Kate spent a decade in market research, living through an MBO, an acquisition by a Belgian firm, and the subsequent integration of multiple further acquisitions before leading a global rebrand across 23 locations. She's been on both sides of the table and brings hard-won, practical experience to every stage of the brand transition conversation.
Rebranding and M&A: Managing brand identity through change
For more insights on this webinar, read the blog post.
A rebrand or acquisition doesn't end at launch. The brand decision is made and the new identity is approved. Then hundreds or thousands of people have to use it correctly while the business keeps running and customers keep paying attention.
In this on-demand webinar, James Wayne of Exclaimer talks with two people who have done the work. Elisabeth Goosens has led brand communications through two brand transitions at Exclaimer. Kate Rhodes went through a management buyout, an acquisition, and a global rebrand across 23 locations.
They cover the brand decisions that get made too fast, the emotional side of change that plans leave out, and the touch points nobody remembers until after go-live. Email is one of the highest-volume brand touch points a company has, and it is often one of the last to be updated. The session also looks at the compliance and reputation risk of sending email under an outdated company name, and at how marketing and IT can share ownership of governance.
The Q&A covers when brand decisions need to be made and who should own them, plus how to bring employees along when a change feels like a loss.
You will leave with practical guidance, whether you are mid-rebrand, mid-acquisition, or can see a change coming.
What you will take away
A rebrand is more than a visual refresh. Strategy, internal alignment, and a long list of touch points sit under the logo, and each takes more time than stakeholders expect.
Brand decisions often get made before marketing is in the room. Learn how to build the case for your brand equity early, and why marketing, legal, and IT each need a defined role with agreed sign-off.
Employees need to be brought along, not told. Hear how to acknowledge the sense of loss, give people room to give feedback, and brief them before public launch on what changes and what stays.
Email is where old branding lingers. Updating a template centrally is the easy part. Getting the change onto every outbound email on go-live day is where old logos and entity names persist.
An outdated company name carries legal and reputational risk. In the UK, the Companies Act 2006 requires the registered company name on business correspondence, email included. The session covers what that means when a name changes.
