Launching a premium sub-brand in pursuit of pinnacle product

Taiwan-based Giant Group, the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, has created multiple sub-brands during its decades of market dominance, including Liv for women-centric cycling and Momentum for urban lifestyles. In the pursuit of pinnacle product, Giant Group decided to extend its portfolio with the launch of the fully reimagined CADEX brand.

DDG worked with Giant Group to establish CADEX as a superior cycling components brand focused on high-end performance, with a premium image to match. To achieve this end, we needed to build credibility among a discerning audience of cycling enthusiasts.

(Photos Courtesy of CADEX)

Brand Strategy

The pursuit of pinnacle product

The original CADEX product — its first carbon-fiber bicycle, made in 1987 — was described by the brand's team as a ‘moonshot,’ meaning an attempt at something truly audacious. We recognized the great potential of this concept, in part due to its correlation with Giant Group's long-held culture and spirit of innovation. The idea of the new CADEX being another, even more ambitious moonshot, was the catalyst that drove development of the new brand strategy.

DDG defined three brand associations ‘Pro-Rider Proven,’ ‘Material Engineering,’ and ‘Dynamic Cycling,’ to give focus to CADEX's advanced R&D and production processes. To fuel its pursuit of pinnacle product, CADEX enlisted professional cyclists and a team of engineering and biomechanics experts to push the boundaries of ‘the bike and rider in motion.’

Brand Communication

#OVERACHIEVE

DDG introduced the concept ‘OVERACHIEVE’ to express the brand’s and its customers’ expectation of breakthrough performance from CADEX components. OVERACHIEVE also serves as a call to action — to push oneself to the next level through disciplined effort, a challenge familiar to all cycling enthusiasts. This concept has influenced all aspects of the brand deeply — from the design concept, to the launch strategy and ongoing marketing communications.

Brand Identity

Presenting Ultra-High Performance

To express CADEX components’ ultra-high performance and to capture the overachieve spirit, DDG created a sleek and premium identity system and application guidance with a flexible range of styles: in-motion, dedicated, and in-situ. Inspired by double-stripe road markings, the brand’s distinctive graphic element conveys performance and dynamism. Paired with a dark and unsaturated color palette, the new identity presents an upscale brand image.

Brand Launch Strategy

Hit the Road

For the brand launch, demonstrating CADEX products’ co-development with pro-riders was crucial to building a reputation for performance. However, we knew the market would only accept real-life racing conditions as ‘the real deal’ in terms of R&D testing. Thus, DDG devised the wild-posting strategy of affixing ‘#overachieve’ to pro teams’ CADEX components. Instead of directly revealing the CADEX name, this covert launch provided the chance to generate curiosity, while also building pro-racing credibility for the brand.

CADEX’s full brand launch took place during the Tour de France, and was a major success, cementing CADEX’s position among the leading performance component brands. To date, there have been more than 12.5K Instagram posts with the hashtag #OVERACHIEVE, demonstrating the concept’s resonance among the target audience.