Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How To Promote Taking Over Of Existing Business

Posted by Robin.kinectpt on 250 Points
I could really use a mentor. I have been promoted to lead the marketing team and have little experience. I feel slightly overwhelmed and wonder how I got here. Anyway we have three physical therapy clinics and are soon to have four. The fourth clinic is an existing clinic that we are taking over. We are buying out the current owner and she is staying on staff as a Therapist. We will change the name with in a couple months of moving in and taking over. How should I roll out this new name change and take over? Should I talk about the current owner staying on or not. We are well known in the area. I am looking for a step by step process to roll this location out. Thank you for any help you can provide.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on Moderator
    This will require more of a deep-dive to understand the business, the market and the way you will measure success. It's not a simple 1-2-3 stock response. Every situation is unique.

    Where are you located? Who exactly is your target audience? What is the name of your business? How is it positioned in your market? Same for the business you are taking over.

    You might want to consider hiring a branding/positioning expert to guide you through this. It's obviously an important decision, and you don't want to be worrying about every detail for months.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on Accepted
    As mgoodman said, each situation is unique.

    One area that impacts this is the value of the name of the old business and the name of the old owner to the clients. If people are used to the old name and look at it as a positive place, then changing the name would add some challenges as you will lose some of the good will that has been built for the old name. Same for the name recognition of the prior owner.

    If the business name recognition was just average, then changing the name could be a good thing. But if it had a lot of positive name recognition, changing the name could lose it. (note - you could possibly save some of it if for a while you put "Formerly xxx-name-business" as part of the name).

    If people came specifically to work with the prior owner, then the fact that she is staying on is good and should be promoted. If they just came to the business and seeing her wasn't a big thing, then it doesn't matter as much.
  • Posted by telemoxie on Member
    My advice: go to your local business library, and check out two or three good marketing books. Cut down on TV watching time and increase reading time. If you read one good marketing book per week, you can learn quite a bit by the end of the summer. I would also recommend going to Wikipedia. I think they do an excellent job of outlining various marketing topics. You can also check out www.quickmba.com. as you dive in and study and read and learn, come back and ask more questions. But please don't expect us or anyone else to do your job for you.
  • Posted by cookmarketing@gmail. on Member
    Company A
    becoming
    Company B
    Same great service
    Thank you Doctor X?

    Run the overlap for 6-12 months then drop Company B name

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