Campaign focused on developing a consistent global portfolio helps create a Top 100 global brand.
Challenge
Following several big acquisitions, a global logistics company found itself with several competing brands within its portfolio, each with different strengths arising from different business models. The brand overlap was creating both internal and external confusion and making it difficult for the company to realize the potential of its acquisitions.
The company called on McKinsey to help re-architect the portfolio within an overall brand management framework that would define brand-value propositions, optimize media allocations, and deliver the brand cleanly and efficiently across all points of contact with the customer.
Discovery
Working closely with the client’s marketing executives and employees, the McKinsey team assessed the customer experience across more than 50 different customer touchpoints. Using our proprietary BrandMatics tool—a powerful analytic approach to mapping brand performance, image, and requirements at customer touchpoints—the team developed a clear insight into the core elements driving customer purchase decisions: the strength of the brand locally around the world; the “commitment” it communicated to individuals; and the active solutions it generated for customers.
The research yielded an important insight: Logistics buyers want comprehensive, one-stop services. This clarified the primary course of action: to combine all express and logistics activities under one umbrella brand, and to reposition that brand through a globally consistent brand image campaign. The campaign launched in 64 countries, included new brand visuals at all touchpoints, internal events and advertising campaigns, and a brand book to familiarize employees with key elements of the brand positioning.
Impact
Soon after the engagement, the newly consolidated brand jumped into Millward Brown’s ranking of the Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands as brand awareness increased from 19 to 57 percent and advertising recall from 17 to 61 percent. Perhaps most significantly, brand awareness among the key logistics buyers' segment leapt to 93 percent.
The campaign also created a renewed and clear commitment to the brand among employees while helping to align objectives and brand-management metrics among managers in the far-flung operations of this multinational company.