New Focus. New Name.
Since 2012, our firm, formerly Other Division, has been providing strategic marketing services to our technology and software clients. Applying the #leanstartup discipline to our own business, we have been listening to our customers. In recent years, demand has been particularly high for a specialized service …brand integration and unification work as a result of mergers and acquisitions or other brand updates. So, we have decided to focus exclusively on being the best brand transition specialists in the marketplace.
What are brand transitions, you might ask (especially if you are my family)?
These are the three most common types of B2B brand transitions.
Company or Product Acquisitions When one company purchases another company with the intent of adding product capabilities to their own brand this is a brand transition. Typically this type of acquisition results in a transition period where the company and product name changes are communicated and the acquired brand names are eventually retired once brand value has been fully transferred. Think Gartner buying Corporate Executive Board. Financial technology (fintech) companies are doing a lot of this e.g. Lending Point purchasing LoanHero and eventually retiring that name.
Corporate Name Change Think Facebook becoming Meta or Google moving to Alpha. Often this is because their company is now offering a wider set of products and they choose a name and corporate messages that reflect now reflect a broader value proposition to their customers than the name they chose at startup. Sometimes name changes are in response to controversy … think Accenture (previously Arthur Andersen, pre Enron scandal) or Washington Commanders football team (previously the Redskins).
Brand Refresh Sometimes company just need to update themselves with a new logo and new messaging to reflect the same company. Often this is in response to the need to look more modern and reflect new capabilities or aspirations.
Just change the name, sounds simple right?
When you are a billion dollar company or maybe a pre-IPO high growth software firm you tend to have your brand … Everywhere. And your c-level leaders have decided to a) spend more bizillions on acquiring something you didn’t have before so now you need to explain that to your customers – new and existing or b) invest in a new image - a new brand - that will better reflect who the company is and the value they provide.
In the case of an acquisition, which are the most complex, the acquired brand company has a lot of work to do to transfer their customer loyalties to a new corporate name and sometimes a new product name. Employees also need to know what is going on along the way so they can inform their customers and the market accordingly. Gaining the envisioned revenue value of the M&A investment, rests on this being done right.
With or without acquisitions, hundreds of activities have to be thoughtfully synchronized, executed and communicated across the organization to make it frictionless (without pain) for your customers, sales partners, staff, etc.
It is all about the revenue.
All of this can be quite distracting to meeting revenue goals that were already underway when the decision was made to change.
These specialized engagements are what we really excel in - making your brand transition well organized, communicated, executed and customer focused. Capturing the value from the investments you have already made.
We constantly learn from our clients. To take a page from them, we are now marketing ourselves to more accurately reflect what we do and the value we provide by now calling ourselves, Brand Transitions.
Visit us here at brandtransitions.com