Under the umbrella of Acerta
When the Farmer's Union and the Alliance of Christian Employers and Executives joined forces to become a new leader in social services for Brussels and Flanders, they needed a new brand. Something that would translate the long names and long histories into a brand new value, opening the doors for the next generation's social secretariat.
We carried out an extensive top-secret rebranding process for the merger, carefully weighing each joining brand's equities to distil the new, perfectly balanced label in the end. That's how we landed on Acerta, a truly future-proof B2B monobrand.
Continue reading to discover the process behind this case.
Approach and methodology
Branding mergers can be particularly difficult briefings. When more than one identity is involved in the change, with their respective equities, stories and cultures, the process of creating a new brand becomes delicate. Choices made for the future can not only impact the market performance, but also the internal dynamics. We understood these mechanisms very well when we were picking up this challenge.
To find the right balance, we applied qualitative research methods to assess which elements of the pre-existing brands carried the most equity and therefore needed to be introduced to the new unit. Once we established this, we created a list of four core values that became the cornerstone for the new brand's identity. These were the ingredients that brought together the merging units, a common ground on which they could further build their success story:
Client-driven performance: thinking and acting in the service of our clients through a deep understanding of their needs and struggles
Pride: being proud of what we do and therefore continuing to develop solutions and chasing new opportunities
Courage: daring to make bold choices lies at the very core of entrepreneurship. We think and act like entrepreneurs, to help our entrepreneurial clients in the best possible way.
Strong Together: we join forces as one unit to create a new value. Togetherness and collaboration are at the heart of all our activities.
Acerta. Short and powerful, it evokes feelings of certainty, trust and support.
Sure as eggs is eggs
Following a set of brainstorms, we selected a final name proposal for the new company: Acerta. Short and powerful, it evokes feelings of certainty, trust and support. It stems, in fact, from the Latin word certus (which means safety, reliability) that returns in different languages. For example, in the English 'certain', the French 'certitude', the Italian 'certo', or the Spanish 'cierto'.
This name leaves no doubts: the new, leading social secretariat of Brussels and Flanders is here to create a whole new quality in the sector, one that is built on mutual trust, respect, and excellent customer service, values that go beyond the traditional origins of their predecessors.
