As we like to put it, “Ideas move people, and people move business.” Engaged talent matters. Businesses with high-performing teams—people who are both skilled and adaptive, personally committed and professionally accountable—enjoy a clear edge over competitors. But for employers, the post-pandemic War for Talent is here. And per Forbes, it’s…
One logo does not always translate to one cohesive brand. One of our clients, a global management consulting firm, learned this first hand. After a series of acquisitions and internal restructuring, management was focused on creating a “one firm” mentality, hoping to create synergies across a diverse array of practice areas that would lead to…
What is brand behavior? Simply put, brand behavior is how your brand interacts and reacts with real customers in the real marketplace. While your positioning statement may say one thing about your values and strengths, truly demonstrating them is another matter.
A missed opportunity
Picture this. You’re sitting at your desk flipping through a…
From a business perspective, few things are as critical to get right as a major merger or acquisition — and few things are as challenging.
On the long list of considerations during M&A activity, merger branding is one of the most crucial. Not getting the brand right is a key reason that, according to…
The ironic thing about your brand’s image is that you can’t actually see it. Image as it relates to your brand is a metaphor, an idea meant to conjure up the assured sense of truth that comes with witnessing something concrete (and hopefully positive) with your own eyes. Your customers can’t see loyalty, trust, or any other quality, but an effective brand strategy can help them make the connection. First though, you’ll need to learn to see these qualities yourself.
When two companies come together, whether through a merger or an acquisition, they almost invariably rebrand to reflect the combined strengths, value proposition and vision of the new entity. But a merger or acquisition is typically a process that can last months or even a year or more. During this period, a company’s customers…
It’s the classic chicken or egg question — which element comes first when aligning brand and culture? Leadership teams often ask us this question during transformation initiatives. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer, there are three critical questions that any leadership team must answer to understand how to begin optimizing the relationship…
When a company makes a major strategic pivot, such as M&A or entering a different category, leadership often ponders a new name, design language, and messaging. These are all important considerations, but too often one of the most crucial underlying aspects of a customer’s experience is overlooked—the company’s brand architecture…
Few would dispute that the world in which we live and work is changing at an extraordinary pace. In this dynamic landscape, business executives face immense pressure to not only survive – but thrive. In other words, they have to keep up with the pace while bumping up profits.
Continuous innovation is a strategy we hear…
According to the Harvard Business Review, “study after study puts the failure rate of mergers at somewhere between 70-90%.” More often than not, brand is not promoted or leveraged to provide unity, clarity and solidarity during this critical inflection point, yet brand can make all the difference between success and failure for the companies…
Much has been written about ‘key man’ risk — the danger for corporations that rely on one or a few individuals — and its impact on business value. Fashion firms with a celebrity designer, for example, or asset management firms with a star investment manager, are particularly vulnerable. Yet, even large, global firms can be exposed.
In…
IPOs represent a time of unique opportunity and challenge – the chance to make a meaningful first impression with prospective investors, partners and even recruits; to take the company to the next level and achieve major growth goals; and to go head to head with more established players. Not surprisingly, IPOs can be deeply unsettling for…
From the movies we watch to the friendships we develop, loyalty is a quality that plays out in culture, life, and, of course, business. In a crowded marketplace, brand loyalty is something that many companies strive to cultivate among their customers. But what if these organizations could take the concept of brand loyalty even further…
In 2015, a year marked by unprecedented M&A activity in the technology industry, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (itself a spin-off) made headlines with its announcement of plans to spin-off its technology services operations and merge them with those of Computer Sciences. As then-Chief Executive Meg Whitman told it, the deal was…
Keeping the world safe from cybercrime is big business. In 2019, the cybersecurity market totaled $112 billion annually. By 2027, the market is expected to swell to more than $282 billion annually, an annual growth rate of over 12 percent, according to Fortune Business Insights. The reasons for this massive growth include the increasing prominence…
As behemoths are built, so do they separate. Corporate spinoffs are often in the news these days. From Bayer, to HP Enterprise, to DowDupont, many major conglomerates are spinning off divisions in hopes that narrowed focuses will result in easier management—and thus, higher profits. Siemens AG is one of the most prolific dismantlers, carving…
Hospitals today are investing billions of dollars: purchasing, acquiring, merging, integrating, upgrading, all with the goal of improving patient care at an affordable cost. But to get the most out of these investments – to connect with patients, healthcare professionals, and the communities they serve – hospitals must invest in, and leverage, one of their most important business assets: their brand.
A lot has been written about the ‘prolonged demise’ of Yahoo, which is still puttering along, despite its purchase by Verizon Media in 2017. The internet company has suffered a tumultuous and tiring 25-year identity crisis. This was perhaps most famously crystalized in the leaked “Peanut Butter Manifesto,”an internal memo from 2006 that…