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xwave - Retaining Brand
Equity During Acquisitions
from the desk of Peter
Fillmore
June 2000
Telecom industry deregulation spawns some interesting offspring. In
January 1999 a new company called "xwave solutions" was
founded down home in the Maritimes by spinning off the IT division of
Maritime Tel & Tel (Nova Scotia) and merging it with
NewTel Information Solutions (Newfoundland), a firm
founded three years earlier by the merger of IT resources of the
provincial government and telephone company. This was a time of great
change for the area Telcos, with a new corporate parent, Aliant Inc, being
formed in March 1999 by the merger of the four Maritime Telcos.
I met with Ron Sparks, xwave solutions Director,
Industries in Ottawa, and Darell Fowlie, Marketing
Director from Halifax. So how do you protect "Brand equity" when
you merge six companies to create the third largest Canadian IT consulting
company?
The corporate evolution - The scope of the branding
challenge has been significant. After integrating the two telephone IT
divisions, along with the IT resources from the Newfoundland government,
the next step was the acquisition of Minerva, a Calgary
systems company specializing in oil patch applications, and
Paragon, a Newfoundland IT company. Then activity moved to Ottawa
with the acquisition of Software Kinetics in April 1999,
then the February 2000 acquisition of Prior Data Sciences.
With staff from so many backgrounds, there was a need to build a common
culture and consistent "consulting style." The company created a
two-sentence statement to define the style of "an xwave solutions
consultant," and circulated it widely within the evolving company - "xwave
solutions is focused on clients in industries in which we have extensive
experience including Energy, Telecommunications, and the Public Sector. We
plan, design, build and operate integrated IT solutions for both corporate
and mission critical operational systems."
Designing the Company name - "We gave a lot of thought to
the company culture we wanted to build, and put those thoughts into the
company name and logo design," said Fowlie, "The "wave" represents our
ambition to be the next wave of information technology. The four colors
surrounding the X represent our four corporate values of focus, passion,
people, and results." "Also, added Sparks, "we consciously avoided a
'three-letter' abbreviation. That's why the name emphasized in advertising
& communications is xwave solutions, not xwave solutions Inc."
The "Dual Identity" phase - "Initially, after an
acquisition, we had a lengthy, open-ended phase where both company names
were used," said Fowlie, "Perhaps a merged logo too. But now we just have
a 90-100 day switchover period, then everything about our identity is 'xwave
solutions,' even the e-mail signatures." An example of the interim
co-branding phase is on the Prior Data site at prior.ca, showing the new
company logo prominently, with links to the news release and xwave site.
Public Communications - An excellent series of awareness
ads were released, with a theme "We're on your wavelength." These were
aimed at the specific customers in each sector they target. The Oil & Gas
sector, for example, would appreciate the humorous "spud" reference (with
a potato photo) since it has a technical meaning to the drilling industry.
After the Prior acquisition, an ad was released with the message "Prior is
now on our wavelength."
Internal Communications - For company meetings, xwave has
created a high-energy video on who they are - it is well received by the
staff, and creates a sense of company pride. As Fowlie says "We can't
advertise like IBM - our best ambassadors are our 1600 employees, so we
have to imbue them with a sense of what xwave solutions is aiming for, and
a sense of confidence in our ability to deliver." Added Sparks, "We needed
to define ourselves as 'people who know our clients' business,' and that
means knowing both subject matter and systems expertise." There have been
several big meetings on "brand awareness," using catchy themes like "wave
pool," an idea that came up while riding through Kanata past the Wave Pool
facing highway 417.
With a strong sense of corporate mission, and an engaging and slightly
edgy set of ideas for communication programs, it appears that xwave is
building a solid new brand with the fine internal & external communication
programs they have underway.
Your comments, questions, and suggestions for future articles are welcome
fillmore@westpark.com
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