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Casual Articles - Branding in the Face of Mergers and Acquisitions
The success of any business depends on the way messages are communicated to existing and prospective customers, competitors, advertisers, suppliers and other people important to the business.Today there are many modes of communication, beginning with the most basic and rudimentary means of word-of-mouth to advertising on the Internet. With so many options in advertising, from the traditional newspapers and magazines to radios and television to the modern phenomenon of the Internet and SMS advertising, how does one know what is best for the product? How should one advertise, in order that the message stands out and reaches the target market? To address needs such as these, there are professional advertising agencies.Professional advertising agencies are external companies that provide for the marketing and advertising needs of other businesses
Brand management is the best investment merging companies can make. Done properly it can help the new entity:
- Increase employee, customer, shareholder and vendor loyalty
- Integrate two companies/cultures/brands effectively
- Influence the perceived value of the effort in the market
- Manage brands more cost-efficiently
- Ensure employee commitment and confidence
- Enhance profitability<Go Get What You Want - Results!Your company is considering a merger or acquisition. You’ve explored the financial and legal ramifications. But do you know what your point of distinction will be post-merger?
I was taught repeatedly in my sales training that if you don't ask for the sale, you won't get it. I have turned this lesson into a life philosophy, and I get what I want most of the time.You have a lot of personal power, whether you know it and exercise it or not. Let's look at an example.Let's assume you have a business plan for 2006 and your marketing plan includes publishing an email newsletter, then putting the articles online at free article databases, networking at 3 groups regularly and advertising in 2 specific publications. You have a pretty good idea of how much these strategies will cost and what kind of return to expect.You get a call from a really good web designer/developer asking to critique and revise your website. If you have the money, your site really needs it and you trust this person to do a great job, you mighToday, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are commonplace. They are strategic decisions grounded in geographic expansion, product and competency diversification, and brand leveraging. While businesses clearly address the associated legal and financial issues, they often overlook a critical component—brand management. Effective brand management goes well beyond the basic marketing tools. It requires an integrated approach to ensure consistency of your corporate message and identity throughout all aspects of your business. Without careful brand management, your M&A effort is vulnerable to failure.
Simply put, brand management helps to secure stability and brand loyalty for your company. You may consider discounting its importance to the M&A process, but be prepared for the possible outcomes:
- Brands are managed inconsistently and brand equity suffers
- Management and staff send mixed messages, creating confusion in the marketplace
- Company image/brand loses value in the market
- Employee morale decreases and turnover increases
- Customers lose confidence and leave
- Competitors steal your best customers
- Shareholder price plummets
Why is brand management frequently overlooked in the M&A process?
- Companies lack the experienced resources to focus on it.
- Organizations don’t realize the need to address it until it’s too late.
- Business leaders neglect it because they are concentrating on financial and legal issues.
Hiring an outside brand management strategist can bring dedicated resources and an independent perspective to the process. That’s why successful companies make brand management a cornerstone in their overall M&A strategy. By incorporating brand management in the early discussions around a merger or acquisition, your organization will come out stronger and more focused. Best of all, shareholders, clients, employees and the public will remain loyal to your brand.
Nearly 50% of all mergers fail to sustain or bolster shareholder value. Why? Because they don’t realize that brand is not an event. It’s a process. A brand management strategy ensures that your business can withstand the challenges associated with M&A, both today and through future market fluctuations. Working with an outside brand management team can help you assess and manage your company’s brand in relationship to specific competitors and the broader industry — a crucial part of any successful M&A effort.
Building Your Point of Distinction Your company builds brand with every customer contact, planned or unplanned. And, every interaction (no matter how insignificant) makes a lasting impression. Each impression combines with all those that have gone before to create your brand. Every gesture, every action, every word — every point of contact with your customer enriches or erodes your brand.
Whether you realize it or not, if you are in business, you have a brand and you must manage it continuously.
An effective brand management firm invests as much time in pre-planning as it does during the M&A announcement and post-announcement stages. They help companies by:
- Understanding the business and what the original brands were intended to represent.
- Aligning this knowledge with actual market perceptions to develop a strategic brand management plan.
- Identifying the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities associated with each company and assessing their impact on the “new” entity and existing business.
- Recommending brand management strategies that will drive the marketing and communication initiatives for the company.
- Researching and evaluating potential acquisition candidates or merger partners by answering questions like:
- “How does the prospect’s brand compare to your company’s brand?”
- “What is each brand’s strongest attribute?”
- “How is the brand relevant to future customers?”
- “Which candidate will best help reach strategic objectives?”
- Should one brand dominate or should a new brand be created?”
- Determining the most beneficial identity for the new company. Maybe it’s keeping one name and getting rid of the other as Cingular did when it acquired AT&T Wireless. Perhaps it’s combining the names like Exxon and Mobil or creating a new name entirely as Verizon did when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged. All have their pros and cons. Cingular had the stronger brand recognition. For ExxonMobil, both companies boasted loyal customers. Keeping both names enabled them to retain both client bases. Bell Atlantic and GTE agreed to create a new wireless business with a single, national brand. In order to affect the change, the entity became known as Verizon.
- Assessing which brands to keep/eliminate and determining the appropriate investment in each. Retaining current brands isn’t always the most effective or cost-efficient approach.
- Implementing a PR/marketing strategy to communicate the merger to employees, clients, shareholders and the public. Brand policies and guidelines as well as training and compliance are critical in helping employees understand and effectively communicate the new brand. Your brand can be one of your most valuable business assets.
- Facilitating the process of merging two cultures. How will the cultures merge? What are the core values and competencies of the new entity? Will the mission or philosophy change? How will the companies leverage the best from each to create a strong point of distinction?
Brand management is the best investment merging companies can make. Done properly it can help the new entity:
- Increase employee, customer, shareholder and vendor loyalty
- Integrate two companies/cultures/brands effectively
- Influence the perceived value of the effort in the market
- Manage brands more cost-efficiently
- Ensure employee commitment and confidence
- Enhance profitability Business Formation Basics
Almost every individual dreams of owning a profitable business. Some may also be interested in an undertaking for the common good, example in case of non-profit organizations. But when we speak of a profitable business, it is not merely inflow and outflow of cash. A lot of detailing needs to be done to make an undertaking profitable.The foremost thing that one needs to decide before undertaking any business activity is the structure of the corporate. A business organization can be a sole proprietorship, partnership or a family undertaking depending on the extent of rights and liabilities that one wants to design. Sole proprietorship is perhaps one of the simplest legal structures. It a one man company. In a partnership, the company is jointly owned by several partners. When a sole proprietor seeks the capital investment from another partner, without
Why is brand management frequently overlooked in the M&A process?
- Companies lack the experienced resources to focus on it.
- Organizations don’t realize the need to address it until it’s too late.
- Business leaders neglect it because they are concentrating on financial and legal issues.
Hiring an outside brand management strategist can bring dedicated resources and an independent perspective to the process. That’s why successful companies make brand management a cornerstone in their overall M&A strategy. By incorporating brand management in the early discussions around a merger or acquisition, your organization will come out stronger and more focused. Best of all, shareholders, clients, employees and the public will remain loyal to your brand.
Nearly 50% of all mergers fail to sustain or bolster shareholder value. Why? Because they don’t realize that brand is not an event. It’s a process. A brand management strategy ensures that your business can withstand the challenges associated with M&A, both today and through future market fluctuations. Working with an outside brand management team can help you assess and manage your company’s brand in relationship to specific competitors and the broader industry — a crucial part of any successful M&A effort.
Building Your Point of Distinction Your company builds brand with every customer contact, planned or unplanned. And, every interaction (no matter how insignificant) makes a lasting impression. Each impression combines with all those that have gone before to create your brand. Every gesture, every action, every word — every point of contact with your customer enriches or erodes your brand.
Whether you realize it or not, if you are in business, you have a brand and you must manage it continuously.
An effective brand management firm invests as much time in pre-planning as it does during the M&A announcement and post-announcement stages. They help companies by:
- Understanding the business and what the original brands were intended to represent.
- Aligning this knowledge with actual market perceptions to develop a strategic brand management plan.
- Identifying the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities associated with each company and assessing their impact on the “new” entity and existing business.
- Recommending brand management strategies that will drive the marketing and communication initiatives for the company.
- Researching and evaluating potential acquisition candidates or merger partners by answering questions like:
- “How does the prospect’s brand compare to your company’s brand?”
- “What is each brand’s strongest attribute?”
- “How is the brand relevant to future customers?”
- “Which candidate will best help reach strategic objectives?”
- Should one brand dominate or should a new brand be created?”
- Determining the most beneficial identity for the new company. Maybe it’s keeping one name and getting rid of the other as Cingular did when it acquired AT&T Wireless. Perhaps it’s combining the names like Exxon and Mobil or creating a new name entirely as Verizon did when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged. All have their pros and cons. Cingular had the stronger brand recognition. For ExxonMobil, both companies boasted loyal customers. Keeping both names enabled them to retain both client bases. Bell Atlantic and GTE agreed to create a new wireless business with a single, national brand. In order to affect the change, the entity became known as Verizon.
- Assessing which brands to keep/eliminate and determining the appropriate investment in each. Retaining current brands isn’t always the most effective or cost-efficient approach.
- Implementing a PR/marketing strategy to communicate the merger to employees, clients, shareholders and the public. Brand policies and guidelines as well as training and compliance are critical in helping employees understand and effectively communicate the new brand. Your brand can be one of your most valuable business assets.
- Facilitating the process of merging two cultures. How will the cultures merge? What are the core values and competencies of the new entity? Will the mission or philosophy change? How will the companies leverage the best from each to create a strong point of distinction?
Brand management is the best investment merging companies can make. Done properly it can help the new entity:
- Increase employee, customer, shareholder and vendor loyalty
- Integrate two companies/cultures/brands effectively
- Influence the perceived value of the effort in the market
- Manage brands more cost-efficiently
- Ensure employee commitment and confidence
- Enhance profitability<Choosing a Hotel Whilst On Businessam can help you assess and manage your company’s brand in relationship to specific competitors and the broader industry — a crucial part of any successful M&A effort.
Traveling on business can be a bit of a drain on resources so you might need to choose the correct hotel. The business traveler needs to keep the following in mind if he doesn't know how to choose a hotel.A hotel located near an airport is ideal for efficient, business-prone travelers. While not as scenic, it's easier to meet a business entourage, do some catch-up work in the business center, and fly out in a hurry. These hotels must have some type of internet access to be business-friendly. Wireless hotspots, direct room modem access, or free terminals in the business center are not just amenities anymore; they're becoming adopted as necessities.Customer service, rated online or spread through word-of-mouth or in the popular press, is important to business people because speed, efficiency, and that little bit of added comfort can make tranBuilding Your Point of Distinction Your company builds brand with every customer contact, planned or unplanned. And, every interaction (no matter how insignificant) makes a lasting impression. Each impression combines with all those that have gone before to create your brand. Every gesture, every action, every word — every point of contact with your customer enriches or erodes your brand.
Whether you realize it or not, if you are in business, you have a brand and you must manage it continuously.
An effective brand management firm invests as much time in pre-planning as it does during the M&A announcement and post-announcement stages. They help companies by:
- Understanding the business and what the original brands were intended to represent.
- Aligning this knowledge with actual market perceptions to develop a strategic brand management plan.
- Identifying the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities associated with each company and assessing their impact on the “new” entity and existing business.
- Recommending brand management strategies that will drive the marketing and communication initiatives for the company.
- Researching and evaluating potential acquisition candidates or merger partners by answering questions like:
- “How does the prospect’s brand compare to your company’s brand?”
- “What is each brand’s strongest attribute?”
- “How is the brand relevant to future customers?”
- “Which candidate will best help reach strategic objectives?”
- Should one brand dominate or should a new brand be created?”
- Determining the most beneficial identity for the new company. Maybe it’s keeping one name and getting rid of the other as Cingular did when it acquired AT&T Wireless. Perhaps it’s combining the names like Exxon and Mobil or creating a new name entirely as Verizon did when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged. All have their pros and cons. Cingular had the stronger brand recognition. For ExxonMobil, both companies boasted loyal customers. Keeping both names enabled them to retain both client bases. Bell Atlantic and GTE agreed to create a new wireless business with a single, national brand. In order to affect the change, the entity became known as Verizon.
- Assessing which brands to keep/eliminate and determining the appropriate investment in each. Retaining current brands isn’t always the most effective or cost-efficient approach.
- Implementing a PR/marketing strategy to communicate the merger to employees, clients, shareholders and the public. Brand policies and guidelines as well as training and compliance are critical in helping employees understand and effectively communicate the new brand. Your brand can be one of your most valuable business assets.
- Facilitating the process of merging two cultures. How will the cultures merge? What are the core values and competencies of the new entity? Will the mission or philosophy change? How will the companies leverage the best from each to create a strong point of distinction?
Brand management is the best investment merging companies can make. Done properly it can help the new entity:
- Increase employee, customer, shareholder and vendor loyalty
- Integrate two companies/cultures/brands effectively
- Influence the perceived value of the effort in the market
- Manage brands more cost-efficiently
- Ensure employee commitment and confidence
- Enhance profitability<Featuring Thousands Of Crabs On A Beach Otherwise Populated By Human Beingsbrand management strategies that will drive the marketing and communication initiatives for the company.
I am not going to go into all the individual commercials shown during Superbowl XLI. I am going to mention a few that seemed to show some strategic or executional brilliance, even if these still failed as a whole.Before I go into them, let me make a key introductory point. There are broadly two kinds of advertising claims. Those that are so obviously true that they require no additional support to be accepted by an audience. And those that make a point that is not easy to accept, and require some support to back up the advertising claim.One thing I noticed to be common among virtually all the ads shown at this Superbowl was the seeming inability of the Advertisers and Ad Agencies, to distinguish between these two kinds of advertising. I will illustrate this point with the following examples that came somewhat toward sound share-increasing - Researching and evaluating potential acquisition candidates or merger partners by answering questions like:
- “How does the prospect’s brand compare to your company’s brand?”
- “What is each brand’s strongest attribute?”
- “How is the brand relevant to future customers?”
- “Which candidate will best help reach strategic objectives?”
- Should one brand dominate or should a new brand be created?”
- Determining the most beneficial identity for the new company. Maybe it’s keeping one name and getting rid of the other as Cingular did when it acquired AT&T Wireless. Perhaps it’s combining the names like Exxon and Mobil or creating a new name entirely as Verizon did when Bell Atlantic and GTE merged. All have their pros and cons. Cingular had the stronger brand recognition. For ExxonMobil, both companies boasted loyal customers. Keeping both names enabled them to retain both client bases. Bell Atlantic and GTE agreed to create a new wireless business with a single, national brand. In order to affect the change, the entity became known as Verizon.
- Assessing which brands to keep/eliminate and determining the appropriate investment in each. Retaining current brands isn’t always the most effective or cost-efficient approach.
- Implementing a PR/marketing strategy to communicate the merger to employees, clients, shareholders and the public. Brand policies and guidelines as well as training and compliance are critical in helping employees understand and effectively communicate the new brand. Your brand can be one of your most valuable business assets.
- Facilitating the process of merging two cultures. How will the cultures merge? What are the core values and competencies of the new entity? Will the mission or philosophy change? How will the companies leverage the best from each to create a strong point of distinction?
Brand management is the best investment merging companies can make. Done properly it can help the new entity:
- Increase employee, customer, shareholder and vendor loyalty
- Integrate two companies/cultures/brands effectively
- Influence the perceived value of the effort in the market
- Manage brands more cost-efficiently
- Ensure employee commitment and confidence
- Enhance profitability<Quality Pool Cueds to keep/eliminate and determining the appropriate investment in each. Retaining current brands isn’t always the most effective or cost-efficient approach.
A good cue stick is the most important part of the game. At Boston tables, pool cues of the best kind and make are produced. The store basically offers three high quality designs of cues: Eliminator Pool Cue, MLB "Eliminator" Pool Cue and NFL "Eliminator" Pool Cue. These cues are available in various colors and weights. Apart from the ethereal white, cues also come in black and the dark red shades of Burgundy. The cue mass usually ranges from 18 to 21 oz. One thing that strings all myriad shapes of cues from the Boston stable is finesse of the final product.If a player has no faith in the pool cue, his performance is likely to suffer. Performance out of a pool cue and the pool cue tip are considered cardinal for any good game of pool. The Eliminator series cues from Boston tables have a superb and smooth stroke. Professionals have professed their lik - Implementing a PR/marketing strategy to communicate the merger to employees, clients, shareholders and the public. Brand policies and guidelines as well as training and compliance are critical in helping employees understand and effectively communicate the new brand. Your brand can be one of your most valuable business assets.
- Facilitating the process of merging two cultures. How will the cultures merge? What are the core values and competencies of the new entity? Will the mission or philosophy change? How will the companies leverage the best from each to create a strong point of distinction?
Brand management is the best investment merging companies can make. Done properly it can help the new entity:
- Increase employee, customer, shareholder and vendor loyalty
- Integrate two companies/cultures/brands effectively
- Influence the perceived value of the effort in the market
- Manage brands more cost-efficiently
- Ensure employee commitment and confidence
- Enhance profitability
Your M&A effort requires a significant investment in time and money. At this critical juncture, take into careful consideration one of the most critical aspects of this effort — your brand. Addressing brand management as an integral part of the merger or acquisition process will help ensure your company’s success and competitive edge in the marketplace. And ask yourself, “What will be the point of distinction for my newly merged company?”
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