LOUISVILLE, Ky. – ArvinMeritor is reverting to the Meritor product and services brand in an attempt to reduce customer confusion about the company’s identity.

Denis Kline, the company’s vice-president of sales and marketing for ArvinMeritor’s Commercial Vehicle Systems business, said the decision was reached after extensive research showed that “customers were not really sure who we were and what would come next.”

“We have chosen to refocus on Meritor as the premier commercial vehicle systems product brand for ArvinMeritor,” said Kline. “We believe the strength of the brand is a necessary tool in helping us meet our customers’ expectations in the future. The Meritor brand has been recognized for its technology leadership position and industry-proven customer support capabilities.”

The company’s research found that fleet customers report that understanding and support of their operations by major component suppliers is critical and perhaps the single most important factor among their buying criteria. It also found that Meritor was the leading brand name in unaided recall questions by a wide margin, despite the fact the Meritor name was only eight years old. (Prior to that the company had been known as Rockwell.)

To help reinforce its brand position, the company is adopting a new tagline – “Delivering Performance Plus”, representing its desired position to be recognized as the best-in-class within the “performance” category of products, parts and people.