Norco recently released the video 'No Other Way,' and with it came a bold new website and a shift in the brand's image. We reached out to Norco's VP of Marketing Peter Falk to ask about the rebrand and to see if we could learn more about an industrial-looking mystery bike that we spotted in the video.
Why did you decide to rebrand?
A while back, we took a good hard look at where we’ve come from, where we are today and where we’re going. With the level of engineering and performance that our bikes and brand have become known for in the MTB space, evolving so much over the years, we wanted to continue building on this strength.
Since the brand is an expression of everything we make and needs to consider every consumer touchpoint, after taking this holistic look at ourselves, it led us to a clear decision: After 57 years in business, it was time to rebrand the company.
We had no interest in re-inventing ourselves. This re-brand projects the honest, authentic brand we’ve always been, but in a way that resonates with riders and reflects the level of quality and innovation found in our bikes.
Old styling (L) vs. new (R)
What are the changes?
The new brand identity gives us a fresh palette to draw inspiration from and also provides the brand a better platform to articulate our stories, technologies and visuals in a water-tight system that complements each other from channel to channel.
The bold graphics, typography and brand voice are designed to complement more dynamic photography and visuals that better express the ride quality and on-trail experience of every Norco bike.
The new dark and electric green palette reflects the colours of Canada’s West Coast mountains where every Norco bike is inspired and proven, and places us in a really unique visual space in the marketplace.
How does the new branding better represent Norco?
Norco is at home in the dirt and in the backwoods of British Columbia. Originating in this place continues to inspire us, influence how we develop bikes, has built us as a brand and continues to build us. We wanted to bring renewed energy and focus to our Dirt-First ethos and British Columbia inspiration while communicating our story to consumers with more clarity.
How will your marketing change going forward? It looks like there's increased focus on videos and storytelling.
The new Norco branding centres around what makes our bikes unique.
Norco builds Rider-First bikes with a dirt connection that are designed and tested in the mountains of British Columbia – the world’s toughest testing ground. This allows us to create the best bikes available for their intended use, without compromise, and give riders the freedom to ride and live life on their own terms.
But yes, there’s a renewed focus on video and storytelling – but there’s more to it than just that.
We’re a company of riders dedicated to developing bikes for the world’s most challenging trails. We know that the people who ride our bikes share this passion and excitement, and the stories we tell, the images we project and the emotion that gets infused into every project will express a genuine moment that every rider can connect with.
Everyone has their own No Other Way – that’s what makes riding so personal and so important to all of us. That connection is the central point to how our marketing has changed.
Can you tell me about the idea behind the No Other Way video?
The idea behind the No Other Way video was to capture those quintessential bike moments that every one of us gets when we’re out there riding. We thought about all of the different types of people who ride Norco Bikes and created a piece that captures those poignant identifiable or aspirational glimpses of time for not only our athletes but the everyday rider.
It’s kind of a love letter to where we come from – to the people and places who’ve shaped who we are over the years – but it’s also our anthem with overtures to the past, present and future. As we push our projects forward, you'll find some of these moments carry themselves into their own No Other Way feature pieces.
In that video, we spotted an unfamiliar bike. Why the tease?
The tease was a peek into our development and testing process and flexing a little bit of our innovation, more so than an “unfamiliar bike.”
Is there anything you're willing to tell me about that bike?
Since you asked, more information will be coming out on what that development process led to in the near future. We just can’t divulge any specific information just yet.
Any idea when we might see a 2021 Range?
As with all bike manufacturing right now, delivery of bikes for consumers is a challenge, and the targets are constantly moving. It’s been a challenge for every brand out there and we are no different when it comes to the platforms we are currently working on releasing to the public. We are bringing you new product as fast as we can.
And my purple Sight has all the natural essence of a grape jelly bean.
Nice bikes though.
The whole thing just reeks of self-congratulatory, corporate foolishness pushed by ivory tower executives to justify their bloated salaries. Just focus on better, more durable and cheaper bikes (MORE would help also) and you'd do a hell of a lot better.
In The Great Bike Research Project 2020, I thought Norco's website was really nice. I liked those red and black colors and it didn't feel like another generic Shopify site. The layout was better than Specialized's--it felt like they put a lot more effort into it. The early-90s green terminal hacker aesthetic they're now using makes it feel em>more/em> like a generic Shopify site. Yawn.
My favorite feature of their new home page is the BC Born SVG that renders across the entirety of my screen: www.norco.com/_application/views/images/lockups/bc-born.svg
Can you tell us the inspiration and process behind your recent rebranding?
Uh... with no bikes coming in or going out we got bored and chose a new Wordpress template. It has neon green buttons.
We’ve got multiple Norcos in our family as we love their products, excellent value for sure.
But this has been a massive waste of my precious potty break. Can’t stand shitty market-speak when instead you could literally ask some kid to put together a sick edit that would actually inspire someone to buy your product.
Nobody makes a shitty bike, so I dig their marketing style. At least it makes me feel like I’d like to ride with those dudes, more so than the expensive marketing department guys writing this drivel.
Surely someone at Norco knows stuff like this regularly gets roasted on PB.
Are they that out of touch with this audience?
Retro is cool when retro was cool, but shitty websites were never cool back in the day. What is that horrendous mess? Has someone just purchased a bunch of font packages and thought they'd give them all a go? That is the worst looking website I have seen in ages and I have been looking at cheap Chinese carbon wheel websites recently.
I have owned one Norco and it has a special place in my heart (wish I held onto it). I am interested in their bikes but all this kind of shit turns me away from a company. Turn down the bullshit. Just focus on making good bikes and keep the marketing stuff simple. I wish more companies would learn from Tesla, spend less on marketing. (Sorry PB, your revenue dept doesn't want to hear that).
If i were to make a wish, it would be for you guys at PB to not make a story out of it. I come here to read about bikes and see people riding bikes in different contexts. I have no interest for marketing related news, to me that's special interest content for people in that industry (which i also worked in for years).
The only touchpoints i care about in a bike brand can be found on the bike itself. Websites, Insta, whatever, the brands need them, i get it, but those speak for themselves, nothing in this article adds any value to me as someone interested in bikes.
So there it is, to whom it may concern. Keep up the good work PB, and Norco too (i very nearly bought a Sight, if only it had been in stock).
They're purple.
"The new brand identity gives us a fresh palette to draw inspiration from and also provides the brand a better platform to articulate our stories, technologies and visuals in a water-tight system that complements each other from channel to channel."
--We got a new logo and hired a junior designer to make sure our instagram posts look like our website.
"The bold graphics, typography and brand voice are designed to complement more dynamic photography and visuals that better express the ride quality and on-trail experience of every Norco bike."
--The logo is simple, so it looks good over pictures of pros riding stuff you'll probably go around.
"The new dark and electric green palette reflects the colours of Canada’s West Coast mountains where every Norco bike is inspired and proven, and places us in a really unique visual space in the marketplace."
--We chose this colour, which never occurs in nature, because no other bike brand is using it.
Yes, budget brand when I was growing up. Still had a bad taste in my mouth in the 2000's about Norco from when I was 12 in 1980 and the cheap fork on my Norco BMX that was slowing bending forward from me jumping it incessantly.
Plus, the cheap quill stem that would no longer hold the handlebars tight so every time I pulled up on the front end, the bars would shift backward. Guess I should have heeded the sticker that warned the bike was not built for BMX riding. Thankfully, they have moved on from those days.
That interview was pointless. Said absolutely nothing of substance.
Also, any news on my optic warranty replacement frame? I know the pandemic is causing issues, but nearly 4 months and counting without my beloved trail ripper!
The entire below passage of text could almost be about dish soap, military hardware or lawnmowers.
"brand identity gives us a fresh palette to draw inspiration from and also provides the brand a better platform to articulate our stories, technologies and visuals in a water-tight system that complements each other from channel to channel.
The bold graphics, typography and brand voice are designed to complement more dynamic photography and visuals that better express the ride quality and on-trail experience of every Norco bike!
When you purchase one of our new bikes it will come with a secret mantra that will allow our customers to re connect with the cosmic hum of the forest and assist them in transcending into the blissful realms of Perfume laden BS. "
If not, I'm not sure why they are embarrassed by the history of the Norco name, but that would be on them.
So, great job, continue with that level of engineering and make sure, that there are enough dealers in Europe.
Also, I wish there was an Optic frame kit with decent color and shock choice.
The story above may be interesting but that and the web design do not convey anything substantial to me.
Just provide well engineered bikes with solid frame features (e.g. protection, rattle free, storage, adjustablity etc.) in great colors and some thrilling launch activity that makes people positively nervous while buying and waiting for the package to arrive.
And maybe try to offer prices below Spesh and RM. Then all will be good for you and us
2. The site is fine and modern and looks to be mobile first; the old site not so much. Glad you liked the old site - it was cool ... in 2015. Good on them for the face lift. I get it, change is hard. But is just a web site and I doubt very seriously that 99% of the folks who posted have the creative of tech chops to create an engaging, performant, localized, global web presence. What works in BC and the PNW, doesn’t work in the US east coast, Europe, Asia, Africa, Western Asia, Oceania. South America. It’s hard to make a site work globally. The did a good job - stop being ethnocentric and chill out.
3. Site navigation - if you are having trouble navigating, look inward. It actually an easily navigable site, is responsive, and makes sense. If you are having trouble navigating, that’s a personal problem.
4. Site landing page - ok, there’s a bit to much going on there, especially for a phone screen. Too much scrolling. But again, it’s their site more power to them. Menu is top left - I can bypass the home page. The venom above is silly - it’s a website people, freaking relax.
5. Ride guide - again, if you are having trouble with it, look inward. It’s fine, its you, not them.
6. PB interviewed a marketing person and Norco’s person spoke marketing. Not sure what the problem is. Sales speaks sales. Engineering speaks engineering. Peo riders speak pro riders (ok, Ratboy is the exception - he speaks Ratboy). HR speaks HR. Don’t like to read marketing speak? The don’t freaking read an PR on rebranding.
7. I am at a loss about the $4500 comment. Norco has many options under $4500.
For the record, I am not a Norco fanboy. My custom 2020 Optic (frame only) is my first Norco and it’s great. But I also have a a custom 2020 Revel Rail which is also freaking great (and yes, quiver update, frames order pre pandemic). Point is, I have no emotional skin in the game here. Norco is a mature, professional company, run by mature, professional people. The are simply responding to a competitive market and emphasizing ‘dirt’ just like Specialized and Giant - that is, targeting the campaign at the beginning of the season and getting y’all to at least take a look at the site. You know, marketing.
I bet Norco just paid some award winning marketing consulting company a lot of money to come up with a new logo, tag line and color scheme. I guess sales were disappointing last year, so whats a CEO to do? Redefine the brand with over-the-top marketing BS! If you really want to rebrand, change the whole name! How about BC Bikes? Norco sounds like an air-conditioner company. Still love ya!
The comments are also a pretty much self answered question.
"Why publish this and why all the hype?"
Like, 'DUH!'
Because, as we all hate to admit it, retards like us really do read this crap!
Today things have changed. On their website they offer a SightC1 with Sram GX parts for 9kCAD (SC's Hightower CC X01 costs about the same with pure XO1 equipment). Their only Fatbike is now a 27.5er Bigfoot.
Today things have changed. On their website they offer a SightC1 with Sram GX parts for 9kCAD (SC's Hightower CC X01 costs about the same with pure XO1 equipment). Their only Fatbike is now a 27.5er Bigfoot.