Mergers and acquisitions are busy, complicated, and often, very confusing. Merging two different cultures, processes and teams, while managing brand implementations or tech stack optimization can stretch teams far beyond what they’re accustomed to. By definition, the concept of “business as usual” goes right out the window.
How do your company’s marketing and brand operations measure up
Now more than ever, marketers are expected to do more with less. Efficient brand and marketing operations are essential to achieving this mandate. Download a cheat sheet of the five characteristics of an effective brand and marketing operations function.
For brand marketing teams going through the M&A process, it can be difficult to find their footing. It can also be challenging to know where to start when it comes to planning for cross team processes, redundancies, or developing innovative strategies for future growth.
Now, you may be wondering: Is the MBO process right for my organization? The answer is a resounding, “yes.” Here are the key reasons you should consider partnering with BrandActive throughout the mergers and acquisition process.
1. It’s never too early to begin planning for MBO
In fact, when it comes to business systems planning during a merger or acquisition, the sooner the better. From marketing on down, the earlier teams can solidify a working brand partnership, the sooner you can fine tune your marketing operations. If you’re wondering how to get started, an Opportunity Analysis can offer the answers you need.
2. An Opportunity Analysis can go a long way
A properly conducted Opportunity Analysis can help you identify gaps in your brand operations (from both sides of a merger) and develop a roadmap for moving forward. The goal? Realizing an optimized future state that ensures the investments you make now pay off down the road.
Questions to ask include: How will the brand merger work? Is one brand absorbing the other, or are they being merged to replace existing brands?
Once a clear picture has been painted, the Marketing and Brand Operations process can help organize a new brand architecture and ensure that all stakeholders are onboard with necessary changes.
3. The MBO process can save money—lots of it
When the reason behind a merger or acquisition is streamlined processes and cost efficiencies, MBO makes even more sense. Following an Opportunity Analysis, an expert redesign of your existing processes can help find smarter ways to achieve operational efficiencies that require less time, money, and effort.
When merging two brands, suites of branded assets, and teams into a single unit, a little business operations support goes a long way.
How? By capitalizing allowable expenses and spreading others out over multiple fiscal years to reduce your burden. We can also help calculate the potential cost savings of rationalizing and streamlining branded assets, vendor relationships, and whatever agency partnerships you may have.
This important step can also empower internal teams to spend more time working on brand initiatives, rather than wading through the complications of merger.
4. Streamlining leads to brand asset optimization
When you’ve got two brands, two suites of branded assets, and two teams merging into a single unit, a little business operations support can go a long way. The BrandActive process can help you find the path forward with repeatable, sustainable improvements to the way you create and manage branded assets for your newly merged organization.
A key piece of the puzzle here may be the creation of a recommendation book that guides the usage of legacy and/or newly created brand assets before, during, or after a merger. From building signage to printed and digital materials, advertising, customer communications and everything in between, a recommendation book reduces the burden on internal teams. It can also unify teams on both sides of the merger.
5. Preserving what works & building integrated processes boosts morale & performance
An additional important aspect of the MBO process is taking stock of what is and isn’t working, brand-wise. By working with BrandActive, you’ll discover which aspects of your brand to carry forward, and what to leave behind. Along the way, you get the help you need to build new processes that ensure your people, process and technology have the support needed to thrive.
We can even help you tap into the specialized skills and resources you need to deliver best-in-class marketing programs that get teams excited to perform at their best.
Let’s make great things happen
Make no mistake, brand building after a merger can be a challenge. But it goes without saying: when everyone understands how a brand supports your business objectives, they’re more likely to embrace it. By engaging with BrandActive’s MBO process, you’re well on your way to success.
