Brand architecture can be a tricky beast to get right but CSL’s new group brand is a good example of how to move to a master brand approach.
With any merger and acquisition, careful consideration needs to be given to the brand architecture strategy. While there are often obvious economies of scale to align everything under one brand, the equity in the existing brands needs to be carefully considered before it is scrapped.
You also can’t just force together disparate brands and cultures. You need an authentic and compelling brand proposition that aligns the group and is relevant and meaningful for both internal and external audiences.
Last week CSL unveiled its new unified brand that brings together all business units under the same name and identity.
Described by CSL as bringing the family together, the rebrand is a much cleaner and more efficient approach to branding the entire organisation. CSL Behring and CSL Plasma were already carrying the master brand, now Seqirus and Vifor Pharma get the same brand treatment and CSL name.
CSL has been slowly moving towards aligning its brand and culture for some time. As part of the rebrand, they communicated there is one purpose, one strategy, and one set of values. Now, with one unified brand, they can further demonstrate that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The message of a global biotech leader that’s ‘Always Evolving for a Better World’ is also likely to resonate with the market.
However, the tagline is a bit of a letdown. “Driven by our promise” feels very generic and cliched. Communicating what the actual promise is, would’ve been stronger and more memorable.
There is also an inspirational video to sell the new brand story. Most of this is fairly typical, but it is great that they’ve used a variety of voices with a mix of genders, accents, and faces to showcase a truly global feel to the brand.
Michael Hughes
Michael is Managing Partner and Strategy Director at Truly Deeply. His deep expertise is in unlocking the strategic power of your brand to create a differentiated, compelling and authentic brand proposition that will engage all your audiences and drive your business growth. Michael has extensive experience working with leading Australian and International organisations across just about every sector.