Reasons for undertaking a major rebranding and repositioning are many: Adjustments to market shifts, competitive advantage, change management, M&As, IPOs. “Wait, M&As and IPOs?” you ask? “Hold on,” you say: “How ever could branding and positioning help drive such major, strategic transformations and advances as M&As or IPOs in the life of a business? No way.” Way.
While some people may still think of their brand as their logo and corporate identity, others fully understand their brand is pure business strategy. And so it is that some forward-thinking, enlightened companies planning M&As and IPOs have opted to use their brand to sharpen their profiles, advance their competitive differentiation and rise up to stand out from the rest. They had ‘primping their brand’ in mind from the get-go, knowing full well the rich, multivalent values a powerful, empowering brand can bring to an offering; can make of that offering.
I offer proof that companies use their brands to seek M&As and to launch successful IPOs from my personal experience. All three cases below feature international companies that followed their business-critical branding projects with IPOs and M&As within 18 months of their completed branding projects. The proprietary nature of these projects and business transactions requires that I can profile these companies, but not reveal their identities.
Case study 1: A national telecom bought for a ’record price’
The company in this case was a state-owned, national telecom that for the first time in its history faced fierce new competition from an international rival, Vodafone, that had recently arrived on their shores. By its own admission, the company had taken its century-old status in the country for granted, posting low market esteem scores (seen as ‘slow’ and ‘inflexible’) and experiencing a divided workforce (‘old’ vs. ‘new.’) They had weathered a failed IPO four years before the branding project and they wanted to go for an IPO for a second time.
Convinced they needed to raise their brand profile if this IPO were to be successful, management embraced a classic Brand Octagon project.
Management was keenly committed to the process throughout, wherein we gave shape, focus and purpose to the entire company and its presence in the country. The project involved over 100 people within the company, over three months, in bespoke, highly designed, and fully integrated phases: Individual, management team depth-interviews, ‘rising star’ workshops with middle management (invaluable, worth their weight in gold), and market checks among consumers and business audiences to ratify results.
Following final ratification with the management team, we also took results through the entire organisation in formal training programs to effect true culture change. As the CMO put it: “I want to get the brand in their souls.” In parallel, management re-launched their brand to their external audiences with a new advertising campaign, a new logo and new retail stores re-designed to reflect their new brand personality.
Within 18 months, this national telecom was bought by their current parent company for a record stock price. Management credited the ‘branding’ in the purchase process for raising their corporate profile in national opinion polls (acknowledged to be a ‘better company’) and for elevating internally their ‘great place to work’ scores; The financial press deemed the purchase ‘well worth the purchase price,’ with the IPO ‘exceeding expectations.’ Most rewarding, management presented their Brand Octagon in their pitch to their new owners to explain the new organisation. The project is detailed in full in an Ivy League university business school case.
Case study 2: A sell-off/sell-back delivers on a new business strategy
This case focuses on a major division of a national energy company. The product of multiple mergers over many years, the division was suffering from internal morale at an all-time low, which was attributed to ‘warring factions’ left over from the mergers.
The CEO and management team understood this was having a serious impact on internal productivity and external competitiveness. While they believed the ‘bad reputation’ of the company was unwarranted, they were concerned about losing ground to the market leaders – ABB and Siemens. The CEO sought to fix their ‘competitive image’ through a ‘culture of success’ and so he and his team embraced a Brand Octagon process to create this culture.
The process they chose was noteworthy and far from standard, as they wanted the organisation to create their own Brand Octagon from the ground up; only a Brand Octagon emerging entirely from middle management ranks, without senior management ‘interference’ would be accepted. And so it was that we created this company’s Brand Octagon in three hours in one afternoon, with 320 global managers gathered together for their annual meeting.
It was quickly realised that this non-standard format required the greater part of 12 weeks of preparation, with a presentation to management team every Monday morning for their approvals. At each management meeting, we shared with them the modules and exercises we were proposing to conduct during the afternoon session, including the entirely bespoke video clips, role plays and interactive challenges we created to meet the demanding objectives and brutal timing. In parallel, we trained 10 moderators to work in pairs, dividing the 320 people into five groups of 65, so that each group could deliver either vision, mission, position, personality or promises to the final octagon.
After a 30-minute review of results with the management team, with minimal amendments, the CEO proudly presented the results back to the entire group at the meeting’s close. The energy, pride and passion the entire group felt was palpable. The risky octagon format had proved entirely worth it.
To the CEO’s credit, he understood that it was the brand that would energise his staff, improve their relations with customers, and bolster morale; and it was this brand, created entirely by the staff, that did bridge these strategic needs. The goal, internal and external alignment, grounded in the Brand Octagon, was documented in significant improvements in employee and customer satisfaction and in new contracts vs. their major competition. Better morale, better alignment, a better company: The division was bought (back) by original owners within two years of this project, the purchase being management’s goal from the start.
