Getting it together: a brand consolidation & re-branding overview

Mergers and acquisitions-not to mention reorganizations and consolidations—are often good news for lawyers, CEOs, bankers, and investors. But for marketing communicators, often not so good.

Here’s the problem (or because we all believe that problems are really opportunities in disguise, let’s say opportunity): blending the marketing of two (or more) companies is full of vexing and seemingly endless… uh… opportunities.

Want proof? One source says half of all brand consolidations—i.e., attempts to combine two or more brands without losing market share-end up in the tank.*

However, the same source says there’s a way out. “Skills and experience together with a well-structured approach appear to increase the rate of success.”

At Harding Marketing, we worked with HP when it merged with Compaq, with Google after it acquired YouTube, and with HP when it purchased 3Com. So you might say we have the “skills and experience.”

We also have a “well-structured approach,” which is our way of saying we’ve developed more than a few best practices to help fellow marcom people integrate all the communications assets of one company into the formats, styles, and voices of another. These can help not only with brand consolidation, but with ballooning product portfolios and re-branding jobs as well.

You probably have some of the same skills and experience yourself. But because you might be facing more… uh… opportunities than you need at the moment, we’d like to share some of our well-structured approach.

First, hang onto the base. Even your best customers might be confused—to say nothing of the customers of the company you’ve just acquired. Both might wonder if you’re still the same great folks they’ve known and loved. Do your products and services still have the right stuff—at the right price? Who do customers deal with for service and support? Who backs the warranties and SLAs?

Change is frightening. And if you don’t help your customers understand how change benefits them, they might be frightened straight into your competitor’s arms.

So at Harding, we believe one of our most important jobs is to find ways the changes actually benefit customers. Next, we come up with ideas to let them know what it all means—the new logos, the new product names, the new model numbers, pricing, warranties, and support. Not to mention how to get hold of someone who can answer their questions.

We use media ranging from ads and commercials to brochures and e-blasts, from websites to Flash. But the focus is on savvy strategies and tactics—and on following through with on-target executions.

Comfort your prospects. Change worries prospects even more than it worries customers. Worse, it’s even easier for prospects to take a wait-and-see attitude—meaning they can take their business elsewhere—than it is for customers. So whatever you do to hang onto your customer base, you have to do even more of it to hold onto your prospect base.

Don’t forget the family. Following a merger or acquisition or even an internal reorganization, we’ve noticed channel partners often feel abandoned. How can they suddenly switch from the brands that built their business? How do they convert to a whole new line of products and brand names? How will the changes affect well-established customer relationships?

Too often, merging companies assume their partners will fall into line, like the Rockettes (but without the kicking). Too often, they’re wrong. Too often, partners, retailers, and even your own sales force are slow to get with the program. And too often, that can send the program reeling.

At Harding, we’ve found that to make a merger work, we have to figure out ways to woo every middleman and middle-woman connecting you to your customers. That means we have to show them how change will make their lives easier, better, and more prosperous.

Take advantage of the opportunities. People always say that mergers and acquisitions deliver economies of scale. Well, guess what: they’re right. Brand consolidation offers tremendous opportunities to streamline marketing, cut costs, and deliver a handsome ROI. And at Harding, we have 10 very specific ways—let’s call it our well-structured approach—to help make all that happen. In short:

We audit and review all the collateral marketing from both companies—then develop joint content guidelines.
We identify places where content needs to be revised and updated—in print, online, and everywhere else.
We also review product literature to make sure it accurately describes all the products and lines.
We use NetMarcom, Harding’s automated online tool, to support integrated collateral development.
We review all the design templates from both companies, combine them where possible, and design entirely new formats when necessary.
We update the photography and graphic libraries of both companies, catalog everything currently available, provide a unified look, and maintain use rights.
We come up with joint messaging guidelines covering strategies, key selling points, and style.
We integrate Web materials from both companies. That includes migrating websites, unifying graphics, and updating links.
We develop internal communications to keep employees and management informed.
We develop external communications for customers, prospects, stockholders, stakeholders, analysts, channel partners, and everyone who needs to know.

Of course, turning those points into reality isn’t easy. That’s where our skills and experience come in.

If you’d like to talk it over, merge your ideas with ours, and perhaps acquire a few insights from our well-structured approach, please click michelle_contreras@hardingmarketing.com for Harding Marketing in San Jose. Or for our office in Grenoble, France, click stephane_labartino@hardingmarcom.fr.

* Our source was Lars Finskud in his article, “Brand Consolidation—the Right Choice for Capturing Value in the Face of Ballooning Portfolios and Brand Dilution.“