What growth costs multi-location firms when the brand doesn't keep up

Multi-location professional services firms have unique challenges. Or, really, they have the same challenges multiplied.

We are working with a real estate developer that has expanded from its home base into multiple offices across the country. They told us that in the last year they've made one acquisition to expand into a new market and expanded into another organically. Meanwhile, business at home continued to grow. Their expertise was compounding.

But what happened to the brand?

Growth diluted it. Without a clear plan, the website became increasingly neutral to avoid alienating any of the new team members. Their brand guidelines were a PDF on someone's computer, so the signage and merchandise looked different in each market and different from the website. The two-person marketing team was trying to hold together the brand as the firm and marketing demands expanded around them.

You're proud of the firm you built, but the new recruits, the new acquisitions, and the new markets don't see it. Because the brand didn't just stay static, it fractured, with each office telling a different version of a story that was never written down.

This happens in all successful professional services companies, but if you have multiple locations, the pain is magnified.

The only fix is to begin at the beginning. You aren't the same company you were ten, twenty years ago. The brand foundations that got you here aren't eroding; they have eroded.

We built the Brand Warm-Up for exactly this kind of situation. It's a chance to find the through-line before it fractures further.