Combining Brands After a Business Merger

Combining brands:  Where do we start after a business merger?

Bringing together two companies is challenging and time consuming work. You have to integrate back-end systems all while negotiating a mix of financial, legal, and operational hurdles. Most of all, you have to focus on combining brands. But how do you bring together two companies to create a unified new brand?

It all starts with your content. 

There’s a lot to consider. A new go-to-market strategy, customer journey mapping, and extensive strategizing. To fuel that engine, you need an aligned content operation. Crafting consistent brand content — that uses a unified tone of voice — is pivotal to the success of your merger or acquisition. 

Why? Because it’s challenging enough combining brands without creating customer confusion. A blurry brand identity and mixed messaging dilute the value of your combined brand and make a successful brand merger nearly impossible. 

But if you do unify your brand content both customers and employees will benefit. A confident brand voice cuts through confusion and assures your audience of your market position and company identity. Plus, your employees have a clear sense of the future direction of the business. 

Let’s learn how to merge two brand content operations (and apply changes at enterprise scale) in the steps below. 

Brand alignment step #1: Cover the basics

The reality is, after a business merger, one or both of the companies will find themselves looking at “all new everything.” That means you have to rebuild from the ground up. From office signage and logos to email signatures and everything in between — to accurately represent the new enterprise and visual identity. 

And while that might sound like just swapping out one company name for another, it’s never that easy.

Be systematic in your approach. And consider all your corporate branding, everything from slide decks to product names. Your content and brand elements have to be in sync when you’re combining brands. 

Brand alignment step #2: Develop a strategy and update your messaging

After combining brands, the inevitable first question is: What are our combined business goals? Then you translate that into your content needs. 

Short term, you might want to simply communicate the merger to your audience and focus on brand alignment. Longer term, you’ll probably want to build greater awareness and generate more leads for your newly combined brand.

You also need to develop your content staples — the things that everyone from every department needs. Core messaging — like boilerplates, a mission statement, and product descriptions — are a fundamental pillar of your brand architecture. 

This is the best way to make sure everyone who’s touching your content is aligned to your strategy and propelling your business goals forward. 

For more details, check out our strategy worksheets in our eBook!

Brand alignment step #3: Get aligned on style and tone

Your company’s voice is how your brand’s character comes across in the written word. It’s not just about what you say, but the way you say it, and the impression it makes on your readers. It’s how you cut through the noise and build authority. 

Re-examine and adjust your voice as needed to reflect your combined businesses. Maybe one company has a stronger voice that you want to adopt across the board. Or you want to combine the best aspects of both. 

Either way, a clearly defined brand voice that everyone uses will solidify your brand identity and deliver a consistent customer experience. 

Brand alignment step #4: Establish a process focused on quality and scale

How can you enforce your strategy effectively across different offices and geographies? And what’s the best way to deploy changes quickly and accurately across large amounts of content?

After you’ve decided to merge, you need a content approval process that accommodates your new brand strategy. The right technology automates this work, saving time and frustration. All while quality checking new and existing content. It’s never been easier to track your content’s style at scale.

Better yet, a content governance platform helps you measure and report on success through content analytics. 

Brand alignment step #5: Address the legacy content and start creating

Once you have a process for combining brands, you need to access both companies’ legacy content and systematically update, repurpose, or retire it as needed. Make sure to include your technical documentation, knowledge base repositories, and marketing materials.

If you want to analyze how aligned your legacy content is to your new guidelines, a content governance platform gives you this insight and acts as a quality gate. Through automation, it checks your content so you have a clear picture of what content falls short and how to fix it.

It’s also worth making a list of the new content you need to support the combined business.

Bonus: Team resourcing and timelines for messaging and brand alignment

Aligning brand content and messaging after a merger isn’t just a creative exercise — it’s a coordinated, cross-functional effort that requires careful planning around team resourcing and timelines. The process will impact multiple teams, from marketing and communications to product and customer success, so it’s essential to define clear ownership, allocate resources effectively, and establish realistic milestones.

1. Identify key stakeholders

Start by forming a core alignment team with representatives from the most impacted areas, such as:

• Marketing and communications: Ownership of external messaging, branding, and content distribution.
• Content operations and creative teams: Responsible for creating or refreshing assets at scale.
• Product and sales teams: Make sure messaging aligns with product positioning and sales enablement materials.
• Executive leadership: Providing vision, approval, and buy-in for the overall strategy.

These teams will need to collaborate closely to ensure the brand identity, messaging, and voice reflect the new organization’s goals and values.

2. Define roles and responsibilities

Clarify who’s responsible for each part of the brand alignment process. For example:

• Content strategists: Develop the unified messaging architecture and define tone of voice.
• Project managers: Track progress, manage timelines, and oversee resource allocation.
• Writers and designers: Execute content updates across marketing materials, technical documentation, and customer-facing assets.
• Technology teams: Support content tools, automation, and quality assurance systems.

Having clear ownership allows for clear accountability and avoids duplication of effort during this already complex transition.

3. Set realistic timelines and phases

A messaging and brand alignment process won’t happen overnight. Break it into manageable phases with clear milestones:

• Phase one: Discovery and audit (2-4 Weeks):
  • Conduct a full content audit to assess legacy assets from both companies.
  • Identify gaps and overlaps in messaging, voice, and content formats.
  • Prioritize which content must be updated, repurposed, or retired.
• Phase two: Strategy and development (4-8 Weeks):
  • Finalize the combined brand’s tone of voice, core messaging, and guidelines.
  • Create or refresh high-priority foundational content (for example, mission statements, boilerplates, and web copy).
  • Develop a rollout plan to scale the updated messaging across teams and channels.
• Phase three: Implementation and scaling (6-12 Weeks):
  • Begin updating and aligning key content assets, starting with customer-facing materials and sales enablement content.
  • Roll out messaging and voice updates across internal platforms, like intranets and training materials.
  • Use a content governance platform to automate updates, enforce style guidelines, and measure progress.
• Phase four: Review and improve (Ongoing):
  • Monitor brand consistency and content quality across all channels.
  • Collect feedback from teams, customers, and content analytics to fine-tune messaging and voice.

4. Leverage the right tools for efficiency

Resourcing isn’t just about people — the right tools can make your teams more efficient and make sure timelines stay on track. A content governance platform like Acrolinx helps you:

• Audit existing content to identify misaligned or outdated assets.
• Scale quality by automating content checks for style, tone, and alignment.
• Accelerate timelines by giving writers and editors immediate feedback, reducing rework.
• Measure progress with analytics to ensure your alignment strategy delivers results.

5. Plan for Change Management

Don’t underestimate the time and resources needed to communicate changes internally. Employees need to understand and embrace the new brand direction. Hold training sessions, workshops, or webinars to educate teams on the updated messaging and guidelines — and provide ongoing support as they adapt. Remember, successful brand alignment is as much about people and processes as it is about the creative outcome.

Merging happily ever after!

Getting all of this right is critical. Content is one of the best tools you have to help maintain customer confidence and loyalty. 

For more tips, worksheets, and a thorough deep dive into this topic, download our free eBook. Or if you want to see how Acrolinx’s content governance platform streamlines your merger, request a demo.