Mergers & Acquisitions Marketing Strategy Part 3

Marketing Strategy for Rebranding and Integration of Acquisitions

For companies pursuing growth and market share through acquisitions, you’re banking on both top-line and bottom-line growth from synergies and efficiencies. Brand dominance depends on your post-acquisition plan and marketing strategy.

This article is part 3 of marketing strategy in M&A. If you’re a company owner preparing for exit, check out part 1. Part 2 covers the immediate announcement at the time of an acquisition. For a full guide on hitting your divestiture or acquisition targets, download the M&A Marketing Strategy Whitepaper.

Acquisition integration doesn’t get enough attention because it is not an event. It’s everything that happens after the event.

70-90% of mergers and acquisitions fail. Much of this is due to incomplete integration, poor brand roll-out and lack of change management.

Even companies with an aggressive acquisition strategy and robust integration team typically only map out timelines for the first 90 days. Much of the missed opportunity occurs later in the first two years . In the rush of recent market consolidation, many companies leave companies to ‘business as usual’ after the initial announcements. As that stretches to year two, employees are uncertain about their role and how decisions are made. Customers are equally unclear if the company will continue to support their needs, and how to navigate sales and service.

Beef up your communications with a clear plan for:

• Employee roles
• Decision-making authority
• Process improvements: is iterative or overarching change coming?
• Brand building: division or company brand?
• Product line direction
• Customer navigation: will points of contact or processes change?

Your initial desire to keep the day-to-day business operational and profitable can slow the pace of innovation. A clearly communicated vision for the new umbrella company, its target customers, and a go-to-market strategy can help employees make appropriate decisions and provide clarity to customers and prospects.

If you are following a phased approach to rebranding after M&A, consider prioritizing:

Should We Rebrand?

Renaming and rebranding is an expensive and intensive process, but can be the right strategic move if:

• One of your acquisitions has controversy or a negative connotation in the market
• You’ve outgrown the name
• You’re looking to simplify and cut costs in brand asset management
• You are staking a new claim in the market and want to make a splash

Consider how a rebrand will impact customers and existing brand equity. You’ll need to invest in marketing activities to get the word out and tell a new story. There are also tactical implications:

• Loss of domain legacy—impact to SEO and web traffic
• Cost of brand asset replacement
• Heavy operations lift to coordinate activities

Once you’ve committed to rebranding, choose a target brand roll-out date that maximizes your visibility, like a major tradeshow or other event to add excitement. Tease it in advance to build buzz, and announce your new brand across all channels.

Rolling out a Successful Rebrand

Rebranding timeline, cost and process is different from company to company, depending on the company’s size, complexity and existing market presence. In broad strokes, here is the process for rebranding:

• Conduct a brand audit: Quantify the reasons for the rebrand, and round out the channels and assets impacted, to establish the projected costs and upside opportunity
• Assess risks and ROI: Consider the potential loss of brand equity and how you’ll measure its success
• Communicate the why: Bring employees along in your decision-making process to rebrand
• Determine a new brand name: Consider how the name reflects the brand's vision. Conduct full competitive landscape, trademark and domain search. Think globally to avoid unintended meanings. 
• Define brand positioning: Decide how the brand will be positioned in the market. 
• Create a brand strategy: Write a creative brief and select a creative team 
• Build your core brand assets: Use videos, graphics, and animations to showcase the new brand elements.  

• Roll out simultaneously: Think omnichannel to reach your full audience—social media, PR, physical presence, web presence.

Download our M&A Brand Transition Checklist

Elements of a Brand

A strong brand is far more than just a logo. Take the opportunity to consider your company story, market positioning, purpose, personality, as you consider the company name and visual identity. The creative exercise can help create new collaboration and future thinking for your stakeholders as you meld cultures.

M&A activity is a major driver for rebranding, but it’s not the only one. Many companies rebrand when there is a strategic shift, such as entering new markets or moving up the value chain in their product line, a market evolution or competitive pressures, modernizing an outdated brand that begins to feel out of touch with the market, or in response to feedback from customers and stakeholders.

When done well, rebranding brings fresh energy and a new story to the market, which can accelerate growth. A unified brand can also streamline marketing activities and create new leverage across divisions.

Launch helped one company merge 15 divisions into one new brand name. One year later, they had achieved 4x EBITDA from effective, streamlined sales, marketing and operations.

See more of our work.

Effective rebranding requires a full audit of existing brand assets, templates, and activities, a strong strategic plan, stakeholder input and buy-in, and well-coordinated rollout. Take the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of markets and customers and the competitive landscape and gather stakeholder input in a way that invites collaboration at the right point in the process. Don’t go it alone or group-think and the cacophony of voices will derail a rebrand. Expert creative and outside perspectives can keep this process on track.

Success Factors for Rebranding

A successful rebrand is as challenging to quantify as brand equity, as branding lives in the ‘hearts and minds’ of your customers. It is possible, though, to create key performance indicators (KPIs) for the success of your rebranding effort. Customer surveys and interviews, as well as trade publication readership studies, can help you gauge reactions and name recognition. Metrics such as web traffic and social media followers can ensure you’re still building traction. Great brands will create buzz—set up tools to monitor mentions and engagement.

Ultimately you will measure the success of your brand in revenue growth, profit margin and customer loyalty.

To ensure your brand helps fuel your growth and meets your ROI expectations, be sure to:

• Involve legal and finance early to avoid trademark, tax or receivables issues.
• Build a robust brand library to allow for efficiencies and savings.
• Include key messages and brand tone.
• Remove the stragglers. Outdated logos on employee swag, facility signage, or other often-forgotten assets can diminish your impact.
• Think omnichannel and get the message out cohesively. You may need to increase spend to quickly rebuild name recognition.

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