An agency take on the importance of your brand

Brought to you by Kolbrener, a corporate branding agency. 

A brand is the promise your organization makes to its customers with each and every interaction.

Your brand touches your client in ways you probably never imagined. But even the best implemented and most zealously guarded brand promise must change as your company changes. Whether through merger, acquisition or good old-fashioned growth, the challenge is to make sure that you control the customers' perception of that change. This is what we call Brand Evolution.

Organizations in the midst of change are too often consumed with so many behind-the-scenes challenges that the public face of the organization is neglected. And it's easy to forget that your customer will, in the end, determine whether or not your changes bear fruit.

Therefore, evolving your brand through targeted and timely advertising and marketing is critical. Customers need to be reassured and understand what it all means to them.

Brand Evolution aligns your company's promise with your company's growth, assuring your customer that the promise will remain unbroken.

M&A 60/90 ADDING VALUES TO MERGERS AND AQUISITIONS

Identifying brand assets and building their value is crucial before, during and after mergers and acquisitions.

Kolbrener serves mid-sized businesses in diverse industries, both sellers and acquirers — we know firsthand that branding and marketing impact the success of M&A deals. And that timing is essential. Our rapid response M&A 60/90 Branding programs have one objective: to add value to your M&A activity.

Enhance Brand Value Before M&A

If you plan to sell your business, don't underestimate the impact of brand value on the final selling price—because acquirers don't.Your brand is among your most important assets. An Interbrand/JP Morgan study found that brands account for over one third of company book value.1 Another expert asserts that, on average, a corporate brand accounts for 8.5% of a company's market cap.2

After selecting an M&A advisor to sell your business, you typically have 60 to 90 days to get your house in order before evaluation by private equity firms and acquirers. During this period, Kolbrener's M&A 60/90 Brand Enhancement experts will quickly identify your key attributes, and, working seamlessly with your investment banker or M&A advisor, implement the branding and marketing improvements that will most effectively increase your company's selling value.

Integrate Brands After M&A

Mergers and acquisitions create unique opportunities: expanded offerings, new markets, economies of scale, better competitive outlook, and more. But studies suggest that up to 70 percent of acquisitions fail to deliver long-term value for the acquirer. If not addressed promptly, post-M&A brand issues—market resistance to a brand shift, brand confusion, incompatible marketing and sales processes, negative perceptions of a deal among customers or employees—can form a "black hole" for a deal's value.

Kolbrener's M&A 60/90 Brand Integration experts will quickly assess affected brands and target markets, then devise and begin implementing a value-building brand integration strategy in the critical first 60 to 90 days after a deal. Our M&A branding, marketing and internal communications expertise help you maximize long-term brand value while avoiding the marketing missteps that cause so many deals to fall short of expectations.

1. Brand Valuation: The financial value of brands (April 27, 04), Interbrand
2. Speaking in Numbers, the Language of Bottom Line Business, David Stewart, University of Southern California (February 7, 2006), A panel discussion presented to the IIR 9th Annual Conference on Returning Marketing Investment
   

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