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Mergers & Acquisitions Marketing Strategy Part 2

Mergers & Acquisitions Marketing Strategy Part 2

Marketing Strategy for Brand Transition & Rollout

Whether you’re a buyer or seller, marketing strategy is a critical part of your planning and has a direct impact on your return on investment. In this three-part series, we’ll explore how to prepare your sales and marketing in exit planning, brand transition and roll-out communications strategy during M&A, and later, how to achieve ROI on acquisitions—marketing strategies to create a successful path forward as a new entity. 

Preparing for Exit M&A Transition Acquisition Integration
Success factors:
  • 3-year growth trend
  • Customer and market diversity
  • Competitive advantage
  • Pipeline value
  • Defined and documented sales process, CRM
  • Pitch deck
Success factors:
  • Stakeholder communications
  • Roll-out plan
  • Customer growth and retention
  • New market entry
  • Employee retention
Success factors:
  • Unified vision
  • Brand transition plan
  • Cross-functional, cross-company alignment
  • Product rationalization
  • Seamless customer experience

 

From initial talks to signing the papers, stakeholder communications are critical to your ability to retain employees and customers. This article will provide marketing strategies and roll-out plans for the lead-up to and during the announcement of a merger or acquisition, to help you to:

  • Reduce risk of losing key customers and employees
  • Capitalize on publicity
  • Set the stage for growth

Even before the LOI, to the point where the check clears the bank, you likely have a lot of questions about who should know what, when? You must also concern yourself with, what’s in it for them? You’ll need your executive team, and key members of finance, operations, sales and marketing to be in the loop. They will likely need to provide reports and data analysis in due diligence.

2025 M&A Activity

After two years of slower deal flow, we enter 2025 with pent-up demand and investor money sitting on the sidelines. 

Screenshot 2025-01-14 155759

Transactions by year worldwide. Credit: Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions & Alliances

The expected uptick in 2024 stalled out, as private equity funds typically rely on leverage, and interest rates remained high. With fewer exit opportunities, election year uncertainty and an unclear economic outlook, many of these conditions have brightened for 2025. Many buyers will have aggressive timelines to make up for lost time. That makes your planning all the more important.

Your priorities and messages will be different at every stage, for each audience. Throughout the process, be sure to:

  • Commit to transparent, proactive communication
  • Say what you can stick to
  • Be specific and relevant to your audiences’ concerns
  • Anticipate the ripple effectArm your people with the answers they need

Priority #1: Quelling Concerns Leading up to the Announcement

Addressing fear, uncertainty and doubt is the first order of business. Employees, vendors and customers each have their own concerns about your continued operations. They want to feel like they’re the first to know, and that you have clear and transparent answers to their immediate questions. Be sure to:

  1. Prepare your channels. Get your lists in order, segment employees, vendors, and customers by level, division, geography, etc.
  2. Get alignment on key messages. Be clear on WHY this deal makes sense for the company, and what potential upside it presents to employees and customers.

What was the driver for the deal? This will drive your key messages. There are four main types of M&A strategies: horizontal, vertical, concentric and conglomerate. Horizontal deals help to achieve economies of scale; vertical strategy is intended to improve the production process and reduce supply chain risk. Concentric fills product gaps and is best for product extension. Conglomerate deals diversify business risks in uncertain times. Your acquisition strategy can inform your key messages and can help to quell unwarranted concerns.

  1. Gather the details. Be prepared to answer their ‘day 1’ questions: will bank accounts change? Will their payroll date or benefits change? Be ready with detailed employee FAQs for HR and managers, and customer FAQs for sales.
  2. It’s ok not to know all the answers today. Communicate when and how they’ll get more information, and your general approach.

You must first establish reliable sources of information, turn down the rumor mill, and ensure your key customers and employees feel in the know and cared for. Please recognize that each of them will have their own concerns—an employee with a chronically sick family member will be concerned about health insurance changes. A customer who is sole-sourcing with the company will have detailed questions on impact to delivery dates, any vendor or material changes, or changes in their point of contact. They may also have concerns about competitive conflicts of interest.

Be specific—and keep your messages focused on the impact and opportunity for each customer individually.

Customer Communications

Identify the point of contact for each tier 1 customer. At point of transaction, before the announcement, ensure they get a personal phone call. Follow this with an email with near-term implications and assurances. Be as clear and positive as you’re able to truthfully be. This should offer a next step for further detail—a meeting in the coming weeks, a customer visit, etc.

At the time of announcement, send an all-customer email with next steps, immediately before the press release to industry and the general public:

  • Be sure to include brand transition plans, if known and imminent, point of contact for additional information, and any assurances you can offer on product and point of contact continuity.
  • Offer potential upside: areas you’ll be investing in that tie to market/customer needs, product/capability extension and tease announcements to come.

Make sure you understand which marketing channels are most important to customers. Ensure that your social media messages are well-timed and link to website detail at time of announcement.

Internal Communications

Who do employees turn to with questions? Know your influencers—it’s often, but not always, their direct manager. Some key employees will already be in the know. Now it’s time to be sure all employees have equal access to information that matters to them, through:

  • All hands announcement—company-wide virtual meetings may help to share synchronous news. Try to time it with other meetings to avoid undue anxiety (quarterly planning or such).
  • All hands email—additional links and resources, a pre-planned way to share additional information.
  • Manager 1:1s or department meetings for more specific implications and planning.

Launch Team Inc. can help support your internal communications. Learn more.


 

Maslow’s Triangle of Needs: Employee Communications in M&A

GettyImages-527315425

Are my values in alignment with the new company? Will my work have purpose? 
Will my title change? What are my opportunities for advancement? Is the new company/role prestigious? 
Who will I report to? 
Will I get to continue my work/research? 
Will my benefits change?
How are decisions made? 
Will I lose my job? 

 

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be a helpful model in considering employees’ needs and concerns, especially in times of change. Leaders can use this theory to address their immediate concerns, create a supportive environment and understand individual motivations. 


Priority #2: Brand Transition

After the initial announcement, you have a window of increased attention from the industry, your prospects, customers and employees, to create interest and awareness of your future direction. Depending on the acquisition strategy, there may be external changes like new market entry, new product lines, cross-selling or re-positioning into a higher value, more comprehensive offering.

You can lay the groundwork for where the company is going, to create meaningful conversations with customers today, even if you won’t make any significant changes to your brand or offering for a year or so.

Many companies choose to operate ‘business as usual’ for new acquisitions for the first year. Spell out a rough timeframe for changes to help leaders and employees make better decisions and ease the unknown that can cause ambivalence and costly disconnects.

Brand Roll-out Plans: Typical Timelines for M&A

Picture2-3

Timelines for M&A communications and integration are different case to case, but there is inevitably a flurry of activity leading up to the announcement, need for a robust 90-day communications plan, and deliberate and strategic planning for the integration and brand building of the new entity.

Some of the factors that color your brand transition plan include:

  • Brand recognition and perception of each entity
  • Competitive landscape
  • Sales cycles, complexity, and deal size
  • Customer concerns, conflicts, etc.
  • Union vs. non-union labor
  • Geographies, physical assets and work environments

There’s no one right answer. We’ll dig into the best practices for M&A integration and brand transition in our next article.

Stay tuned for part 3 of our Marketing Strategies for M&A for a step-by-step guide to integrating an acquisition and positioning for growth.


Looking for specific guidance on marketing and sales priorities in exit planning? Book a confidential consult.

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