When Brands Collide: How to Avoid a Frankenbrand After a Merger or Acquisition

Because while the headlines shout about “market share” and “strategic growth”… no one’s really talking about the identity crisis brewing just beneath the surface.

When two (or more) brands come together, it’s not just a financial or operational shuffle. It’s a culture clash. A story shift. A battle of tone, values, visuals, and emotional resonance.

If you don’t get your brand strategy right—before, during and after the deal—you’re at serious risk of creating what I call a Frankenbrand: disjointed, confusing, and completely unrelatable.

Here’s the truth: a merger isn’t just a business move. It’s a brand move.

And most businesses leave it far too late to think about that when entering big shifts like M&As.

The Most Overlooked Pitfalls in Brand M&As:

Brand is often the last thing considered in a merger—and the first thing to go wrong. While deals focus on finances and ops, identity, culture, and clarity get overlooked. Here's what happens when that’s ignored:

1. Starting with the logo instead of the logic

Too many businesses jump to the visual stuff—new name, logo, or colour palette—without aligning on the why behind the merge. Design without strategy is just decoration. You need to define the shared purpose before you pick the Pantone..

2. Underestimating internal culture clashes

You’re not just merging services. You’re merging people, behaviours, and beliefs. If you ignore this, you’ll create internal friction that bleeds into the customer experience..

"Design without strategy is just decoration. You need to define the shared purpose before you pick the Pantone.

3. Confusing your customers

If your messaging, tone or values suddenly shift without explanation, people will lose trust. “Who are you now?” is not a question you want your customers asking.

4. Failing to define a clear, unified position

The best brands are known for something. After a merger, many brands end up trying to be everything. Which means they stand for… nothing.

So How Do You Avoid a Frankenbrand?

Here’s the BrandStorm approach to brand harmony in M&A:

1. Start With Discovery into the new Brand DNA

Before any decisions are made, gather the leadership teams and define:

• Why this merger is happening (beyond profit)

• What the shared purpose or future mission looks like

• What must be protected from each brand (values, positioning, tone)

• What is going to change as a result of this (positioning, market etc,)

It’s not just a mash-up of old taglines or values—it’s the foundation of who you are now as a unified brand. It defines what you stand for, who you serve, and how you’ll behave going forward. Everything else—your name, logo, tone of voice, even your team culture—should grow from this core. Without it, you risk building a brand on guesswork instead of grounded, strategic clarity.

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2. Align the Internal Culture First

You can’t build a brand that inspires customers if it’s causing chaos behind the scenes. Run internal sessions to:

• Understand cultural clashes or synergies

• Define the new team behaviours and values

• Create a shared narrative for staff to get behind

• Unite and engage staff as part of the co-creation of the new direction.

People support what they help build. If your team feels like the merger is being done to them instead of with them, you’ll face resistance, disengagement, and cultural fallout. But when you involve them early—asking for input, listening to concerns, and co-creating the new direction—you build ownership. Pride. Momentum. Internal alignment isn’t just about presenting a finished vision; it’s about making your people part of the journey. Because the strongest brands aren’t built top-down—they’re built from the inside out.

When you involve teams early—asking for input, listening to concerns, and co-creating the new direction—you build ownership and internal alignment rather than resistance to change.

3. Clarify the Customer Journey

What will change for your customers? What will stay the same?

Map the full experience:

• From first touchpoint to delivery

• Across both legacy brand audiences

• With messaging that explains the merge clearly and confidently

By mapping the full experience and communicating clearly, you ensure customers feel informed, reassured, and excited—not confused or left behind.

4. Develop a Unified Brand Strategy

Now you can look at the core brand foundational pillars:

• Positioning: What’s your new differentiator?

• Messaging: How do you talk about your offering?

• Audience segments and creating sub brands for each

• Naming and architecture: Are you creating a new brand? A master brand? A hybrid brand?

This ensures you don’t create a messy mix of mismatched logos, voices, and messages that confuses your audience and dilutes your credibility. A strong brand architecture brings order to the chaos, helping your audience understand who you are now, how the pieces fit together, and why they should care. It’s about building a system that’s logical, scalable, and emotionally resonant—so your brand feels like one cohesive entity, not a leftover tasting menu of the past..

5. Design for Confidence, Not Confusion

Only then should we move into visual identity:

• Logos and visual identity direction

• Tone of voice across comms

• Rigorous brand guidelines to ensure consistency

• Website, branded assets, and internal docs

Every touchpoint should reinforce trust and clarity—not spark questions.

In Conclusion:

After a merger or acquisition the end goal is a brand that feels and acts like one. Not a mash-up or compromise but a considered, cohesive identity built to grow with confidence.

At BrandStorm, we specialise in helping businesses harness the full power of their brand. Ready to see how we can help navigate the storm of a merger or acquisition with brand clarity and confidence? See below:

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About the author:

Rob Fryer heads up BrandStorm and has successfully helped 100s of businesses rebrand and flourish?

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