Question

Topic: Branding

Brand Consolidation - Where To Start?!

Posted by Anonymous on 5/7/2012 at 3:44 PM ET 250 Points
I have just started a new role and have been asked to look at consolidating the brand of two companies. I work for the holding company and we also have a trading company under a different name. The issue we face is that the trading company is used exclusively in the UK but the same set of products is marketed under the holding company overseas. I have no intention of changing the names of the products which remain consistent worldwide and are well known in their field. It's how I approach which company name we should trade under and what process I need to go through to establish that and therefore justify the decision to the board. Any help or guidance would be much appreciated.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Andy Fracica, MBA on 5/7/2012 at 3:59 PM Member
    Hi Gemma,

    If I understand your question, it is that you have two companies selling identical products and you need to decide with company name to trade under.

    This may seem simplistic and without much background information, I'll go this route. Look at your target audience and ask them which name has more meaning to them. If your holding company is more recognizable use that name if the other company has the better name recognition use that one. If neither company has good recognition, then pick the one you like best and go with that one.

    Naturally there are other factors that you must consider but without knowing the background it is hard to give you a highly detailed answer.

    I hope this helps somewhat,

    Andy
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 5/7/2012 at 7:35 PM Member
    I agree with Andy - you want to see what name has more value to your company through name recognition with customers.

    One thing to watch for is that the different company names in the different markets have built up brand recognition, so changing the name in one may confuse customers and/or cause lost sales. You want to think through the process, and perhaps use a stepped process like adding the new name in along with old name as a intermediate step.

    Also consider what the reason is behind changing names. What pain is your business feeling by having the two names? What is that costing you? Compare this to what it will cost you to make the change. Sometimes it is better to leave things as they are.
  • Posted on 5/8/2012 at 8:48 AM Moderator
    What is driving the need to consolidate? What do you hope to accomplish with that?
  • Posted on 5/8/2012 at 9:05 AM Author
    The two brands for the companies are quite different. The product brands are the same but the company logos etc are different and it looks as if it's two separate companies with no link.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/8/2012 at 3:44 PM Accepted
    Dear Gemma,

    Let's clarify a few things.

    The product is the thing in the box or the bottle. It's the item being bought and used by the customer.

    The logo is the corporate look of the company on the shelf in the store and in the all the advertising, marketing, and merchandizing.

    These two things combined are not the brand.

    The brand is subtle, deeper, and more meaningful.

    The brand is the promise of the marketing. It's the feeling of being taller, thinner, faster, prettier, smarter and so on-it's the quality or trait acquired or taken on as a result of having paid for the product and as a result of having used the product.

    Brands are mostly feelings and values felt and weighed in the mind of the customer.

    The brand is the visual and neural association that's the sum total of all the packaging, marketing, messaging, and promising that the goop in the bottle or the thingy in the box passes on to the buyer.

    If your products are well established in their varies locales, consolidating two into one might just kill off the weaker sibling because it may well be rejected in the mind of the consumer as somehow being lesser, or inferior.

    In terms of long term profitability, the better bet might be to focus on the product that's traditionally brought in the higher revenues in whatever market it's been offered in. This might not please everyone but it will retain higher sales in one region, even if it's at the loss of lower sales in another. Either that or look at the longevity and popularity of the two brands and ask yourself which one has the stronger hold, emotionally, in the minds of buyers.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Princeton, NJ, USA


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