Author: Tim Leon

Preparing your Brand for an Acquisition or Merger

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Preparing your Brand for an Acquisition or Merger

Brainstorms

Cost-cutting is a common activity for companies looking to sell or merge. However, one area that companies are investing is branding. Establishing a strong brand position is one of the most powerful, but sometimes overlooked, tools to enhance the value of a company being acquired. And it can provide guidance and direction when integrating and merging companies, helping set the direction for the merged entity moving forward.  

A brand is one of a company’s most important assets, providing a reason for consumers to choose your product or service. It can help generate strong customer loyalty as well as employee pride. A strong brand also generates “curb appeal” for other companies or private equity firms looking to make an acquisition or considering a merger. The brand is a key component for calculating the earnings multiple in the valuation process. Metrics that are important in M&A deals include customer loyalty and brand recognition/dominance in the market.

So it’s no wonder companies going through the mergers and acquisition process invest in developing a strong brand strategy to prepare. The goal is to develop a compelling brand positioning that is consistently delivered across all customer channels and is clearly embraced by employees. This brand consistency and marketplace recognition bring a sense of stability and comfort to a M&A deal.  Strong brands are known for being more profitable and growing quickly, which means they usually sell more frequently.

For mergers, it’s critical to have a plan for how it will be advantageous for the market and for the employees.  What can happen is if one company’s brand is much stronger, it can sometimes be the “north star” for how the merged companies will move forward. Sometimes, both brands have a strong presence and reputation, and they can maintain some of their identity even while operating as one. We at Geile/Leon consider all of these factors when we help companies navigate this transition, whether they are merging or being acquired.  

Our M&A playbook helps companies plan their branding strategy to be the most effective and bring the most value. The following is a list of questions we will address with clients through our Distilled Thinking brand discovery and strategy development process:

  • How do customers and employees relate to each of the brands and what are the individual strengths that each bring to the table?
  • What is the reputation and brand equity of the companies that are entering into the merger or acquisition deal?
  • What is the brand story we are trying to convey both internally and externally during and after the merger or acquisition?
  • Do we need to create a new brand/brand identity or will one of the existing brands absorb the others?

There are many considerations and you want to get it right. Why? Because you only go to market once to introduce this newly formed brand! 

For more information on Geile Leon’s Distilled Thinking Process for companies involved in an M&A deal, contact Tim Leon at [email protected].

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Taking a Trip in Creativity with Cross Country Camera

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Taking a Trip in Creativity with Cross Country Camera

Creative

Stephen Kennedy is a good friend of ours, who we have known and worked with for over 30 years. He specializes in creating environmental portraits and corporate photo libraries all over this country. And for that matter, the world. As Stephen told me, “My camera has always been my passport.” 

 

Nobody can capture people, their personality, and character like Stephen does. What I’ve always admired about Stephen is his ability to adapt and stay relevant in this changing creative and marketing landscape. All of us marketers could learn about the importance of storytelling from Stephen. Especially considering his newest take told in his latest endeavor, Cross Country Camera.

He stopped by our offices on the Hill a few weeks ago and shared some details with us. Cross Country Camera is a 50-state project.  Stephen tells the stories of individual artists by photographing them where they are creating their work or where their work exists. To date, he has photographed 60 artists and just hit the milestone of finishing his 30th state.

For each of the artists, he is creating a documentary photo essay, telling their story visually in these multi-page, beautifully designed portfolios.  Stephen truly captures the artistic spirit of each subject through their interaction with their environment and their creation of their art, giving you a glimpse inside the artist. You can’t put one of these portfolios down because they are so captivating.  We have 5 of these portfolios on the coffee table in our lobby, and people can’t help but pick them up and page through them.

Stephen believes these documentary photo essays bring visual storytelling to a new level and allow him to showcase all of his experiences and abilities – artistry, craftsmanship, travel, and adventure. I couldn’t agree more.

Check out his website at www.crosscountrycamera.com to learn more about his photographic services and see all of the artists highlighted in Cross Country Camera.

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Opinion | St. Louis needs to build a new brand. Here’s what it should say.

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Opinion | St. Louis needs to build a new brand. Here’s what it should say.

Brainstorms

This article is featured in the current issue of the St. Louis Business Journal printed on April 1st, 2022.

I recently received an email from the St. Louis Business Journal inviting me to fill out a survey regarding how St. Louis is perceived in the business community, the challenges of the region, and possible solutions for addressing those challenges.

 As I was filling out the survey, It got me thinking about one solution that is near and dear to me and my profession. And that is how do we consistently and effectively brand our city going forward? When you think of St. Louis, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Some will say the Gateway Arch, others will say the River City or Budweiser beer. Some, especially those who don’t live in our region, might say crime. 

Our brand as a city is all over the map.

Outsiders like travel writers and historians still refer to us as the Gateway to the West. We, too, continue to use that moniker, which refers to the era 175 years ago when steamboats chugged westward up the Missouri River delivering people and supplies to support our nation’s westward expansion. Some argue that Kansas City was the true Gateway to the West, as it was the last civilized stop-off before pioneers ventured west. I’ll leave that argument to historians.

But I think we can agree that “Gateway to the West” is NOT a key message for how we wish to be known today. In an economy in which global trade and next-day delivery have blurred the lines of geography and bring the world to us at the click of a mouse or tap on a smart phone, this slogan doesn’t resonate any longer. Our “brand” as a city could use a refresh. I think it’s fair to say that today we are building toward being the Gateway to the World.

The formation of Greater St. Louis Inc., over a year ago provides a platform to bring forth a unified economic development effort to attract business. In their own words they state: “Greater St. Louis Inc. brings together business and civic leaders to create jobs, expand inclusive economic growth and improve St. Louis’ global competitiveness.”  Hard to disagree with that statement and we see a global theme being echoed with another organization: St. Louis Regional Freightway. Front and center on their website is the line: “The St. Louis Region — One Location. Global Access.” This translates to the fact that St. Louis is highly accessible to all world markets from the middle of the United States. That’s a pretty good place to be!

In addition to attracting business, we need to retain our highly talented workforce and future workforce. Consider what’s happening in the St. Louis region: for a number of reasons, we continue to lose millennial and Gen Z talent to similar-sized Midwest markets like Nashville, Indianapolis and Kansas City.

If St. Louis was a corporation losing customers, a university losing students, or a non-profit losing donors, management would search out the reasons for the losses and address them. They would then work hard to communicate improvements to their stakeholders in order to win them back.

Our city is no different. We have our challenges and we’re working to address them. We also have so many important assets we can showcase: We’re at the confluence of two rivers used for recreation and shipping. We’re a major hub for transportation, tech, defense, agriculture, plant science, medical research, and startups. We have the National Geospatial Agency, NorthSide Regeneration, Cortex, the Federal Reserve, numerous corporate headquarters and heck, even a strong micro-brewery scene. We’re building protected bike paths, renovating beautiful historic buildings, and juxtaposing new contemporary designs between those buildings, all of which urban planners say are highly desirable features.

If we want to attract businesses and talent to St. Louis and retain the younger generation in our region, we need to communicate what we’re doing and why we’re relevant. And we need to do it consistently over every platform and every economic development and tourism entity. Universities, corporations, retailers and nonprofits can help support this branding by including it as part of their marketing presence.

A brand refresh is in order, one that proclaims who we are – with boldness and self-confidence. One that reflects why St. Louis is a great place to live and work. And for those new to St. Louis, let’s blur the lines of city and county to deliver a unified message. We seem to believe St. Louis city and county are different as they operate under separate governmental authority. To the outside world, we are viewed as St. Louis. Period. I know this is a conversation for another day, but we have one brand: St. Louis.  Let’s proclaim our pride in who we are and what we offer the world. Let’s not stay stuck in the past. Let’s live in the here and now and brand St. Louis as the forward-thinking city that we are today.

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Brands making an emotional connection are more important than ever

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Brands making an emotional connection are more important than ever

Branding

As we enter into 2022, brands continue riding the pandemic rollercoaster. Continued surges and the omicron variant cause more turbulence than we anticipated.  Booster vaccinations , increased hospitalization rates, and worker shortages continue to be part of the national conversation.  And that has marketers searching for stability in a sea of uncertainty.

That stability comes in the form of empathy.  Marketers continue to be challenged with finding the right brand messaging as consumers become more and more stressed while also dealing with both the impact of and fatigue from the pandemic, with sentiments seemingly shifting even from week to week.

According to Adobe’s 2021 Digital Trends Report, “empathy is the future of experience.  Consumer empathy will be used as a differentiator with brands demonstrating knowledge of their customers and the unique way they can serve them.”

As brand marketers, we must be hypersensitive to consumes’ emotional states. It’s essential to understand both their needs and the root causes of the emotions that they are experiencing. At G/L, we have been talking about empathy marketing for the past 24 months. At this point, empathy has become imperative if a brand wishes to hold onto market share and brand loyalty.

It’s fair to say that empathy engenders customer loyalty. Brands that demonstrate, day in and day out, that they “get you” will inevitably come out on top. And with the rise of immersive digital experiences and vast opportunities for discussion on social media, brands that can deliver a consistent, pleasurable online experience that connects emotionally will stand out.

How can you integrate empathy into your marketing? It begins with consistently analyzing consumer insights to determine trends and gain insights into consumer behavior. How do you translate those insights into actionable marketing and communications? We advise you to begin with simply using your listening skills and be human as you create and strategize campaigns for your brands.

If you would like to discover how to empathy marketing improve both your brand and the people in the markets you serve, get in touch. We are truly passionate about adding a big dose of humanity to your brand.

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Brands need to take a stand…at least that’s what consumers are saying

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Brands need to take a stand…at least that’s what consumers are saying

Advertising

As our agency has been blogging and posting about for the last 18 months, brands are being asked to take a stand on social, cultural and societal issues that face our world. Studies have shown that brand loyalty can be positively impacted by brands that take a stand on issues. And consumers want these brands not just to take a stand, but also to take action.

It’s a risky thing but this is a growing phenomenon in the changing behaviors of consumers toward brands. A recent study by SproutSocial of 1500 U.S. consumers reported that 70% of respondents believe it’s important for brands to take a public stand on social and political issues. Roughly half the respondents indicated that they would prefer that brands take their stand on social media.

Here’s the real rub. If a brand takes a stand on social/cultural issues, it needs to align with the brand’s values and mission of the organization. More than half of respondents (53%) believe brands only take a stand for public relations and marketing purposes. As we said above, taking a stand can be risky business for a brand. The study reported that 34% of consumers will decrease spending with a brand whose stances they disagree with. Conversely, 36% say they will purchase more of a product if a brand takes a stance they agree with.

If you go back to Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why, the author states that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”  So, the mission and purpose of your brand is something that needs to be clearly articulated. If the causes/stances a brand supports aligns with the “why,” I think your message and actions will ring true. Whether a customer supports the same issues as a brand or not, they won’t be able to say that the brand’s stance doesn’t align with the values the brand stands for.

Helping brands find what to stand for and how to get the message out to their target audiences is something G/L does very well. Reach out to Tim Leon at [email protected] if you have any questions.

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The Addition of 300 words to Dictionary.com

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

The Addition of 300 words to Dictionary.com

General

A recent article from Dictionary.com raised a lot of discussion within our agency about the new words that have been added to Dictionary.com in 2021. Granted, 2020 brought challenges on all fronts and also created a myriad of words as a result of Covid, social struggles, racial injustice, and the ever-changing technology space. Our group had mixed feelings on whether some of these words should really be added to the dictionary or instead should be considered trendy slang words that will be out of fashion by next year.

While I can’t think of a better word to sum up 2020 than “sh*tshow,” I don’t think that term belongs in the dictionary. Call me old-fashioned, but that feels like slang, plain and simple. Also, we are welcoming the new pronoun, “Y’all.” Really? Do people really need a substitute for “you all”?

Other words that have been added feel much more substantial and necessary, such as “ghost kitchen” and “side hustle.” They describe concepts that didn’t previously exist but will most likely have some longevity in our lexicon.

As a marketer, here’s what I do know. It was brilliant for Dictionary.com to publish this article.  It truly brings relevance to their product…and just as importantly, great publicity! They know how to market, and I especially liked the line, “A changing world means a changing language, and a changing language means a changing dictionary.” It’s like the dictionary can release a sequel every year! Happy viewing!

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What next? Let your customers and employees know your plans moving forward.

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

What next? Let your customers and employees know your plans moving forward.

Communications Agency

As organizations are navigating how to operate in this new environment, it’s critical to let their internal and external audiences know what to expect. In these uncertain times, employees and customers want to know there is a plan in place to deal with unexpected business disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Geile/Leon Marketing Communications is helping clients address these challenges. Questions and issues our clients are dealing with include:

Employees

• What happens if a co-worker tests positive to Covid-19?  

• What is the company doing to keep us safe? This is especially important for organizations deemed “essential,” where employees are continuing to come to work.

• How will the company be communicating with me and how often will they be providing me updates?

• What will change while working from home? What solutions will be implemented? Will you be using Skype or Teams to communicate? Read More about making this change here.

Customers

• Will your company’s supply chain be interrupted, and will I still be able to get product?

• Does your company have contingency plans in place to remain operating through this crisis?

• Are you changing hours of operation, ordering procedures, etc. over the next few weeks?

These are just a few of the communication challenges our clients have experienced. Being out front and more proactive in your communications is important, as well as delivering clear and concise messaging. G/L can help you determine a strategy and appropriate communications channels for your audiences, taking into consideration media relations, video, email communications, town hall meeting, video-conferencing, etc.

As we see crisis communications ramping up for our clients, we at G/L are ramping up our service offering to meet their needs. We are partnering with our former client, Tom Lange, who brings a wealth of crisis communications experience from his previous positions as Head of Communications for Union Pacific Railroad (a Fortune 150 company) and as Director-Public Affairs and Communications for Smurfit-Stone (formerly a Fortune 500 packaging company headquartered in St. Louis).  

We are thrilled to have Tom consulting with our PR team and helping us bring proven crisis communications strategy, messaging and plans for clients that will move their businesses forward in the challenging weeks ahead. Just email me at [email protected], and we can set up a phone call or video conference to discuss your communication challenges.

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The New Normal: Empathy

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

The New Normal: Empathy

Communications Agency

Let’s get this out of the way: this is a blog concerning the COVID-19 outbreak. But I’m hoping it provides marketers a simple solution to how to address your marketing and messaging for the next few months. It may not be a cure-all, but there is a way to move forward – a way to adapt your marketing to the new normal and connecting your brand to customers in a way like never before.

It boils down to one word: empathy. 

Now is the time for brands to be empathetic to their stakeholders, their prospects, their long-time customers and their employees. I believe brands can get out in front with a marketing strategy that is right for the times. What do I mean?  Here’s a couple of great examples.

A local magazine Time Out New York is transitioning to Time In New York as their name temporarily to address New Yorkers who are not out on the town, but are hunkering down and staying indoors. Time Out New York’s website is currently emphasizing stories such as “The best takeout and delivery restaurants in New York” and “The 40 best movies on Netflix right now,” as well as “The latest canceled events and closures over coronavirus in NYC.”

On an international level, Guinness sent its loyal fans a special St. Patrick’s Day message in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It was a powerful video and my favorite line was “Let’s not forget that on St. Patrick’s Day, we are all Irish…. But every day, we are all human.” The message being that we have a responsibility to be there for each other during these times. And while this new video was being unveiled, an announcement confirmed that Guinness made a major charitable donation to the on-going efforts to tack coronavirus in the U.S.

So, empathy always wins and we find the best way to express it in our brands by listening to our customers…not just in times of crisis but every day. There’s no great compliment when someone says about a brand, “They really get me.”

So, for the next few weeks, I would ask that you consider a new marketing metric…ROE. Return on Empathy. The brands that will stand out over the next few months with be those brands than can connect with the needs of their customers. And that empathy will result in maintaining/growing market share, increasing customer loyalty, generating high employee satisfaction, and much more. The brands that can lift their customers and their employees up during this pandemic will be remembered for a long, long, time. As the Guinness video so aptly stated, “When we lift a pint of Guinness, let’s remember to lift each other up.” 

Now is the time for brands to rise to the challenge and truly deliver on the ROE. Being an empathetic brand will help you win the hearts and minds of your employees, customers, and the world. And those brands that empathize and show it won’t be forgotten. At G/L, we can help you find the best way to generate ROE for your brand. We’ve done it for many brands and would be happy to share our insights.

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Is Ad Tech Overrated?

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Is Ad Tech Overrated?

Advertising

It seems like every day there’s a new marketing technology that is the new biggest and best thing. And some really are great. At the same time, we marketers are overloaded with new technologies hyped as a “must-have” if we want to survive in the industry. In fact, ChiefMarTec.com added more than 200 new solutions to their list in 2020.

The result? A recent survey found that 18% of respondents said their biggest challenge was simply trying to figure out all of these “must-have” technologies.

It should be no surprise that, according to Marketing Charts, 68% of marketers and brand professionals expect to increase the number of marketing technology providers their brand uses this year. Unsurprisingly, many marketing professionals found quite a few of these technologies riding the wave of ad tech to be wholly overrated.

The article is spot on in identifying that the biggest challenges that these marketing are becoming more and more technology-oriented. However, the biggest problem may just be the skill gaps in their marketing teams. As technology develops so rapidly, that has led to a high demand for those who can skillfully utilize and integrate ad tech. That’s led CMOs to cite data and analytics as not only one of the most needed skill sets, but also one of the most difficult to find.

But let’s look at the big picture. Yes, we should be making full use of the technology available to marketers. Not everything can be solved through technology, but it’s an incredibly useful tool for finding these solutions. No matter what, finding effective solutions for marketing challenges requires tried-and-true thinking, creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills…from humans.

The bottom line is that marketing technology can be amazing. It helps us make decisions and understand data. However, there’s only so much that it can do. If you believe that it’s the end-all, be-all to solving your marketing challenges, then prepare to be disappointed.

That’s what we’re here for. Get in touch and we will find the right solutions and the right technology for your unique marketing challenges.

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Ryan Reynolds and Aviation Gin Strike Again

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Ryan Reynolds and Aviation Gin Strike Again

Advertising

Ryan Reynolds just can’t stay out of our trend discussions.

Leave it to the actor-turned-ad-mogul to find a clever and timely way to create an online video for his Aviation Gin brand. Online video that truly taps into the zeitgeist can provide a lesson on what online video and content marketing should be. 

Since 2020 is a leap year, that means those who have a February 29 birthday are celebrating their true birthday for the first time in four years. And so Arlene Manko, who is 84 years old as far as Uncle Sam is concerned, is technically only celebrating her 21st. 

Enter Aviation Gin: 

This Aviation video follows in the footsteps of their Peloton parody and their cross-promotion-within-a-cross-promotion video with Deadpool and Samsung. In it, the 84-year-old Arlene has her first “legal” drink, an Aviation Gin and tonic. It’s a great example of putting the viewer first and finding a natural opportunity to tie in the brand. 

Many content marketers struggle to find that fine line between entertainment and branding. It’s a tough one to walk. If that struggle sounds a little bit too familiar to you, then get in touch and let’s talk about content marketing opportunities of your brand. 

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