e.f January 2nd, 2007, metaljunction changed to – mjunction.

Presenting our new company name and logo, which I am sure you are already familiar with:










If you notice, we have done away with the 'boxed design' that existed in our earlier logos. We felt the box made us look rigid; as if we were confined to one vertical or one industry or just one service. The red and white font colours that were used in the old logo lost clarity on various backgrounds. In addition, the fonts used in the old logos were bold and thick hence lacked the feel of agility / quickness/ liveliness of what an IT or an ITES company like us should look like.

Our new logo is modern, has a forward looking design and the vibrant shades of blue go well with the attitude of our young, lively and spirited junctionites. The use of non rigid rounded fonts and doing away with the box gives us a “young, energetic and cool” look.

The Use of energy bubbles on top of the ‘i’ gives our logo a futuristic appeal. The bubbles are almost seen in motion, it is not static. The bubbles are dynamic, constantly on the move just like we have been from day one. One of my colleagues interpreted the three bubbles in a very remarkable way – he says the three bubbles represent Transparency, Innovation and Efficiency (TIE). That’s an interesting observation indeed!

Our new logo seeks to emphasize the core values of our company…and our belief of bringing Transparency, Efficiency and Convenience to the industries we serve through the innovative use of IT and the Internet. The new logo conveys a feeling that every moment at mjunction brings in Innovation and showcases our passion to break barriers. A passion to create a world without barriers!

BU LOGOS ARE SMARTER TOO:
We also have taken the same futuristic and smarter look to all our BU logos. Each BU logo now has been given a different colour to make it distinct and stand out from the other.






We also launched straightline in October 2006. This latest initiative is set to redefine online sale of catalogue based fixed priced branded products. As it does not serve a new vertical and is independent of any specific industry it can serve, it was decided to move away from the junction platform and promote it as a stand alone entity.

A clearly defined USP “Take Control, Buy Smart” was chosen to say in the least few words what straightline offers to its users.







BIRTH OF OUR CORPORATE WEBSITE:
As already mentioned, earlier our corporate website and the Steel eSales website were the same, which was confusing to our stakeholders as well as to our prospective customers. As an extension of our new Corporate Identity initiative, we now have an exclusive Corporate web-site - www.mjunction.in which is currently being re-architected to provide a relevant and user-friendly environment. The Corporate website will act as the main mother site and would disseminate Corporate information as well as information about all our services from under one roof.

THE WAY FORWARD:
The new logo is just one part of the larger transition at mjunction, and there is more excitement in store for all of us which will become more evident in the coming months. Today mjunction is and continues to be India’s largest eCommerce company having done eTransactions worth over Rs.20,517 crores. Our Steel eSales portal www.metaljunction.in continues to be the World’s largest Steel eMarketplace having sold over 5 millions of Steel and www.coaljunction.in continues to transform the Coal supply chain having sold over 18 million tonnes of Coal and bringing in transparency and efficiency that no one ever thought of. www.buyjunction.in continues to offer innovative eProcurement solutions that are unparalleled in the Country and our new businesses - autojunction & straightline are gearing up to bring in similar transformational change. As you all are aware, we are also actively evaluating entry into new verticals. And developments on this front are expected sooner than later. Before signing off, I take this opportunity to say, that all these wouldn’t have been possible without the combined effort of all junctionites and we should now strive to make mjunction a globally respected brand.

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