Painting your brand story: Optimising your visual identity in preparation for an M&A

A strong brand is essential in securing a merger or acquisition (M&A). It's vital that your business clearly communicates the value it delivers to its stakeholders, supported by its values, story, and mission. The real challenge is presenting this in a way that resonates effectively with stakeholders.

Visual identity is your first point of engagement

The visual identity of your brand acts as the initial engagement point with your audience. It is showcased across all key touchpoints—from packaging and marketing collateral to large-scale campaigns and customer experience touchpoints like websites, apps, and physical spaces. Ensuring these elements are perfectly aligned and compelling is crucial.

Your visual identity should integrate your logo design, colour palette, and typography to resonate with your target audience, including potential M&A partners. This not only differentiates you from competitors but also communicates your brand’s key messages effectively.

There are many strategies your company can use to start visualising the brand, but as your ultimate goal is to increase commerciality to attract a buyer/partner for an M&A, it's important to ensure they are creating the visual identity strategically. Ultimately, it’s your stakeholders who shape your business, so your visual identity should be optimised for them.

Optimising Key Visual Elements

— Logo Optimisation

Redesign your logo to reflect both the heritage and future aspirations of your brand. This involves simplifying the design to ensure it is versatile across various mediums while incorporating elements that signify your brand's core values.

Example: If your logo is outdated or too complex, consider a redesign that simplifies shapes but integrates an element that represents growth, such as an ascending line or arrow. This symbolises forward momentum and innovation.

Use the new logo across all platforms (digital, print, product packaging) to maintain consistency.

— Typography

Select typography that reflects your brand's personality and is legible across various uses. It should complement your logo and colour palette, providing a cohesive look across all communications.

Example: If your current typography is too ornate or difficult to read, switch to a cleaner, modern font that scales well across sizes and devices, like Helvetica or Open Sans for body text and a distinctive serif for headings to add character.

Implement this typography in all internal and external communications, including digital content, printed materials, and corporate documentation.

— Colour Palette

Choose a colour palette that conveys the emotions and values associated with your brand. Colours should be chosen based on their psychological impact and relevance to your brand identity.

Example: Evaluate your existing palette; if it's not evoking the right feelings or is too similar to competitors, consider adjusting. For instance, incorporate blue to evoke trust and stability, green for growth and sustainability, or orange for creativity and innovation.

Use this palette consistently in your logo, website design, internal communications, and marketing materials to ensure a unified brand experience.

Which touchpoints to optimise?

Consider the touchpoints that matter most to your stakeholders: buyers/partners, employees, and clients/customers. For buyers/partners, optimising brand collateral, physical spaces and digital presence is crucial, showcasing the strength and potential of your brand. Employees, on the other hand, require internal communications channels, employee resources and brand training to foster alignment and engagement. And for clients/customers, every interaction — from product packaging through marketing campaigns to physical and digital customer experience touchpoints — should embody the essence of your brand narrative, fostering trust and loyalty.

Adjusting corporate culture to reflect your optimised brand narrative & values

Aligning your corporate culture with your brand’s narrative and values involves integrating these core elements into every aspect of your business operations. Conduct training sessions and workshops that emphasise customer-centric behaviours or innovation, based on your core values. This alignment not only enhances internal cohesion but also makes your brand more attractive to potential partners by demonstrating a well-defined and stable culture that supports easier post-M&A integration.

Packaging & equipment

Consider redesigning your packaging to reflect the new visual identity, using distinctive designs and high-quality materials that stand out on shelves and convey the uniqueness of your products. For equipment, custom decals or wraps showcasing your brand’s logo and colours can visually align your physical assets with your brand identity. Such enhancements not only improve customer perception but also demonstrate to potential M&A partners your commitment to quality and attention to detail.

Internal documents & processes

Revamp internal documents, such as employee handbooks and operational manuals, to consistently use the brand’s visual elements. This helps reinforce the brand identity internally and turns every employee into a brand ambassador. Professionally branded documents make the due diligence process smoother for potential M&A partners, showcasing your company’s professionalism and thorough organisation.

Digital presence

Overhaul your website and mobile apps to feature new visual elements and improve user interfaces. This not only enhances user experience but also showcases the company's achievements and offerings in a visually engaging manner, making a strong case for potential M&A discussions.

What content to optimise?

Once you’ve identified the touchpoints which need optimisation, consider what part of your brand narrative these should be reflecting by asking yourself what each of these stakeholder groups cares about most in relation to your brand and the potential M&A it could undergo. 

While this will likely differ for each individual brand, it’s safe to assume for potential buyers/partners this will often be things like vision, mission and values, benefits and opportunities, roadmap and timeline. For employees, this is likely to include clarity on changes associated with the potential M&A, vision, mission & values, cultural alignment, support, and open communication channels. For clients/customers, consider optimising to communicate about continuity of service in relation to the potential M&A, enhanced offerings, consistent communication, personalised to their needs, accessibility and support. By facilitating this communication visually, you’re making it more accessible, more memorable, and more captivating to the right people. 

Ultimately developing your brand’s visual identity is about giving equal attention to the creative and the strategic when applying visual storytelling techniques. As you embark on the journey of visualising your brand narrative, consider how each visual element contributes to the overarching story of your brand, and how it resonates with your audience on an emotional level. 

A strong visual identity can be the differentiator that sets your brand apart in the process of securing an M&A buyer/partner. By infusing your brand narrative into every visual touchpoint, you're not only increasing your commercial appeal, but also laying the groundwork for a future built on trust, loyalty, and shared vision post-M&A. 

If you need assistance in maximising the power of design in preparation for the M&A process, reach out to ettyq and make use of our other toolkits for the pre-M&A stage of the process.