Handling Branding Through Mergers and Acquisitions
With the rise and rise of mergers and acquisitions within the private sector of late, branding is again on the agenda for many professional services firms in Brisbane, and throughout Australia.
Last year’s uptick in the economy drove companies back to M&A as a glorious route to market leadership and swift domination. Examples are all around us, as law firms, project management firms, town planning firms, and property trusts merge and acquire. Yet in spite of the recent activity, a topical report by McKinsey claims that only one in every five mergers and acquisitions actually succeeds. But, despite this, the M&A wagon continues to roll forward.
So why does a company lose significant market share after a merger, and can such risks be mitigated through the solid management of a brand transition to maximise the goodwill purchased both internally and externally?
What happens when two big brands come together either through a merger or through an acquisition? How should the brand strategy of the resulting entity be designed?
The integration of brands, and the evolution of two firms into one co-operative company, is not a short or simple process, and will never be easy, but it can be logical, tactical and planned with precision.
Consider the organizational and cultural synergies within both brands
It has been well recorded in plenty of business writings, that one of the main reasons for the failure of any merger and acquisition is the resulting conflict between the combined entities sales, marketing, and cultural communications strategies.
An M&A can be a great example to demonstrate the innate power of organizational culture. It is often wrongly assumed by companies that the overarching goal of market domination, profitability and growth would tame the egos of either company.
As such, this is one of the most crucial questions that any brand must ask itself before joining hands with another brand. Can the two brands attain cultural synergies?
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