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Two great tastes?
Brand mergers aren’t always as easy as peanut butter + chocolate
A few weeks ago I was traveling back to the heartland, flying on a Continental plane. Reading pretty much every page of the in-flight magazine (I forgot to bring a book), I came across this Chairman’s Letter, in which Jeff Smisek called the Continental–United airlines merger “a merger of equals.” The “world’s most comprehensive network” will be “[f]lying under the United name with the Continental livery, logo, and colors,” he continued. That sounds simple enough! How hard could that have been? (In another statement, Continental spokeswoman Christen David said, “This combination is a true merger of equals bringing together the best of two great organizations. Accordingly, the marketing brand combines brands of both companies.”) Would that it were so easy.
If you’ve ever been involved with any kind of merger between two brands, you know it’s not at all easy, regardless of either party’s relative brand or economic strengths. There’s rarely a “right” answer to any single question. Say what you will about how imaginary or ephemeral the effects of branding are, brands and brand identities immediately become partisan battleflags when they’re threatened with annihilation. Something has to come out on top, which means something else doesn’t—i.e., loses—and no one likes to lose.
An excellent article by Julie Johnsson in the LA Times (you can find it elsewhere, too) investigates many of the brand issues tied up in the merger. It compares the merger to a wedding, but it’s more like two parents creating a child—and disappearing. We’ll be able to see their characteristics in the new creature, but in a novel mix. Each company spent a lot of money investing in the brands it has today, and they shouldn’t leave behind any more equity than they have to. The new company can’t afford to start from scratch. More than just choosing a logo, there is an array of symbolic and practical challenges to meet. Will the new airline (for in reality it will be a new airline) invite you to “Work hard. Fly right”? Will it still be “time to fly”? Or will its main message be something new altogether? For seasoned travelers who tend to develop loyalties, the colors, messages, and jingles are emotionally freighted. And the 80,000-strong company has to throw out a lot of stationery (and brochures, and websites, and sign)…oh, and repaint all the planes.
To be sure, there’s a lot more than branding that will decide how the new airline comes out the other side of this transition. But if the new company is a thoughtful steward of its emerging brand, the brand can help the company—
- Honor the long heritage of both United and Continental
- Retain customers and attract new ones
- Navigate through complex executive and shareholder politics
- Engage and motivate employees
- Make good resource allocation decisions
From a branding perspective, “a merger of equals” is the worst possible case. King Solomon wouldn’t be able sort it out. In this case, two famous logos went in, and neither walked out. There is no solution that won’t engender complaints about who lost. Kevin Masi, a Chicago branding expert, is quoted in Ms. Johnsson’s article: “Rebranding is an opportunity and requirement to communicate to the marketplace.” That’s exactly right. The new company has to do it, and if they stick to their guns (and do everything else people expect an airline to do well) they will build a strong brand, and this moment will become yet another footnote in their corporate history—remembered as a case study only by design and marketing types.
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It’s easy to be skeptical in advance (and also fun) but this sounds like it will be a branding Frankenstein. “Let’s take your name, our logo and….It’s alive!”
If you look at the visual branding objectively, I don’t think it will appear to be a monster…at least, what little they’ve leaked out only bears a resemblance to the past systems. If they aren’t decisive about with brand attributes / elements to jettison, though, the overall brand expression could appear inelegant. We’ll see; I predict they will achieve the new normal in a year.