There are many considerations that should be very much top of mind for all brands that are merging or acquiring companies. A successful fusion will be determined by how well brands think through and act on these four areas:
1. When Integrating New Brands Into Your Company:
- Benchmark everything around your purpose
- Identify the new value that each brand brings to your brand portfolio, and to the achievement of the purpose
- Look for brands with a strong cultural fit as well as competitive edge
2. To Help New Arrivals Feel Welcome:
- Explain to your current team what the new people add to current strengths
- Incorporate the best of new values and behaviors to refresh your cultural framework
- Combine the knowledge and experience of the various brand teams (current and new) to break down silos and get the best combination of diverse thinking
3. To Decide Which Brands Stay And Which Go:
- Discard, sell or merge redundant brands
- Identify the brands that contribute the most to your purpose (make these the core of your portfolio)
- Where you have two strong brands in one category, assign different parts of the market to each brand and reposition accordingly
4. Have A Strong Go-To-Market Communications Strategy For Your Revised Portfolio Explain:
- Why you have come together
- The key issues that you are committed to addressing
- Why you are now more capable of doing so
- Which consumer challenges you will be focusing on as a result (and which brands you will be using to do that)
- Which brands you will be dropping
- How those transitions will work for buyers.
The Blake Project Can Help: The Brand Architecture Workshop, and The Brand Culture Workshop.
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education
