Brand strategy for mergers & acquisitions
Thinking about brands and M&A
Mergers and acquisitions generate enormous amounts of discussion around valuation, finance, legal structure, operations and integration.
But there's another question.
What happens to the brands?
Thinking explores the decisions organisations face when businesses come together — and how brand strategy can help protect existing equity while creating something stronger for the future.
The deal is done. The brand isn't.
You've acquired
a company.
What happens
to its brand?
We explore the five fundamental brand architecture choices following an acquisition — and why the answer isn't necessarily determined by who bought whom.
Retain it?
Endorse it?
Absorb it?
Combine it?
Replace it?
What's in a name?
When should an acquired brand disappear?
Acquiring a business doesn't automatically mean its brand has reached the end of the road.
Before removing it, understand what customers, employees and the market associate with it — and what could disappear with the name.
Not always obvious
Whose name
survives a merger?
Size, hierarchy and ownership can make the answer appear obvious.
Brand equity may tell you something different.
We look at what should inform one of the most visible decisions in any merger.
The value
The hidden assets you acquire with
a business
A transaction can transfer far more than physical and financial assets.
Reputation, customer loyalty, language, stories, intellectual property, distinctive assets and culture can all have value.
The question is whether you recognise them before changing them.
a new beginning
Don't start with
the new logo.
The desire to demonstrate change can make visual identity one of the first conversations following an acquisition.
We think it should come considerably later.
Before asking what the organisation should look like, determine what it should become.