As a leading alliance of vision care equipment manufacturers, Advancing Eye Care (AEC) saw strategic merit in merging its two leading companies, Lombart and Marco Ophthalmic. But this was no simple merger of like kinds. Lombart was a distributor of a wide variety of eye care professional equipment and supplies, while Marco was a precision manufacturer of premium diagnostic equipment. The wisdom of the merger was in the consolidation of overlapping sales forces to increase customer care and revenue, but marrying these two distinct brands and cultures was a delicate task requiring careful consideration and handling. In the balance was the crucial goal of customer and employee retention.
High Reason was engaged to manage the process of bringing the brands together and reintroducing the merged entity to the vision care industry. The agency led a thorough immersion process to hear points of view from leaders of both companies, key customers and a tight circle of industry experts.
Based on immersion learnings and an exhaustive calculation of opportunities and risks, High Reason recommended the Marco Lombart name and the positioning line “Empowering Your Best Practice” to convey the remarkable benefits of the new enterprise to eye care professionals. After a full brand development process and the creation of marketing communications materials, High Reason also led trade and business public relations to launch the newly merged entity to the vision care industry. In no small part due to the integrity and leadership of AEC, the customer and employee response to the merged entity and new brand was highly successful.
