Group 1 Automotive
A Unified Brand Identity for a Global Automotive Leader
Group 1 Automotive, a Fortune 300 company with nearly 200 automotive dealerships across the U.S. and UK, has spent the last two decades growing aggressively through acquisition. The company went public in 1997, signaling its ambitions early—but as its footprint expanded, the brand’s identity failed to keep pace.
Internally, there was misalignment. Externally, brand recognition was fragmented. The corporate identity lacked cohesion, and employees—especially at the dealership level—often felt disconnected from the brand’s mission and meaning.
When the company prepared to open its new Houston headquarters, leadership recognized the moment for what it was: a critical opportunity to modernize, unify, and reintroduce Group 1 to the world—with clarity and purpose.
WANT was brought in to lead a full-scale brand transformation—from strategy to identity to environmental expression. The mandate: develop a forward-looking brand system that could unite the enterprise, energize employees, and future-proof the business.
We started with deep discovery: executive interviews, dealership site visits in the U.S. and UK, employee mini-groups, and competitive audits. What we uncovered was clear—Group 1 had the scale, the performance, and the leadership. What it lacked was a story—and a system—to bring it all together.
Working from those insights, we developed a revitalized brand positioning and manifesto, a new corporate name and visual identity, and a flexible architecture to organize the company’s broad portfolio. We crafted messaging frameworks for key audiences and built comprehensive brand guidelines and activation tools to support the internal rollout and go-to-market execution.
Our work extended into the built environment. The WANT team traveled to Houston to lead the environmental branding of Group 1’s new headquarters—developing a systematic naming approach for meeting rooms and designing immersive interior graphics. Every touchpoint was calibrated to reflect the new brand ethos: clear, confident, and unified.
Group 1 Automotive now has the brand to match its business. With a modern identity, a clear story, and a cohesive internal experience, the company is better equipped to scale strategically, inspire its teams, and compete with confidence.
In February 2025, Group 1 rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange as part of its Analyst Day—a public reaffirmation of its momentum and market position. From a fragmented legacy to a unified future, this rebrand marks a new chapter for a public company accelerating toward what’s next—with the infrastructure and identity to back it up.
