With national elections in over 64 countries impacting 49% of the world’s population, Time magazine has called 2024 the ‘election year’. So what does this mean for brands?

A change in government is a pivotal inflection point between old and new, and the impact this has on the world of business is significant. The wants and needs of customers and employees will inevitably change. There will be tectonic shifts to the global economy, which will change the dial and tempo for many businesses and brands.

Recognising and responding to moments like this can make or break a company. While the space between the end of one era and the beginning of the next might seem a useful point to stop, draw breath and take stock, it requires more than just a basic overview or a few tweaks to the plan. Instead, brand owners should take the opportunity to scrutinise objectively how well they ‘do branding’.

This means weighing their proposition, their purpose, their approach against the single most effective way to do brand expression in today’s world: unifying brand identity and experience as one. Brand unity, if you will. And they should make it a priority, fast. Because if a brand owner doesn’t upgrade its approach to branding now, there is a real risk of being left behind as competitors race on.

Recognising and responding to moments like this can make or break a company. Brand owners should take the opportunity to scrutinise objectively how well they do branding

One of the tectonic shifts to the global economy is the rise in dealmaking. That is, activity such as Mergers & Acquisitions as businesses transform and flex to new structures, new contexts, new customer demands.

For obvious, pandemic-related reasons, there was a sharp slowdown in M&A deal activity worldwide between 2021 and 2023. Yet towards the end of last year, the UK M&A market was starting to feel like a coiled spring, both in terms of deal value and volume. In the US meanwhile, an uplift in deal activity in all sectors of the economy is expected to continue increasing significantly in coming months – despite, and perhaps because of, potential headwinds caused by concerns about the upcoming presidential election.

All this reaction is also down to the pent-up demand built over years of uncertainties covering regulations, politics and changing market conditions. But it’s also being driven by rapidly-evolving technologies – artificial intelligence especially – and businesses’ eagerness to ensure they are best positioned to harness new innovations, products and service tools.

In short, over the coming months many brand owners in many sectors can expect their brands and brand strategies to be impacted – either by their own business being merged or acquired, or by a potential response from their competitors.

Successful brand owners have been increasingly focusing on the experience of both their customers and employees as their business shifts – and rightly so

Business deals like M&As are landmark moments for any business – and, let’s not forget, its partners and employees. Traditionally, the focus was always on brand identity; specifically, what would happen to it and which of the two entities coming together would ultimately ‘win’ to become dominant.

Some acquired brands – Exxon and Mobil, or HJ Heinz Co and Kraft Foods Group, bolt together to create a new organisation. Some either fold into another – as happened when AlliedSignal acquired Honeywell or when Delta Air Lines merged with Northwest Airlines – or they live on, like Wilkinson Sword. Or a whole new brand is formed, like Diageo.

But more recently, successful brand owners have been increasingly focusing on the experience of both their customers and employees as their business shifts – and rightly so. They create brand experiences that demonstrate their new brand proposition and values, which then generate the positive memories on which engagement, loyalty, and trust are built. See some of the world’s most valuable brands – Nike, Disney, for example – but also some of the niche players like Van Cleef & Arpels, Muji or On Running.

This is the ‘total experience’: brands breaking through silos and seamlessly being expressed across identity, culture and experience. Brand unity in motion. Done right, it can be a single, compelling force. It also gives brand owners more tools to leverage for being global and local; which is an imperative. And we know that a brand’s ability to create deeper connected relationships in today’s world is business-critical.

The input and contribution a chief design officer can make to create connectivity with not just customers, but also at a cultural level with employees, is overlooked

Simultaneously, another reason for the growing focus on brand identity and experience in lockstep is that when carefully aligned, identity and experience are a powerful – if not the most powerful – articulation of a brand’s culture. All too often during deals like M&As, the input and contribution a chief design officer can make to create connectivity with not just customers, but also at a cultural level with employees, is overlooked.

Yet there is a clear opportunity to lead creative teams through the complexities and bring the best of design thinking and design expression to aid the new culture and brand; fostering a culture of creativity and innovation in the newly merged organisational entity. Brand unity across all the layers. And this really is what will enable a brand to leapfrog its competition.

Whether a brand is impacted by the onset of a new era and/or any dealmaking activity this year and onwards, brand unity is the key to unlock future success. The role design plays in an organisation – in particular, how seriously it is regarded and the extent to which it is used strategically to demonstrate brand culture in action – will increasingly dictate how effectively a brand owner ‘does branding’. Just ask Apple and IBM – two businesses where the chief design officer is a C-Suite role.

Wayne Deakin is global creative principal at Wolff Olins; wolffolins.com