Marketing for acquisitions and mergers

Paymentshield asked Scaramanga to …

… Develop a coordinated communications programme to raise their profile amongst their primary IFA and mortgage broker routes to market for their insurance and mortgage products. Paymentshield’s long term aim was to grow the business to a size where it would be an attractive acquisition prospect.

Paymentshield’s portfolio had grown ad hoc as market opportunities presented themselves and was not known to all channel partners. Their marketing collateral was not selling the products effectively enough, either to the channel or to their end customers.

We put our thinking hats on …

Firstly we recommended and oversaw a brand refresh, working with the in-house design team. We created an umbrella brand and a suite of styles for each section of the product portfolio.

We prepared a marketing plan, where we segmented the various audiences by need, with a communications plan for each segment. We worked with the in-house designers to create a large number of marketing deliverables, including newsletters (printed and email), product information sheets, end customer literature, a new channel extranet and a toolkit that brought the entire portfolio together with a consistent layout and content.

And delivered these results …

We developed and grew the channels’ knowledge of the portfolio, which led to improved sales performance and, within twelve months, the successful acquisition of the company by a larger financial services provider.