In 2019, two successful, global relief, development, and health organizations joined forces in a historic merger. Following the merger, a third NGO joined the family.
Brand Federation helped the organization’s leadership to develop a merger and acquisition strategy to unify the organization into one culture while retaining the decades of equity each organization had built with critical donor populations. A new parent brand was established, and the portfolio was organized under a comprehensive brand architecture strategy.
A merger doesn’t always mean the disappearance of legacy entities. Our work is strengthened by focusing on the M&A from a business perspective. Brand identity is changed only after we determine it will add more value. This helps decrease risk and ensures key constituencies are heard.
While the overarching brand strategy focused on progressively aligning under a united parent brand, the legacy brands were found to enjoy essential equity—equity that needed to be carefully protected and preserved. Thus, we created a flexible approach that allowed the organization to build and grow without sacrifice.
Our visual identity partners, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, masterfully adopted this strategy in their design. They developed a beautiful, meaningful, and dynamic identity that could be applied across the parent and legacy brands of the organization.
Ultimately, our work was able to ease the integration of two cultures while retaining equity with donors, clients, partners, and governments.
After the first year, internal audiences were aligned and energized under the new parent brand. Having a solid brand and architectural strategy in place has enabled the organization to continue a high growth trajectory, through acquisition and incubation. In 2021, Corus’s world-class brands carried out 104 projects and reached 84.1 million individuals, more than double the impact the organization reported in 2020 (Source, Annual Reports).
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