Background
Trail-lite is a 100% New Zealand owned and operated company designing and manufacturing premier motor homes. Each home is individually customised to its owner’s specifications and requirements and owners are encouraged to incorporate their ideas into the design of their new vehicle. A family-owned and operated business, Trail-lite has been in the industry for over 50 years. In that time, it has built more than 2000 motor homes and caravans—often for return customers.
The issues
Trail-lite’s use of traditional manufacturing techniques, originally conceived 30 years ago, restricted its ability to express the Trail-lite brand with contemporary design and aesthetics. Brand identification issues were further compounded by Trail-lite giving its customers the ability to request variations in Luton height, locker position and size, and internal layout, as well as the positioning of windows and doors.
Another key challenge in the redesign came from Trail-lite’s need to build a motor home for five different truck platforms: Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Ford, VW and Mercedes. Procreate had to make the motor home’s aesthetic complement each of the different companies’ unique looks. The challenge was to adapt a new design to each of these platforms and still retain the overall aesthetic and design philosophy consistency for each.
The solution
Procreate spent a significant amount of time working with Trail-lite to take its team through a rigorous design process. This gave them greater comfort in the design process and confidence the product would meet each of the identified customer needs.
The new motor home designs, with their modern styling and features, are expected to almost double sales. It has also enabled Trail-lite to investigate off-shore markets with a view to taking the new design to international sales channels, which would not have been previously possible.
