If you’re looking for help with branding and marketing for a merger or acquisition (M&A), you’ve reached the right place. This article details the process of what experienced M&A branding agencies offer companies undergoing a merger or acquisition. As an M&A branding agency, Echo-Factory has helped over 30 businesses navigate their merger or acquisition process, learning a thing or two along the way. We are happy to share our M&A branding experience with those looking to succeed in their M&A process, increasing your chances of success and overall valuation.
An M&A branding agency is a specialty marketing agency with deep experience in building and communicating brand value and purpose in three distinct stages:
- Before the merger and acquisition
- During merger and acquisition event
- Following the M&A event to drive growth
Before the M&A
A typical exit strategy for CEOs is to build their company large enough to become an acquisition target or acquire another company in their market. To accomplish either outcome, the CEO aims to increase its brand valuation and awareness by increasing KPIs such as top-line revenue, market penetration, profitability, customer lifetime value, and profitability.
Ideally, if your company wants to be acquired, it should begin planning to be acquired at least a year before becoming a target. Companies acquiring other companies, including those in private equity, wish to see year-over-year growth in key performance indicators for maximum valuation.
During the M&A
During an M&A, agencies often guide the creation of iconic new logos, color palettes, and typography, but more experienced agencies also help develop powerful messaging to accompany them. Most importantly, these agency deliverables should all be primed to support the new organization’s strategy for success following the launch of the new brand.
Unfortunately, most companies focus only on brand strategy and identity components during mergers or acquisitions. While these two areas are essential, some companies do not dive deep enough into the new brand’s internal values, vision, and culture. In these situations, we ask, “How does the new brand operationalize its new values, vision, and culture to its employees, customers, and partners?”
For example, we helped two aerospace companies, Avio-Diepen and Kapco, merge into a new company, Proponent. Even though the two companies served similar markets and customers, they had significant internal cultural differences stemming primarily from geographical norms: Kapco was headquartered in California, while Avio-Diepen operated from the Netherlands.
To assist, we created a 12-month internal campaign that included learning modules, videos, discussions, and presentations to help build new shared employee missions, values, and cultural teamwork that could support Proponent’s growth potential. The result? Proponent is now the world’s largest independent, employee-owned aircraft parts and supplies distributor, with more than 500,000 priced parts available for same-day shipping worldwide.
Following the M&A
Once the new brand has launched, it is time to achieve the goals behind the new brand and navigate expected or unexpected challenges. Brand-driven growth should guide the company toward its goals.
Key Services Offered by M&A Marketing/Branding Agencies
There are five core branding services offered by marketing agencies, not all of which clients need for every situation. Still, these are the most common services companies need for a successful M&A activity:
1. Brand Research and Analysis
At Echo-Factory, we start by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both brands, considering competitive positioning, customer sentiment, and current brand equity in the market. You might think you’ve already mastered this. Still, you would be amazed at how often we uncover customer impressions that help identify weaknesses (and opportunities!) that lead to stronger messaging and better branding.
The key deliverables with this service include a brand audit.
- Brand Audit: Analyze both companies’ brand equity, strengths, and weaknesses.
- Market Research: Understand customer perceptions of both brands and the competitive landscape.
- Internal Analysis: Assess the internal culture, values, and vision
Brand research and analysis can be helpful if your company wants to be acquired. It will help identify where your brand needs to be improved to maximize valuation when another company acquires it.
2. Strategic Brand Integration: Brand Architecture
Part of this process is determining how the new organization will transform. Will one brand entirely absorb the other brand by removing its name? Will both brands continue to operate independently? Or will they present to the market as an endorsed brand, part of a house of brands? Will elements of both brands combine to create a new hybrid brand? Will the brands develop an entirely new name? In short, what is the brand architecture?
Often, organizations have an idea of how they want this to end up, but at Echo-Factory, our guided development has helped stakeholders rethink possibilities and act with increased confidence.
The key deliverables in brand strategy development are:
- Define the New Brand Identity: Determine the new company’s mission, vision, values, and positioning.
- Choose a Brand Architecture: Determine whether to retain one brand, keep both brands or create a new brand based on the strengths of the new entity.
- Develop Key Messaging: Craft clear and concise messages that communicate the value proposition of the new company.
3. Rebranding and Relaunch Strategies
Once you’re sure about the kind of organization you’re creating, the rebranding process develops the fun stuff, like a new name, logos, and brand visuals. Agencies play a huge role here, bringing experience, expertise, and diverse creatives to the project. At Echo-Factory, we like to connect this process with an overlapping purpose—employee and cultural alignment.
The key deliverables in brand implementation are:
- Create a Visual Identity: Design a new logo, color palette, typography, and other visual elements that reflect the new brand.
- Develop Brand Guidelines: Establish clear standards for how the brand should be integrated across all touchpoints (website, marketing materials, communications).
- Communicate the New Brand: Announce the merger and the new brand to employees, customers, and the public and why it benefits all audiences.
- Implement the Brand Across All Channels: Update all marketing and communication materials to reflect the new brand.
4. Employee and Culture Alignment
Regarding strategic brand integration, great marketing agencies do a lot of heavy lifting and catalyze to keep the whole process moving. At Echo-Factory, we bring plenty of ideas, but our favorite strategy is to iterate fast while including key leaders from both organizations.
We generate better ideas when we work with your teams. Our guided collaborative effort creates new company pride and personnel with stakes in seeing the merger succeed. We end up with outstanding employee buy-in and clear customer messaging.
When multiple people within your organization have a hand in the creative process around brand development – guided, of course – you can achieve outstanding buy-in and excitement for the new organization going forward.
— Mike Schaffer, Echo-Factory CEO & Founder
5. Internal and External Brand Communications
This final stage in a rebrand process with an M&A event is one of the most dangerous: If you want your merger to get off to a slow and lumbering start, skimp on internal and external communication.
On the other hand, companies that plan internal communication with employees while also planning extensive communication and marketing to partners and customers launch much faster with higher employee morale and increased customer and partner confidence.
The key deliverables in brand communications management are:
- Monitor Brand Performance: Track critical metrics to measure the success of the rebranding effort.
- Maintain Brand Consistency: Ensure the brand is used consistently across all channels.
- Evolve the Brand: Adapt the brand as needed to reflect the company’s changing needs and the market.
At Echo-Factory, we treat each M&A rebrand project as the start of a lifelong relationship. While not every project leads to long-term engagement, we want every client to launch with pride and enjoy working with us along the way.
— Mike Schaffer, Echo-Factory CEO & Founder
Navigating Your M&A Branding
Echo-Factory has helped companies navigate over 30 merger and acquisition events, including rebranding a half-dozen organizations into a newly combined brand. If your brand is planning for—or going through—a merger and acquisition, let’s discuss how to guide your team through a successful M&A brand transition.
