Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Type: Post-Acquisition Rebranding

Industry: Real Estate Brokerage

Duration: 12 months [2012-2013]

Role: Project Lead

(contracted through BrandActive, a

3rd party consultancy firm)

Situation

In the latter half of 2012, two major real estate management companies announced a joint venture buy-out of the Consumer Real Estate division of a large insurance company.

The deal terms limited usage of the existing brand to five years; requiring the need for the creation of a new ONECO franchise brand. A strong brand proposition and launch was critical to countering competitive suitors to the 400 existing franchisees. It was essential that that critical mass of the largest of these franchisees be accomplished in the first 6 months and that a blueprint plan for converting all franchisees within the remaining 3 years was established.

See Project Images Below

Challenge

The resulting new entity was an amalgamation of management and staff from 3 separate companies and cultures. The rebranding effort was seen as an opportunity to drive out a consolidated culture and build a singular new identity for management, staff, and franchisees.

Operationally, the existing affiliate on-boarding process volume needed to be ramped up from a normal level of 15-20 new franchises per year to over 125+ annually, and then sustained over a 3 year timeframe. A far more streamlined and automated process would be required.

Heightened sales effort to quickly negotiate and resign hundreds of franchisees, representing more than 35,000 independent agents and 1,325+ locations was needed. While the majority of the existing franchisees had to be transitioned within 36 months; the largest , most important, and most complex conversions needed to happen within six months. The scope of the transition was unprecedented.

Results

We developed an execution plan that resolved pace of change disagreements within senior leadership, addressed resourcing; and focused on critical success areas - reengineering franchisee on-boarding procedures, looking at automating procedures, developing a weekly tracking process and improving cross functional coordination and communication that was essential.

We contracted the 3rd party development of a web-based tracking and reporting application that would allow self-service for franchisees through the conversion process, facilitate major branded asset conversion, and maximize the efficiency of internal resources. The reengineering also allowed corporate management control over cost, quality, and brand compliance by franchisees.

Our involvement, detailed planning and early results helped bolster the buy-in and conversion of top 75 franchisees whose support was critical to establishing credibility and securing financial commitment to the new business and brand. During the initial six months, the Client was on track to convert two-thirds of the top 75 franchisees (representing a large majority of overall franchisee revenue). All remaining conversions were expected to be complete within the required time frame. The rebranding process also helped to cultivate a new and cohesive corporate culture.