13 min
B2B Brand Merger: Lead Your Firm through the M&A Process Resoundcast - the branding podcast from Resound, a creative agency
-
- Marketing
Mergers and acquisitions can ruin a B2B brand. Even the best-intentioned M&A can take a toll on a brand when rushed decisions lead to a lack of coordination in the culture and a timid approach to the market. I had a conversation with Jaimi Koechel who’s a veteran of both a firm rebrand and a B2B brand merger about how to execute a merger well, from a branding perspective.
https://youtu.be/YjBNFIHU0BU
B2B Brand Mergers: 2 Views
Firms take different views on M&As. Some see it as just an opportunity to expand, adding a book of business and making the firm’s strengths available to a wider audience and geographical area. But while the firm’s management may be thinking about expansion, and making higher-level decisions about naming, the accounting firm marketer’s job is to think about how the brand gets lived out over the course of the merger.
Anyone who’s been through a merger knows that, although the technical aspects of a merger take only months and end when the announcement is made, everyone gets new office signage, new email signature lines, and t-shirts with the new logo, the effects of the B2B brand merger last until everyone understands the new brand.
It can take months and years to get everyone to embrace the new brand, especially when two companies form a merged brand, and two cultures come together.
The Marketing Goal of a B2B Brand Merger
As a marketer, your job is twofold:
End up with a strong brand whose values are understood and mean something, along with the requisite visual and verbal assets and guidance.
Shorten the time between the merger and a strong culture that will consistently and convincingly live out the firm’s values.
We can’t control how quickly people grasp the culture at the individual level, but we can think ahead and make the path clear.
The Remarkabrand podcast was joined again by award-winning accounting marketer and former client Jaimi Koechel to help us understand what’s coming down the pike when two firms form a single, merged brand.
https://youtu.be/YjBNFIHU0BU
3 Decisive Moves Toward Brand B2B Brand Merger Success
I asked Jaimi about some of the challenges accounting marketers face during a merger. How do you maintain the strength of a brand when a merger presents every opportunity to dilute the brand? How do you help everyone make sense of the rebrand and keep them focused on what’s important?
Brand managers face a unique challenge when their firm merges with another firm since planning isn’t always straightforward. How do you make a merged brand that makes sense?
Let’s continue on and talk about things you can do to solidify the brand during a merger or acquisition.
Predict Brand Disagreements
Nobody’s more likely to see potential brand disagreements than you are. As the caretaker of a brand you may have had a hand in developing, you’re likely more aware of the conflicts you see coming. And if you can express your concerns well—and think of ways everyone involved can work together to solve them—you could turn a problem into a big win for everyone—especially you and the firm.
After all, it’s not the order-takers who help the leadership make sense of things. Rather, it’s those people who can solve problems, make decisions and get people working together.
A Few Examples
Whose logo and brand name will we use? Although this decision is usually implied by the structure of the merger/acquisition, it opens up a broader question about the rollout: how will we make this make sense to our clients?
How aligned are the two brands to begin with? Do the voice, tone, mood, and values complement each other, or do they conflict?
Mergers and acquisitions can ruin a B2B brand. Even the best-intentioned M&A can take a toll on a brand when rushed decisions lead to a lack of coordination in the culture and a timid approach to the market. I had a conversation with Jaimi Koechel who’s a veteran of both a firm rebrand and a B2B brand merger about how to execute a merger well, from a branding perspective.
https://youtu.be/YjBNFIHU0BU
B2B Brand Mergers: 2 Views
Firms take different views on M&As. Some see it as just an opportunity to expand, adding a book of business and making the firm’s strengths available to a wider audience and geographical area. But while the firm’s management may be thinking about expansion, and making higher-level decisions about naming, the accounting firm marketer’s job is to think about how the brand gets lived out over the course of the merger.
Anyone who’s been through a merger knows that, although the technical aspects of a merger take only months and end when the announcement is made, everyone gets new office signage, new email signature lines, and t-shirts with the new logo, the effects of the B2B brand merger last until everyone understands the new brand.
It can take months and years to get everyone to embrace the new brand, especially when two companies form a merged brand, and two cultures come together.
The Marketing Goal of a B2B Brand Merger
As a marketer, your job is twofold:
End up with a strong brand whose values are understood and mean something, along with the requisite visual and verbal assets and guidance.
Shorten the time between the merger and a strong culture that will consistently and convincingly live out the firm’s values.
We can’t control how quickly people grasp the culture at the individual level, but we can think ahead and make the path clear.
The Remarkabrand podcast was joined again by award-winning accounting marketer and former client Jaimi Koechel to help us understand what’s coming down the pike when two firms form a single, merged brand.
https://youtu.be/YjBNFIHU0BU
3 Decisive Moves Toward Brand B2B Brand Merger Success
I asked Jaimi about some of the challenges accounting marketers face during a merger. How do you maintain the strength of a brand when a merger presents every opportunity to dilute the brand? How do you help everyone make sense of the rebrand and keep them focused on what’s important?
Brand managers face a unique challenge when their firm merges with another firm since planning isn’t always straightforward. How do you make a merged brand that makes sense?
Let’s continue on and talk about things you can do to solidify the brand during a merger or acquisition.
Predict Brand Disagreements
Nobody’s more likely to see potential brand disagreements than you are. As the caretaker of a brand you may have had a hand in developing, you’re likely more aware of the conflicts you see coming. And if you can express your concerns well—and think of ways everyone involved can work together to solve them—you could turn a problem into a big win for everyone—especially you and the firm.
After all, it’s not the order-takers who help the leadership make sense of things. Rather, it’s those people who can solve problems, make decisions and get people working together.
A Few Examples
Whose logo and brand name will we use? Although this decision is usually implied by the structure of the merger/acquisition, it opens up a broader question about the rollout: how will we make this make sense to our clients?
How aligned are the two brands to begin with? Do the voice, tone, mood, and values complement each other, or do they conflict?
13 min