What do you do when you acquire a company?
Maintain brand equity.
Maintain brand equity.
In 2011, Wells Fargo acquired Burdale, a middle-market asset-based lender, from the Bank of Ireland. Burdale had name recognition in the United Kingdom, and the decision was made early on to maintain its legacy brand until an appropriate time could be found to transition to the Wells Fargo name and brand.
In examining Burdale's visual system and its elements, however, we thought we could maintain the equity in the name and the brand and still make some additions to the system, which had remained largely unchanged for a decade, and was beginning to appear dated.
Below are screen shots of the research I did after we did a very quick update to the logo (to add the endorsement line "A Wells Fargo Company" in a new typeface). This information was well-received by management from both organizations, and was quickly introduced to the marketplace in advertising and collateral pieces.
Presentation creative direction and analysis: Evan Graner
Advertising design: Yolanda Jasso
Image credits: H&FJ, Corbis, Getty Images
In examining Burdale's visual system and its elements, however, we thought we could maintain the equity in the name and the brand and still make some additions to the system, which had remained largely unchanged for a decade, and was beginning to appear dated.
Below are screen shots of the research I did after we did a very quick update to the logo (to add the endorsement line "A Wells Fargo Company" in a new typeface). This information was well-received by management from both organizations, and was quickly introduced to the marketplace in advertising and collateral pieces.
Presentation creative direction and analysis: Evan Graner
Advertising design: Yolanda Jasso
Image credits: H&FJ, Corbis, Getty Images
Signaling a change in the marketplace was one of the primary reasons to refresh the visual system. However, in an expense-conscious environment, shifting to four-color printing versus two spot colors (one metallic) and black made sense for a sales force that still used collateral heavily.
This analysis of color in the financial services marketplace in the U.K. and with Burdale's competitors led us to recommend adding four colors to the palette that augmented the existing equity in Burdale blue, but also brought in a touch of the new parent company without commingling brand assets.
Taking a nod from the Wells Fargo visual system rebrand in 2009, we chose design typefaces and desktop publishing typefaces to maintain brand continuity in their respective media, but also to give a distinctive, differentiated look to advertising and marketing where professional design was employed.
Burdale imagery was often cliché and expected (e.g. rows of needles representing "tailored solutions"). And while there isn't a terribly generous amount of wiggle room in B2B marketing for this kind of product and service, we respected the desire of management to keep some of these ideas, but also expand the kinds of imagery that could be employed to express them.
