Breakaway brands

The IPO of Bayer spin-off, Covestro, was one of the biggest corporate launches this year, yet Kirsten Foster, executive director of strategy at Landor – who oversaw the creation of the Covestro brand – maintains that, despite the importance of communicating with clients and investors, employees were the most important group to consider.

She says that this is true for most breakaway brands.

Foster compares a breakaway brand with a regular brand refresh or rebrand project. She says that, in this predominantly B2B space, the employees are especially involved in the delivery of the brand promise, and therefore it is even more important that they remain engaged. “The brand, we learned, has to speak internally as much as externally, and maybe even more so.”

With Covestro, the new plastics division of drug manufacturing giant, Bayer, it was particularly challenging to engage employees because of the particularly strong relationship that they had with their employer. Foster says, “It is a badge of honour to work at Bayer. People go there after university and they stay there their whole lives. It’s like IBM in the States.” When Covestro separated from Bayer, those loyal members of staff lost the Bayer brand, and all of its associated merits; its name, its reputation and its brand values: leadership, integrity, flexibility and efficiency.

The Landor team aimed to instil that same sense of pride that Bayer inspired into Covestro employees. The new descriptors of Covestro’s company culture, deciphered from close analysis of the company’s employees, are; courageous, curious and colourful (or diverse) – a standout statement for a chemical company. Foster says that it is important to identify and bring out values that are already present, rather than try to impose new ones.

Ongoing research at Covestro shows that its staff are now largely proud to work there. Foster says, “That was our main intention for the whole journey; to give them something to be proud of.”

Global brand consulting firm, Landor, defines a breakaway brand as when an organisation splits or accelerates parts of its business through separate brands. Landor has created breakaway brands for companies including Conoco Philips, BP, Citroen, Honda, Accenture, Kraft Foods, Lenovo and Northrop Grumman.