A Brand Orientated Approach in Acquisitions

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to explore corporate approaches to brands in the assessment of potential acquisitions in business-­to­‐business settings. The paper examines the corporate brands of three case companies -­ ALS Global, Göteborg Energi, and Trelleborg AB -­ in regards to their acquisition activities. Additionally, we have conducted an extensive literature review. Further, our research philosophy has a constructionist-­relativist stance to facilitate the collection of rich data, ultimately leading to the emergence of new theory. Thus, we use semi-­structured face-­to-­face interviews as the basis of the qualitative data gathered. The three case companies have a market-oriented approach when assessing acquisitions. We argue that the corporate brand needs to be considered during the acquisition phase in order to make a sufficient judgment of whether or not a potential acquisition will be sensible. Subsequently, a brand-oriented approach is of the essence. The paper highlights the gap of knowledge, and usage, of branding in business-to-business environments. Especially during acquisitions, the commitment to the corporate brand by the three companies is inconsistent or flawed. The research further concludes that this is partly because companies lack a framework for assessing acquisitions, as well as an inclination to disregard brand-orientated values when doing so. The Corporate Brand Identity Matrix is proposed to be used as an analytical tool in order to facilitate this assessment. Companies may take the corporate brand as the starting point of any assessment of potential acquisitions in order to reduce the risk of failure, as the integration of corporate culture is the most difficult part. Brand managers may seek and assess potential acquisitions not solely based on market measurements but take their respective corporate brand identity into account and compare it with the target company’s in order to assess its suitability, thus avoiding costly fallouts due to organizational insurmountable differences that could lead eventually to unremunerative business. The paper introduces the brand-orientated application in business-to-business acquisitions. Furthermore the Corporate Brand Identity Matrix is introduced as an analytical assessment tool in the acquisition setting.