Scenario 5: Acquisition of a service and / or product brand with multiple strong sub-entities

A less common scenario, adding complexity to a decision tree. Once a brand with multiple sub-entities is acquired, the brand and marketing audit is of utter importance to decide on the branding and integration scenario.

Our example company: GMS

1. Review brand & marketing audit and decision tree to decide ownership, market implications and brand strength. This decision tree will decide upon the branding options for GMS and its wholly owned companies.
2. Depending on the audit two solutions could apply:

Solution One

The GMS companies do not fit into the current Wilhelmsen portfolio and need to receive their own individual entity under the Wilhelmsen umbrella.
2. a) Integrate the overarching GMS offering as a descriptive new entity into the Wilhelmsen brand sphere to be managed under the Wilhelmsen portfolio, parallel to Ships Service and Ship Management. The GMS brand ceases to exist.
2 b) Keep the subsidiary brand names and process that part of the acquisition like a product brand (scenario #2, endorsing the original brand and altering the identity to match the Wilhelmsen profile.
3. Route all previous addresses to wilhelmsen.com within 6 months of acquisition, also within the subsidiary brands.
4. Add the new sub entity and service to the complete offering of Wilhelmsen
5. Integrate employees, processes and marketing as needed

Solution Two

The GMS companies do fit into the current Wilhelmsen portfolio and are added to e.g. Ships Service:
2. a) Integrate the overarching GMS offering into the Wilhelmsen brand sphere to be managed under the Ships Service subsidiary. The GMS brand ceases to exist.
2 b) Keep the subsidiary brand names and process that part of the acquisition like a product brand (scenario #2, endorsing the original brand and altering the identity to match the Wilhelmsen profile.
3. Route all previous addresses to wilhelmsen.com within 6 months of acquisition, also within the subsidiary brands.
4. Add the new sub entity and service to the complete offering of Wilhelmsen
5. Integrate employees, processes and marketing as needed