I chose Brand Architects because it gave me the business case for putting branding in front of the board. I wasn’t content with moving forward until I understood it and the board understood it, so the board understood they needed to invest in branding. Rather than ‘look and feel’ and fluffy communications, there were proper business-led strategic foundations that were part of the Brand Architects service and proposition.
Marketing Director - Totaljobs Group
Branding makes in my view a major contribution to shareholder value through a combination of clarity of description of what your product and proposition is about and competitive positioning in the market place but also as an enabler to take your team with you to give them a direction of travel to motivate them and to make sure that everyone in the organisation is walking the same talk.
Former Chief Executive of Nuffield Proactive Health
Branding, an essential business tool for M&A's
M&A’s: The Facts
- Brands account for nearly 10% of the value of M&A transaction1
- Brands are one of the few assets that can provide long term competitive advantage1
- 75% of executives cited ‘harmonising culture and communicating with employees’ as the most important factor for successful post-merger integration²
- 67% of survey respondents cited cultural integration as the most important success factor in M&A³
Branding is an under utilised yet highly effective tool to manage risk, protect existing assets and significantly leverage shareholder value.
Although clients typically come to us with a very specific service in mind such as reviewing brand architecture and legacy brands, help with defining a vision, naming issues, cultural realignment, brand consultancy or reassessing brand portfolios, we encourage them to take a wider view of their organisation and the benefits that branding can bring to an organisation undergoing change. By taking a holistic approach, we help our clients realise the true value of M&A: the value of synergies that create a business where 1+1>2.
We drill deeper into the surface of an organisation to ensure we have absolute clarity around the business’s strategic goals, and vision for the future. We understand the pressures on leadership to deliver return on investment earlier and demonstrate measurable value-creation from the M&A process. Our expert and rigorous processes guarantee to deliver shareholder value faster.
A core – and increasingly acknowledged – part of any successful M&A is the smooth integration of corporate culture. As former IBM CEO Louis Gerstner wrote in his book Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance’: ‘I came to see, In my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game. It is the game’. ‘Culture’ as a concept is a difficult thing to define, and even harder to measure. Because of this, the role of culture in an M&A scenario is consistently pushed to the back foot, yet experts explicitly link failure in nearly two thirds of M&A deals to the low priority given to thorough integration of corporate cultures. As the importance of brand equity becomes more and more recognised by shareholders and leadership alike, the role of culture – through which the brand is reflected at every customer touch point – becomes ever more prominent in M&A management. Only when a culture is aligned behind a strong brand and fully focussed on its strategic objectives can corporate culture become a powerful asset for long term competitive advantage.
Full cultural alignment is a perquisite for maximum strategic success, yet little focus is given to the holistic approach required to implement it. Our unique Organisational Brand Alignment™ model works to release the value of every individual for a collectively driven, exceptionally focussed, high-performance culture.
We specialise in:
- Identifying complex brands in times of change
- Designing commercial architectures
- Aligning brands to business objectives
- Harnessing renewed competitive advantage to support business objectives
- Delivering powerful brands
Our role, with M&A clients, is an explicitly committed and supportive one. We take the shareholders’ perspective and develop a brand that creates real and enduring value. Managed intelligently, 1+1 really can equal more than two. Clients value the rigorous objectivity and integrity that ensures we are never afraid to ask hard question or propose new solutions. Bringing clarity, precision and insight to complex and unpredictable circumstances, we hold a mirror up to show a true reflection of the businesses we work with. This newfound focus and realism allows us to use Organisational Brand Alignment to create an aligned brand that resonates deeply with all stakeholders.
Using brand as a tool for value creation during the M&A process is essential for growth-oriented companies to secure sustainable, long term competitive advantage. By restructuring an organisation’s processes and culture around its fundamental strengths and core market opportunities, we create authentic brands that engender trust, empower employees, and differentiate the business challenging and rapidly changing markets.
1Badahir et al, The Financial Value of Brands in Mergers and Acquisitions: Is Value in the Eye of the Beholder?
2Mercer transatlantic study 2004 of execs
3 Economist Intelligence Unit 2006
