Keeping Business Liquid
Challenge
Accord Financial is one of North America’s leading independent finance companies. It provides distinctive working capital solutions (asset-based lending, unsecured small business loans and supply chain finance) to small and medium-sized companies across the United States and Canada. Accord Financial was a successful public holding company (mergers and acquisitions) with three distinct operating companies in Canada and the US: Montcap Financial and JTA Factoring in the asset-based financing sector, and Accord Business Credit, a receivables management company. Accord had just gone public in 1992 when we began work with them. Each company had unique issues surrounding brand, internal and external communications, a strong sense of independence and industry differentiation, apart from the challenge of how to leverage the three to strengthen the overall brand. Accord Business Credit had a unique problem: how to address riding the top of the sales curve and where to go next.
Solution
Finance, like most professional services, has always been slow to accept change. The sector has a long tradition of doing things the same way, presenting the same style and saying much the same thing, making branding and differentiation a challenge. Additionally, when a company is already highly successful, it’s sometimes difficult for them to understand that success is relative, and business does not remain static. We did deep-dive research and developed brand and marketing strategies. We updated their logos – individually and as a group. We ran some pretty creative ad campaigns, developed corporate and sales tools, and celebrated with them with lunch & learns and landmark events. We built websites, brought all companies under a single brand (finally), helped develop new markets, launched a couple of brand new finance products, EDC and AccordOctet using print, press, digital and dynamic rich media.
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