Like many solid products with lineages of more than a century, today’s Brill mower is visibly related to its original incarnation developed in 1874. And Brill’s first mower is fundamentally not that removed from the first lawnmower ever, invented in 1830. Products that endure this long are able to do so because their original design is so robust and efficient that there is little room for improvement.

Brill’s modern reputation as the preeminent self-powered lawnmower brand means that there has been some improvement—as well as other, new product lines. Today Brill manufactures a large selection of garden equipment, from reel and power riding mowers to shredders and the awesomely-named Scarifier. Brill’s selection of products can be seen at the brand’s efficient, no-nonsense website, brill.de. Both German and English versions are available via links in the top left corner. The German version is somewhat more robust.

“Unternehmen. Produkte. News. Händler. Presse. Kontact.” What else would anyone researching Brill need? Each section is headed by a large, striking image that can best be described as “epic lawn care.” The individual product pages are also full of information, and in the English version, wonderfully fanciful. Imagining Heidi Klum reading Brill’s Hattrick product details makes lawnmower research (almost) fun: “The large wheels with their special profile also ensure convenient working as does too the attractive ‘rear spoiler’ which ejects the grass cuttings in a controlled manner.”

Fortunately for Brill, German engineering has a reputation that remains strong, robust and peerless. Brill itself uses the term “efficiency” in its quality section, which reflects the prevailing attitude in regard to how consumers across the globe perceive German products. Consumers generally attribute the highest expectations of quality for German brands. Of course, most German non-automotive brands owe at least a little of their high regard to the nation’s unsurpassed auto brands.

Other brands that identify themselves as German, such as Siemens and Brill, benefit greatly from this association. Interestingly, in the earlier part of the 20th century Brill, like many other German brands—because of geopolitical problems and subsequent public perception issues—promoted their mowers as “foreign” in an attempt to disassociate the nation state from individual products.

Today, German brands that are not so identified with Germany, such as adidas and Nivea, are more on their own (for better and worse). Brill, however, enjoys a strong brand identity due to its affiliation with Germany and renowned German engineering. That streamlined and efficient sense of engineering is also apparent in both the English and German versions of Brill’s website. Online, Brill is portrayed as a clean and uncluttered brand that focuses on the objective of presenting and selling products based on useful information, telling images and an easily navigated format.

A suitable online presence for a brand that doesn’t cut corners.