From supplier-branded to self-owned: brand, UX and web for a tyre dealership

Because I worked close to the business, every decision had to survive daily reality, not just look good in a case study. The issue was not that the business lacked trust offline. It was that the trust was trapped at the counter, while online the business was hard to tell apart from the brands it sold.

Before touching design, I ran stakeholder and staff interviews to survey the current state of the business's branding, marketing and online presence.

The findings were clear. The website was an information-only template supplied by the tyre brands the business sold, so it worked harder for them than for Mast Service Station. Online, the business existed mainly as listings on JustDial and IndiaMART plus a couple of quiet social pages. Offline followed the same pattern: the visiting cards, envelopes, receipts and letterheads came from the partner brands and led with them.

Thirty years of walk-in trust, and little identity of its own anywhere a customer could find, remember, or return to.

The findings went into a written report of key insights and recommendations before any design started. The case for change, on paper, agreed with the stakeholders.

I interviewed around twenty customers, mostly at the counter while they waited: notes on paper, patterns on repeat. The questions were simple: what triggered the purchase, how they chose where to go, what they worried about, and where they would look before trusting a shop.

The answers kept converging. "I tend to trust brands that have a strong online presence and positive customer reviews." "A consistent brand identity gives me confidence in the business." "I follow a few tyre brands on Instagram. It's nice when they post promotions and maintenance tips."

Those interviews became three personas, built in Figma: a budget-conscious student who researches everything online before spending; a time-poor professional who wants reliable information without the jargon; and a research-heavy retiree with time to compare, who trusts reviews and plain language. The personas weren't a deliverable to file away: every decision that followed, in branding, information architecture, interface design and marketing, had to trace back to one of them.

The site structure came directly from the research, with a rule: include only what customers need, and leave everything else out.

Six sections earned their place, each traceable to something customers actually said. Products, services and brands, because "online, I look for competitive pricing, good reviews, and a variety of tyre brands." Reviews and testimonials, because "I tend to trust brands with positive customer reviews." An Instagram feed, because customers already followed tyre brands there and wanted to judge the quality of work for themselves. A blog, because they asked for maintenance guidance in plain language. Locations and Why Choose Us covered the practical questions: where to go, and what warranties and assurance to expect.

Anything that couldn't be traced to an interview didn't ship.

Working from stakeholder sessions on what the business stood for (mobility, strength, performance), I built the identity the business had been missing: a stylised tyre in motion trailing flame, a bold red system chosen for energy and performance, the tagline "Your Trusted Tyre Partner", and Fugaz One for its geometric, kinetic character.

The partner brands didn't disappear. They moved down the hierarchy. On the new visiting cards, letterheads and envelopes, Michelin, Bridgestone and Yokohama appear as credentials under the Mast Service Station brand, instead of the business appearing as an outlet under theirs. Same partnerships, reversed billing.

That hierarchy has already outlived a supplier cycle. The authorised fascia on the storefront has switched before (Bridgestone then, Michelin now) and the Mast Service Station identity carried through the change untouched. The fascia names the current partner; the brand names the business.