CorpComms Magazine

When Thomson Corporation announced its takeover of Reuters in May 2007, the data provider faced an immediate problem: how to incorporate a brand as big and venerable as Reuters into the group. By February this year, reports had appeared in the media suggesting tension between consultants and Woodbridge, the Thomson family investment group, over what the new corporate brand should be.

After much deliberation, the branding team decided Thomson Reuters should be used as the new group name. Underneath this, Reuters remains the brand name for the organisation's news and media departments, and sits alongside other Thomson brands such as Westlaw, its legal service.

Gus Carlson, chief marketing officer at Thomson Reuters, says the desire from the beginning was to create one company with one brand, as opposed to two companies or more. He accepts that friction existed, however. 'Whenever you start a discussion about bringing two brands together, there are certain preferences on either side,' he comments. 'I would say the Thomson family and the Reuters advocates had a lively discussion.

'Brands are very emotional, particularly brands with a lot of heritage that are well known, or tied to a family name. One of the challenges is to capture all the value tied up in the emotion - and back it up with research.'

Research certainly played a key role in the project. By coincidence, when the takeover announcement was made, Thomson Corporation was already conducting a review of its image, with an eye to consolidating some of its brands. The substantial Reuters name was then thrown into the mix.

Given the nature of the task, all key stakeholders were sounded out, including customers, employees, management, investors, potential investors and even potential recruits. Carlson says the results were clear and compelling. 'The research showed the combination of Thomson and Reuters was far stronger, in the minds of customers in particular, than either the Thomson or Reuters brand on its own,' he explains. 'Reuters is certainly a brand with a lot of heritage and global recognition, while Thomson is extremely well known to vertical businesses. They have complementary strengths that are turbo-charged when put together.'

The research further suggested Reuters should stay as the stand-alone name for the group's news and media departments, an acknowledgement of the emotion tied up in a brand that can trace its history back to 1851.

'Certain parts of the business are so deeply identified with Reuters that it just made sense - and the research supported this - to keep them under the Reuters brand,' says Carlson. 'It was a conscious decision, and the logic of that decision applies to all other strong brands across the portfolio.'

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