A new brand identity when the business changes hands.
When the next generation takes over, a long-standing employee becomes the owner or a buyer carries the company on, the way people see the company often changes with the leadership. In my work a handover is, next to an anniversary, one of the most common reasons for a new identity. Here is what matters.
Why the handover is a good moment
Whoever takes over a company inherits customers, staff and a reputation, and with them an identity someone else chose many years ago. It often fits the company as it was then: its customers, its products and the media of the time. The handover is a chance to show how the company works today and where it is heading.
At the same time, customers and suppliers wonder whether everything will stay as it was. A well-made new identity answers that question: the company is in good hands, and it keeps moving.
Show that the company can still be relied on
For regular customers, one thing matters most in a handover: that the quality and the people they deal with stay. So something familiar should live on in the new identity, a colour, a shape, the name. The name is often worth more than the old logo.
Geo Office Berlin, an architecture and planning office, had a long-standing name and respect among professionals, but no identity that showed what stood behind the work. The name stayed, and the new mark tells the office's idea: exact calculation as a promise of quality.
The new leadership's own handwriting
New leadership brings its own plans: a new line of business, bigger projects, a website that brings enquiries, more skilled staff. The identity should point exactly there. Anyone who wants to win different customers needs a website, documents and presentations made for those customers. A new logo on its own rarely does it.
When a company becomes a group
Sometimes the structure grows with the handover: subsidiaries are added, or a division becomes independent. Then the company needs a system in which every business has its place. For Silk Way Airlines, the air cargo company of a group with 26 enterprises in aviation, the parent brand and sub-brands such as Silk Way Ground Handling were redesigned in one system. They clearly belong together and can still be told apart.
Explain the change
Customers and staff should receive the new identity with a short explanation: who is taking over, what stays and what changes. That means a letter to regular customers, an About page showing both the previous and the new leadership, and a fixed date for the launch. It takes away the worry that the quality changes along with the owner.
Your own staff should see the identity first. They are the first people customers will ask about it.
Timing
Many handovers have a fixed date, often the turn of the year. The design itself usually takes three to five weeks, with first concepts within a week. Signs, vehicles, workwear and print then need their own lead times. It is best to start on the identity as soon as the handover is settled.
If a handover is coming up for you, it is worth talking early.
Brand identity · Website and brand identity for construction companies · A new brand identity for a company anniversary