Mergers and acquisitions have long been a key strategy for businesses across the globe. It’s unfortunate that in reality, the majority of these decisions fail to create value for organizations.
Many factors contribute to failed M&A activity, yet the keys to success often rely on less tangible factors than on just financials or operational integration. In the wake of the countless complex decisions that the leadership team is required to make before, during, and after a merger, core M&A brand choices are often rushed and poorly planned.
Finch Brands has an experienced team of M&A branding consultants that use advanced frameworks for defining optimal M&A branding strategy and M&A brand architecture strategy. Our creative team then uses this strategic direction to bring energized brands to life.
In an merger or acquisition, M&A branding decisions are a principal symbol of the business strategy – a declaration of what the world should expect from the new entity.
M&A brand architecture choices send signals to three stakeholder groups: the customer, the team, and outsiders (investors, partners, etc.). It's important to consider what brand choices say or don’t say.
The right M&A brand architecture approach is situational, based on both the business strategy and nature of existing brand equities.
With many factors to consider and a lot of emotion clouding these decisions, it's often difficult for teams to be objective when making brand choices. Working with an objective M&A branding expert allows for the right business decision to come through.
To activate the full potential of a merger or acquisition, leadership teams must seize opportunity and manage risk across a range of dimensions. Within this endeavor, branding is a critical – and often overlooked – work stream. M&A branding is the process of defining the core elements of the go forward brand(s) and navigating the path to get there.
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The best brands are built from the inside out — engaged and inspired teammates create exceptional customer experiences. So, while developing and launching external communications is crucial to the branding process post-merger or acquisition, it is important to consider internal team members as both information source and target audience within M&A branding processes.
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With key elements in place and the team poised to bring the emergent brand to life in the marketplace, the company can focus on external activation. That means defining a “Day 1” — the date around which externally-facing launch planning will center, and the moment we “go live.”
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The M&A branding process can feel fast and chaotic, and given everything else a leadership team is managing, overwhelming. As such, it is easy to forget the importance of active listening in both defining the right path forward and managing stakeholder expectations and emotions.
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When it comes to M&A branding, the right path forward is unique to each situation. In order to activate the full potential of the deal from a branding perspective, companies must gather insights, build a strategy, and thoughtfully introduce go-forward brand choices both internally and externally.
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After a merger or acquisition, brand strategy acts as a declaration of what the world should expect from the go-forward company. The first glimpse of the new entity, however, is often established through the brand’s architecture.
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Choices around M&A brand strategy or M&A brand architecture send important signals to key stakeholders. These decisions express to employees, investors, customers, and the market, where the entity is headed, what’s changing, and what’s staying the same. Making the right M&A brand strategy decisions is critical to activating the full potential of any merger or acquisition.
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In this episode of the Real-World Branding podcast, we review the 10 different branding options firms have in merger and acquisition situations and discuss how to decide which M&A brand approach is best for your specific situation.
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In this episode of the Real-World Branding podcast, we we look at the need for practitioners to understand the critical role that brand plays in the success or failure of M&A events.
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With 70-90% of mergers failing to create value, this decision carries significant weight. One thing has been abundantly clear throughout – the right M&A brand architecture approach is situational.
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