ALEXANDRIA — Alexandria Motors Collision Center , the on-site body shop at Alexandria Motors, will soon be getting a makeover – sort of. The body shop is being rebranded.

Mark Kruse, Alexandria Motors general manager, said during an annual meeting at the dealership, ideas for what the new year will bring are talked about, along with what changes may or may not be needed.

One of the ideas brought up was to rebrand the body shop. With the location of the body shop, which is behind the dealership, Kruse said it is hard to see from the road so rebanding seemed like a great idea.

“You have 10-15 people in the room all throwing our ideas for how, but I thought the best way to go about it would be to get the DECA students involved,” said Kruse. “Get some creative minds going on. And not only just the name of the body shop, but also a slogan.”

Kruse happens to be buddies with one of the Alexandria Area High School DECA advisors, Eric Hartmann, so he contacted him and pitched the idea to him. Before he knew it, there were about 30 DECA students who broke into about 14 teams who took on the rebranding project.

The project turned into more of a contest as there was a $1,000 prize online. The dealership would be awarding the winner or winners with a $1,000 scholarship to be used for college.

Kruse was not only the one to pitch the idea, he was also the one who got to see all the presentations from each of the teams.

“I thought it was really fun because a lot of the students knew who Alexandria Motors is, but they didn’t know a lot about the business,” said Kruse. “It was fun having the students do research on the company.”

He noted that the themes of many of the projects were based around the Alexandria Motors brand of being a Chevrolet, Cadillac and Mazda dealership along with the American flag which is part of the Alexandria Motors logo.

After the students presented their ideas to Kruse, Hartmann sent him the presentations in an email. Once a week, the 12 department managers have a meeting, along with Nicole Nettleton, who is one of the owners. The group voted on the top three and then selected the winner based on a point system, Kruse said.

Kruse noted that when the shop is rebranded, they plan to use certain bits and pieces from the winning presentation and the students will also receive credit for helping with the rebrand.

“I was very impressed with the products that were presented to me,” said Kruse. “There are a lot of brilliant minds in there (the DECA class). It was also fun to see what the future might bring out of these kids.”

The team that won included two students — Joe Martinson and Malorie Raether. The name they came up with was Alexandria Masters Auto Body with the slogan, “Mastering our service for your satisfaction.” The logo included a drawing of a Chevrolet Malibu with one side of it dented and the other side looking brand new.

On the slide for the presentations, the students said that the name was similar sounding to Alexandria Motors, the logo had a hometown feel that is eye-catching, including the Chevy logo because it paved the way for the business and that included the dented car turned into a new car.

Kruse said all the students were really creative and it was a hard choice, but the rebrand created by Martinson and Raether was the one that stood out the most.

How the students came up with their design

After the students were presented with the $1,000 check on Friday, Feb. 28, at the dealership, the newspaper asked them how they came up with their design.

Martinson said he was driving past the dealership after the idea had been pitched to the class and that a couple of names for the body shop came into his mind. He shared them with his teammate and then said they both like the Alexandria Master Auto Body name the best.

“It sounds like Alexandria Motors , has the same initials and it just kind of fits nice,” said Martinson, noting that it helps showcase the excellence of their body shop.

Raether said the colors were chosen because they are the colors of the Alexandria Motors logo. As for why they decided to use a Chevy Malibu as the car on the logo, Raether said, “Partially because it’s a Chevy dealer and also because I drive a Chevy Malibu. It was kind of our inspiration.”