Author and Grist Founder Ted Schlueter Re-Releases Branding for Buyout with New Foreword from Eric Coonrod of Integral Capital Advisors
Ted Schlueter, the award-winning brand-builder and founder of the advertising agency The Grist, re-released today Branding for Buyout ®, his highly sought-after business book that provides a pioneering approach to helping companies tap unrealized enterprise value prior to exit. The new edition features a foreword by Eric Coonrod, founder and managing director of Integral Capital Advisors, a leading investment banking firm.
In today's macroeconomic climate, having a robust buyer-focused brand strategy is essential for a successful business exit plan. According to Pitchbook’s Q1 2023 Global M&A report, global deal value was down 32% from the peak just over a year prior. For smaller companies, those worth $100 million or less, their median enterprise value dropped to a revenue multiple of 1.1x, trailing behind the overall M&A market's median of 1.6x. In Q1 of 2023, founder-owned businesses accounted for the largest share of the market ever, representing 85% of all businesses sold.
Branding for Buyout’s proven case study examples demonstrate how a well-developed pre-exit brand strategy can greatly enhance a company's overall value and facilitate a smoother and more successful acquisition process. However, the current M&A structure lacks a crucial element: the early development of a brand strategy blueprint to drive value creation. Through a partnership with Integral Capital Advisors, announced last year, The Grist is bridging this gap in the market and introducing a new model for entrepreneurs and C-Level executives to prepare their company for acquisition, fuel growth, or pre-engineer a new start-up.
Ted Schlueter, CEO of the Grist, said, “The M&A industry has focused on bringing together the right company with the right buyer. However, we’ve proven the benefits of building a buyer-focused marketing strategy and brand positioning earlier in the process. With the Integral Capital Advisors team, we are reinventing the way founders can change the trajectory of a company’s overall value and often times attract even more buyers to the table.”
The updated 2023 edition of Branding for Buyout features a new foreword, "Re-inventing the sell-side process for entrepreneurs," written by Eric Coonrod, a 20-year veteran of the banking industry. The foreword uses a rich collection of results-proven case studies from business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and academic resources to teach dynamic lessons in brand strategy, development, re-branding, market awareness, and deal psychology. The Branding for Buyout method has been successfully leveraged in exits over the past few years, including snack brand PopCorners (acquired by PepsiCo) and cloud management platform Embotics (acquired by Swedish software company Snow).
“I was extremely honored to write the foreword for Ted because I truly believe in the added value he is creating for his clients,” said Eric Coonrod. “If done properly, where you build in a buyer-focused marketing strategy and brand positioning earlier in the marketing process, you can change the trajectory of a company’s overall value and sell for more than what the intrinsic value alone would dictate. This strategy can, and it certainly has in the past, led to literally $10s of millions of dollars in added value that would otherwise not be obtained.”
Branding for Buyout, with the new foreword by Eric Coonrod, founder and managing director of Integral Capital Advisors, is now available online at Amazon.
About The Grist
Founded in 2019, The Grist is a marketing consultancy that creates disruptive value for both B2B and B2C clients and specializes in lower middle market companies that want to maximize pre-exit value with an entrepreneurial approach to exit, Branding for Buyout.
www.thegrist.com / www.brandingforbuyout.com
About Integral Capital Advisors
Founded in 2021, Integral Capital Advisors is a boutique investment bank with decades of expertise across multiple industry verticals. The firm was founded with the philosophy that investment banking does not need to be a zero-sum game – both sides of any deal can win. The bankers at Integral provide honest, practical, and sound financial and strategic advice while building and developing long-term relationships with its clients across multiple industries, including Business Services, Health & Wellness, Healthcare Services, Manufacturing & Distribution, and Technology. https://www.integralcapitaladvisors.com/branding-for-buyout