Post Acquisition Rebranding

Successful transactions require important decisions about rebranding— if, when and how to transition an acquired brand. Unfortunately, these brand strategy considerations are often overlooked or only considered after the acquisition. This is partly because there is a lack of relevant historical data for analysis.

A recent study of M&A activity conducted by Landor, a global brand strategy and design firm, revealed some interesting approaches to rebranding along with specific trends by sector.

What they learned:

• More than half of all acquisitions are rebranded within 3 years
• Firms that are highly acquisitive transition brands more quickly
• For deals under $1 billion, brands are changed 78% of the time
• For deals greater than $5 billion, brands are changed only 46% of the time
• Consumer companies are less likely to rebrand
• Energy and utilities companies are the quickest to rebrand
• In mergers of equally sized companies within the same industry, rebrands occur approximately 40% of the time

This M&A brand study provides CEOs, corporate strategists and M&A advisors with a benchmarking tool. It reveals which strategies result in the most successful acquisitions.  The most valuable takeaway is the importance of considering brand strategy throughout the deal process—not as an afterthought.

Source:

“First Quantitative M&A Brand Study of S&P Global 100 Shows 74 Percent Rebrand Post-acquisition; Sector, Deal Size and Appetite Key Factors”, Markets Insider, Global Newswire, October 10, 2017, http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/First-quantitative-M-A-brand-study-of-S-P-Global-100-shows-74-percent-rebrand-post-acquisition-sector-deal-size-and-appetite-key-factors-1003667339.

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