Carwow announced a major global rebrand in November 2023 as the automotive platform
continued its development beyond its origins as a new-car price comparison service.
Ben Carter, then Carwow’s Chief Marketing Officer and now a member of the Association’s
Competition Jury, discussed the strategy behind the company’s new positioning.
The rebrand centred on the concept of “car changing” and sought to create a broader identity
around the different reasons consumers decide to change vehicles.
By this stage, Carwow had developed beyond new-car comparison. The platform also
enabled UK consumers to sell used vehicles to its network of dealer partners, while its
auction activities provided retailers with another source of used vehicle stock.
According to Carwow, its Sell My Car service had facilitated the sale of more than 115,000
vehicles to the trade since 2021, with a combined value exceeding £1.5 billion at the time of
the announcement.
The new brand identity therefore reflected a significant change in the underlying business.
Rather than positioning the company around a single stage of the automotive purchasing
process, the strategy sought to create one identity covering multiple stages of vehicle
ownership and replacement.
The development illustrates a broader marketing principle: as companies expand their
products and services, their brand positioning may also need to evolve so that customers
understand the wider role of the business.
Customer research played an important role in the repositioning, with the company
identifying major life events — including changes in family, employment and housing — as
common reasons for changing vehicles.
Ben Carter serves on the Competition Jury of the Association of Certified Professionals in
Marketing, Sales & Business Development.