News

Growthpoint Properties' new brand mark is an open window to its soul

Nadine Kuzmanich, Head of Marketing for Growthpoint Properties.


Growthpoint Properties, South Africa’s largest JSE-listed property company, has taken its distinctive branding forward by introducing an iconic new brandmark to its logo.

This modern crest builds on the strength of Growthpoint’s existing brand, and creates an icon that can stand alone. Importantly, the new ‘Growthpoint Window’ creates more flexible logo uses for this leading SA REIT.

The new icon launched to Growthpoint’s staff first, with a week-long teaser campaign building up to the big reveal of the new emblem, creating excitement and anticipation among staff in its Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Melbourne offices.

The striking new brandmark was officially unveiled by Norbert Sasse, CEO of Growthpoint Properties, at the company’s Sandton headoffice.

Sasse says: “Across the country, Growthpoint’s people are working towards our vision of creating value for all our stakeholders. By doing their jobs with passion, every person plays a part in providing space for our clients to thrive. That’s teamwork. Every team has a brandmark that sets it apart from all others, an icon its members and supporters recognise and wear with pride. For Growthpoint, this has been our logo and our distinctive Midnight Cherry corporate colour. But, we felt it was time to take it a step further. So, we’ve introduced our new ‘Growthpoint Window’ to wear with pride as we work together towards making it a symbol of success.”

The new icon received a tremendous response from Growthpoint’s staff and has quickly gained positive attention from the market, as it appears on adverts and billboards across the country.

Creating the stand-out new brandmark was driven by Growthpoint’s Marketing team:

Nadine Kuzmanich, Head of Marketing for Growthpoint, describes Growthpoint’s brand journey, which truly began when Growthpoint became an independent company in 2007. “At the time, it was important to distinguish ourselves from the rest of the property industry, which is why we chose our Midnight Cherry corporate colour.”

When launching its brand, Growthpoint wanted it to have gravitas, and to be simple and solid identifier while the company established its track record. “Our logo was simply our name, Growthpoint Properties,” notes Kuzmanich.

For Growthpoint’s first five years, its identity was focused on its branding and its logo. “However, as we started to get involved with sponsorships and endorsements, like our sponsorship of Growthpoint Kings Park – home of The Sharks, and expanded our marketing, we found the logo’s use was limited. It’s longer horizontal format sometimes reduced its legibility.”

Simultaneously, Growthpoint reached a place in its marketing where it wanted to be more accessible. “We’d always showcased our property assets and felt the time had come to share the human side of our business too.”

About a year ago, Growthpoint introduced ‘space to thrive’ to its branding. “These words had great traction internally. Our people really related to them. It brought to life the idea of our buildings as communities that are part of an ecosystem. It also brought focus to what we try to achieve with our workspaces and developments,” says Kuzmanich. “Together we create ‘space to thrive’, became our truth.”

Communicating with language was a great way to express Growthpoint’s client-focused philosophy and how, through this approach, it strives to be the first choice for clients. “Yet, we still wanted to show this visually,” explains Kuzmanich.

With its brand now established and well recognised, Growthpoint decided the time had come to be bold and create its own stamp with a brandmark. So it looked at logos and brandmarks from across the globe, from the Nike swoosh to McDonald’s arches and the Macintosh apple.

“We liked the approach of using the ‘G’ to symbolise Growthpoint and highlight our business. We’ve placed this inside a window, which is a literal nod to the buildings that Growthpoint invests in, but also represents vision and transparency. It is the window to our soul,” says Kuzmanich.

The diagonal line in the design of the ‘G’ indicates forward and upward movement, signalling growth and improvement, and links perfectly with Growthpoint’s mantra of ‘space to thrive’.

While Growthpoint is keeping the words ‘space to thrive’ in its branding, they don’t make up part of the logo, but rather are a dynamic element that can be used without restrictions.

Kuzmanich explains: “Part of our approach is to create opportunities and solutions that support and strengthen the businesses of our clients, and in fact all our stakeholders. This means being flexible and approaching each project differently. So, we believe the way we use these words within our branding should reflect this. This gives our people the freedom to use the words in the way that is best for each project and on every document.”

Rolling out its new branding is no small task for Growthpoint, after all this JSE ALSI Top 40 Index company owns and manages a diversified portfolio of 477 properties in South Africa, 51 properties in Australia through its investment in Growthpoint Properties Australia (GOZ) and a 50% interest in the properties at V&A Waterfront, Cape Town. Its combined assets are valued at nearly R100 billion.

The new Growthpoint Window is being used on Growthpoint’s digital platforms first, and will be added to its marketing material and branded collateral as old messaging needs to be replaced. With thousands of signs and billboards across South Africa, it will take some time to roll it out, but Growthpoint is confident that is should mostly be in place within a year.

“Our new “Growthpoint Window” is more than a symbol,” says Kuzmanich. “It is an open invitation to engage with us, join the conversation and collaborate as partners.”