Where It Started: SAiRacing, 2016 to 2017
Our work with SAI began in August 2016 with a brand for car owners. SAI wanted to sell its forged wheels in the aftermarket under a brand of its own, and we created it: the name SAiRacing, the positioning line Superior Wheels for Superior Drivers and a family of logos. The SAiR wordmark leads, an R icon marks the wheel caps and packaging, the SAiRacing logotype goes on accessories, and SKYLITE names the first wheel line. We also designed the packaging and the materials for the brand’s debut at the Taipei International Auto Parts and Accessories Show (AMPA) in April 2017, which Global Views Monthly and King Autos reported.
The second phase, from June to November 2017, tested the brand with the drivers it was made for. In August we ran two focus groups in Taipei with 23 Porsche owners. They put performance ahead of price and judged a premium by how much weight it saved. A new name, they said, had to prove itself with data. The brand story we wrote follows from that and is summed up in one line: “We don’t tell you a story, we give you the facts.” We also advised SAI on the website and brand film made by outside studios, and held two workshops for its team.
We don’t tell you a story, we give you the facts.
The SAiRacing brand story in one line
This second phase was selected and part-funded under Branding Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs program that helps Taiwanese companies build international brands. Geber is one of the program’s partner consultancies.
In 2020 SAI came back to us, this time about the brand that carries its own name.
The Challenge: A Global Leader That Called Itself a Supplier
SAI was founded in 1994 and first made bicycle parts, golf club heads and defense components. By the time it prepared to list, it had become the world’s second-largest forged wheel maker, with Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover and Lexus among its main customers.
The brand described a smaller company. SAI’s English positioning read “global supplier of high quality, lightweight forged metal products,” and the vision in its 2021 Sustainability Report was to become the industry’s best-fit supplier. Both lines placed SAI inside someone else’s supply chain and left out its lead in the field.
The planned listing made this urgent. SAI had traded on the Emerging Stock Board since 2006 and was preparing for the main board of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, where investors would weigh its story alongside its numbers. The logo added to the problem: it spelled out “SuperAlloy” in a heavy, unbalanced lockup that looked out of place on the premium cars SAI’s wheels are made for.
What We Found
We interviewed SAI’s chairman, president and four senior managers, then four customers and SAI’s sales representatives in Europe and the United Kingdom. We also compared how seven competitors and peers in wheels and aluminum present themselves.
- People knew the name and little else. Buyers across the industry knew SAI and recognized its red logo, but when asked what set SAI apart, they had no clear answer.
- “SuperAlloy” described another material. To a metallurgist, a superalloy is a heat-resistant nickel, cobalt or iron-based alloy of the kind used in jet engines. SAI’s expertise is aluminum, so the name sent technical buyers the wrong signal and confused car owners. It also crowded the logo.
- Sustainability was unclaimed. SAI already ran its own recycling smelter, and its carmaker customers were setting net-zero targets. Few competitors said anything about recycled material.
- Two audiences needed two messages. Carmaker buyers think in terms of capability and solutions. Car owners and the public respond to the product they can see, the wheel.
What We Did
The project ran from April 2022 into 2024 and covered strategic planning, brand visual design and video planning and production, along with a new website.
Brand Strategy: From Supplier to Leader
We based the strategy on two strengths that competitors would find hard to copy.
Customization. SAI handles development, forging, machining and finishing in its own plants, so it can produce a carmaker’s own design with finishes few others offer. Premium brands increasingly ask for exactly that.
Sustainability. SAI recycles aluminum in its own smelter and controls the material from scrap to finished wheel. That answers a question carmakers now put to every supplier: where does the material come from?
Our first proposal for the corporate position was a global leader in metal solutions. In the discussion that followed, SAI’s team and ours saw a problem with “metal”: it could put SAI alongside raw-material producers. The final position names the craft: SAI is a global leader in forging solutions and the world’s leading brand of forged wheels. The first half speaks to carmaker buyers and the second to car owners, and we recommended leading with whichever half fits the audience.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| SAI’s vision in its 2021 Sustainability Report: to become the industry’s best-fit supplier | SAI’s corporate positioning in its 2023 Sustainability Report: to be the global leader in forging solutions and the world’s leading brand in forged aluminum wheels |
Name, Tagline and Brand Story
We recommended taking “SuperAlloy” out of the logo and going to market as SAI, and suggested the company use SAI for itself as well, on the phone and on its website. In the brand story the three letters gained a meaning of their own: Sustainability, Advanced, Innovation.
- S Sustainability
- A Advanced
- I Innovation
We proposed three taglines, and SAI chose Forging the Future. It opens with the technology SAI is known for, and “forge” also means to shape something new.
The brand story, written in Chinese and English for the website, sales presentations and investor materials, states the position and the two strengths behind it. It also commits SAI to carbon neutrality by 2050.
The tagline SAI chose
Forging the Future
Logo and Identity System
The red SAI logo was already familiar across the industry, so we kept it and refined it. We rebalanced the letter weights, which had pulled toward the S, sharpened the A and gave the S cleaner angles with rounded corners. At the team’s request, the red became brighter.
The identity guideline applies the system to stationery, employee badges, packaging, gifts, presentation templates and exhibition materials.
Website, Launch and Films
We designed the new corporate website around the position and the brand story, and created the visual system for SAI’s brand launch event. In 2024 we produced a corporate introduction film with Chinese and English narration, and a film for the stock listing.
Results
SAI still uses the brand we built.
The brand at work:
- The position heads SAI’s Brand Story page. SAI’s Brand Story page opens with the position, and the Chinese headline matches our text word for word: 巧新科技SAI是鍛造解決方案的全球領導者，亦為世界領先的鍛造輪圈品牌. Most of the page is still the brand story we wrote in 2023, including the meaning of S, A and I.
- SAI’s reports use the position and the tagline. SAI’s 2023 Sustainability Report gives the position’s words as its corporate positioning, with customization and sustainability as its brand positioning. Its 2022 report describes the corporate brand upgrade begun that year, from interviews to the tagline Forging the Future, and the chairman’s letter links the tagline to SAI’s commitment to a sustainable future.
- Investors heard the same story. At its pre-listing results briefing on April 12, 2024, SAI presented forging as its core technology and its aim as forged-product solutions for the mobility industry.
- The tagline stays with the logo. On SAI’s LinkedIn page, the SAI logo appears with Forging the Future beneath it (October 2026).
- Sustainability comes first. SAI’s homepage opens with the line “Leading Sustainable Forging,” and its Chinese homepage with a line from the brand story we wrote: 推動並引領鍛造產業永續發展 (leading the sustainable development of the forging industry).
The business since the rebrand:
The business since the rebrand
- May 2024 Listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (stock code 1563), after 18 years on the Emerging Stock Board
- 3.14× Oversubscription of the pre-listing share auction
- 7 Luxury carmakers that had certified SAI as a supplier by December 2024
- 900,000+ Recycled aluminum wheels from SAI’s own smelter by December 2024
- Listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on May 13, 2024 (stock code 1563), after 18 years on the Emerging Stock Board. The pre-listing share auction was 3.14 times oversubscribed.
- More luxury carmakers. Six luxury carmakers had certified SAI as a supplier by the listing, and seven had done so by December 2024, when its recycled aluminum smelter had produced nearly 80,000 tonnes and more than 900,000 recycled aluminum wheels.
- A step into semiconductors. In 2026 SAI took its forging into chamber components for semiconductor equipment. By July its parts were in final certification, and in August SAI announced it had entered the market.
- Ten years of work together. SAI first hired us in 2016. We built its corporate website and still support it.
“I always feel so secure and know the project is in good hands. … All thanks to your professionalism and the charm of presentation in person.”
Reishi Chang, Head of Sales & Marketing, SAI
Is your company better than its brand suggests? Many Taiwanese manufacturers lead their category and still introduce themselves as a supplier. Talk to us about closing that gap.
