Mermet — Sunscreen fabrics for people, not buildings. Merging four major companies into one single brand.
Hunter Douglas Group isn't just another player in the industry of window coverings. It’s the player. It employs 23,000 people in 134 companies across 100 different countries. With the acquisition of Mermet, Helioscreen, Screen Protectors and Copaco, the group had four companies with similar activities under its wing by 2023. All four of them designed and manufactured high-tech sunscreen fabrics. All four of them had a similar target group. Merging them was a logical step. Hunter Douglas asked us to unite the four brands, redefining them as a single brand under the Mermet banner.
Finding a common denominator everyone could get behind
We familiarised ourselves with the four companies, their products and their position in the market. What caught our attention was the position of the staff. Competitors one day, colleagues the next. How could we get them to support this new story? So we set out to find a common denominator. Something they all shared and took pride in: their years of experience and expertise. And we embedded it in the foundation of the new brand.
Claiming what only mermet can claim
We also incorporated Mermet's expertise and heritage in the tagline. 'The original sun protection fabric'. It's a claim only they can make. Simply because they were one of the first to produce high-tech sunscreens in 1951. It implies that Mermet is the real thing. An industry leader with a ton of experience and a reliable product.
Visual identity
Claiming to be the original is not a risk-free strategy. What if it’s interpreted as outdated or conservative? To counter this, we created a modern, innovative visual identity for Mermet. With a photography style that focuses on the end user. And a powerful logo that does justice to a brand of this calibre.
Mermet operates in a B2B market with seemingly little product differentiation. This also raised questions. How do we build a distinctive, future-proof brand in a market like this? The end-user held the answer. We consciously defined Mermet as a B2C brand. The aim? To create awareness among end users. And not just among professionals or architects. This way, Mermet becomes a quality label that consumers explicitly ask for when they are in a retailer's store.
