Rewriting your brand story: Strategies for Mergers and Acquisitions

“Same great service.”

“Business as usual.”

As a marketing leader guiding your organization through a merger or acquisition, you face immense pressure to emphasize continuity. These well-worn phrases may calm immediate fears, but is maintaining the status quo the right strategy for your merger and acquisition? Are you risking telling a tired story that conveys a bland, indistinct message because you’re compelled to play it safe?

A merger or acquisition opens the door to transformative possibilities, creating a unique moment to craft an ambitious new story about your shared future. Your customers want to know how this merger will make things better, not how it will keep things the same. -And your brand should tell that story.

Instead, it’s important to craft a compelling narrative that expresses the intention and feeling of your new brand to signal how your merger or acquisition benefits your customers. By reimagining what’s possible beyond combining portfolios and balance sheets, you can craft a powerful story that energizes stakeholders with enhanced capabilities and expanded horizons. This creates a substantive vision of what you can achieve together that neither organization could accomplish alone.

Crafting your shared purpose

While financial metrics and operational scale often drive M&A decisions, lasting success requires establishing a shared purpose that resonates on a deeper, human level. This means articulating why your organizations are better together, and how this creates meaningful value for all stakeholders.

When defining your new shared purpose, start by examining what each organization uniquely brings to the relationship. Look for authentic cultural strengths and values that can be amplified together. Consider questions like:

• What larger impact can we create by combining our expertise?
• How will our integrated capabilities solve customer challenges in ways neither organization could achieve alone?
• What new possibilities does this unlock for employees, customers, and communities?

This shared purpose becomes the north star that guides integration decisions and helps employees from both organizations rally around common goals. It should inspire your people to see beyond immediate operational changes to the bigger opportunity of creating positive change together.

The transformative power of a fresh start

While identifying your shared purpose is essential, how you express it through your brand identity is equally crucial. The degree of visible change in your brand should align with and amplify your new organization’s vision—whether that means thoughtful evolution or complete reinvention.

When offshore drilling companies Ensco and Rowan merged, they initially planned to take the conventional route of combining their names into “EnscoRowan” to preserve brand equity and convey continuity. However, leadership recognized an opportunity for transformation and made the bold decision to retire both legacy brands and create an entirely new identity: Valaris, with the powerful positioning of “Boldly First.”

Instead of emphasizing what would stay the same—a common M&A pitfall—they created an entirely new narrative focused on strength, valor, and future possibilities. This approach proved successful for three key reasons:

1. It unified the culture by putting all employees on equal footing without favoring either legacy brand
2. It created an inspiring forward-looking message
3. It sent a clear signal to the market about their transformation

The case demonstrates how sometimes the bravest choice in M&A branding—making a clean break from legacy brands—can be the most effective way to unite organizations and inspire stakeholders about a shared future.

Telling your new story

Once you know the story of your new organization, it’s time to determine the right way to share it. Think of your new brand story as a compelling series where characters grow and evolve with each installment. Just as an author plans character arcs that span several books, your organization’s transformation story should unfold deliberately over time, with each phase building upon the last while setting up future developments.

The pace and visibility of your merger or acquisition story should strategically reveal new dimensions of your combined organization’s story—always remembering your “why.” A merger focused on market expansion might read more like a gradual evolution, carefully maintaining the beloved elements of earlier chapters while introducing new possibilities. In contrast, a transformation aimed at category disruption might demand more dramatic plot turns that signal bold new directions to your audience.

This strategic approach helps customers clearly understand how the new entity will better serve their needs, while giving them confidence that their experience will remain stable during the transition. Create a customer-focused communication plan that includes:

• Concrete examples of how combined capabilities will solve customer challenges in new ways
• Stories of early customer successes that showcase the enhanced value proposition
• Clear guidance on what customers can expect at each stage of integration
• Specific ways the merger or acquisition strengthens your ability to meet customer needs, backed by metrics and proof points

Creating effective strategies for mergers and acquisitions requires orchestrating these communications elements like chapters in a story. The task lies in crafting a coherent narrative that both validates the transformation and builds anticipation for what comes next.

It’s time to write your next chapter

A merger or acquisition represents a rare opportunity to excite, invigorate, and chart a bold course forward. The story of your M&A isn’t just about explaining change—it’s about inspiring people to be part of it. Organizations that embrace transformation through thoughtful brand development create space for meaningful customer relationships to take root.

Ready to implement winning strategies for mergers and acquisitions? Download our Mergers & Acquisitions playbook for detailed frameworks, case studies, and actionable strategies to guide your journey.