
Every marketer knows that storytelling is central to building an effective brand — the kind of brand that becomes lovable, almost personified in its character. The kind of brand that consumers connect with on a level that runs deeper than their desire to buy products. But the bigger the brand, the harder it is to link every detail back to that brand story.
And when mergers and acquisitions enter the narrative, the story can quickly become muddied. Does the brand story get eaten up by the umbrella company’s messaging? Does an indie beauty brand’s origin fade to irrelevance when that indie is owned by a business with bigger goals, and complex internal operations?
Unfortunately, the answer is often yes. When I work with brands I do a lot of market research, and I see this cycle happening time and time again: