Dissecting the post-merger Adobe brand

A year after Adobe acquired Macromedia, regional director of marketing Mark Phibbs tells Marketing how things have worked out, shares about his ongoing challenge to do more with less, and even gives a few M&A tips.

The Macromedia corporate brand was retired after the acquisition but its spirit lives on?

We totally retired the Macromedia brand when we launched the latest Creative Suite 3 products. These products combine the best of Adobe and Macromedia product innovation to provide designers and developers with an array of creative options for print, web, mobile, interactive, film, and video production.

How has assimilating a new brand under Adobe worked out?

While customers' perceptions of these individual brands are quite different, our customers are quite complementary. Some best practices we have learnt from Macromedia include allowing customers to trial new software before they are launched. We have also adopted Macromedia's great web experience - Adobe's user experience has improved through the use of flash technologies.

Together, we meet a wider set of customer needs by integrating products and technologies and we have significant opportunities to grow into new markets, particularly around mobile and enterprise customers.

What are your marketing plans for Adobe?

For the short term, we are working towards marketing the recently released the latest Creative Suite 3 software that will bridge web and design and video. Some examples are targeting are peer to peer websites such as Youtube and Facebook, both of which currently use Adobe technology. 

I believe the Adobe brand will become more pervasive amongst consumers in the longer term as more flash technology gets implemented in video streaming mobile phones and on the web and as more television content are uploaded on the internet.

What are the challenges ahead?

One of our biggest challenges is to do more with less. In order to drive share price, we are always looking for better return on investment and to do that we need to be marketing innovators. We now use video in our marketing initiatives through our websites and conduct more online seminars and events as opposed to live events.

As we become more of a global company, we need to ensure our marketing programmes are relevant to each country, and to vary regional programmes yet keep brand consistency.

What are your thoughts on the Lenovo/IBM merger?

There is no doubt it is incredibly challenging. The IBM brand is one of the oldest and most valued in the industry, with strong characteristics like strength, stability and innovation. Meanwhile their challenge is to demonstrate a commitment to the characteristic aspects of the IBM brand including security, quality and new technologies. It is also important that Lenovo becomes more dynamic as a brand, particularly in terms of price performance, innovation and speed to market. All of this takes time.

Lenovo has done well to address quality issues and build their brand from the ground up, but Lenovo's brand presence outside China needs to be strengthened. They must continue to address quality concerns associated with China brands. This will most likely entail a considerable investment in marketing dollars associated with communicating their brand values. On the plus side, most people think of IBM ThinkPads as unaffordable; great but expensive, and Lenovo has an opportunity to expand the market for their product set.

What do you do when you're not at work?

I love Europe. In particular, Italian food and wine. I also love kayaking at the Sydney Harbour and spending time on my new speed boat with my wife and three year old daughter.

Because my wife is an architect, her passion for architecture design has rubbed off on me and sometimes we visit art galleries. My passion for design is perfect in my job as I deal with people who are photographers and designers. These interactions allow me to exchange ideas which are a great mix of personal and career interest.
 

Box out 1

Phibbs' advice to other companies undergoing similar M&As

 

• Enter with an open mind. Learn from the other party and explore the best ways to move forward - despite possible difficult situations. Be flexible in marketing - we learned from Macromedia to use search marketing to increase brand visibility.

 

• Do an audit of systems and databases. Streamline processes and define the various business possibilities and performance going forward.

 

• Set up a plan or roadmap to meet objectives. Have a parallel for a period of time until both companies are ready to combine. Evaluate compatibility and decide which best practices you wish to adopt.

 

• Involve customers. This will allow you to obtain customers' buy-in.

 

• Build a new combined culture for staff. Determine who is going to be there for the long term and work towards that.

 

- By Debbie Cai