LSEG: Brand architecture transformation
A brand model shift and portfolio restructure of over twenty sub-brands + leading the business through the transformation.
Client:
LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group)
Category:
In-house, Transformation, Architecture
My Role:
Senior Brand Manager (in-house)
Following LSEG's acquisition of Refinitiv in 2021, the group was operating a portfolio of over twenty distinct sub-brands. The Refinitiv brand (valued at £717m) was at risk of not transferring equity to its new parent, while LSEG significantly lagged its new sub-brand in brand awareness. An investment case was built and approved to fund the rebranding of the entire portfolio to deliver a more streamlined, connected experience. The brief was to redesign the brand architecture and restructure the portfolio accordingly.
The Story
The Brand Strategy Team worked through the implications of different brand architecture models (branded house, house of brands, endorsed structures etc.) against the existing portfolio: what each would preserve, what it would cost to execute, and how it would impact the myriad existing customer groups and audiences across the business. Ultimately the recommendation was:
House of Brands / Sub-brand → Hybrid Masterbrand
The portfolio would be consolidated into six clear sub-brands underneath LSEG, with London Stock Exchange to lead as the portfolio's founding member.
Prior to this, LSEG functioned as a holding company; a financial interest spanning disparate businesses, with no group-level sales relationships, disconnected customer experience, and decentralised cultures where employees identified with their heritage business rather than the group. The recommendation reframed this as a portfolio company: LSEG as parent endorser and connector, with shared CX principles and a shared culture across the business.
Deciding on the architecture model was technically the easiest aspect of the transformation. The hardest part was in convincing a heavily product-and-sales-lead business that didn't speak the language of brand why the change was necessary, what it meant for them, and then securing their help to implement it.
The transformation programme involved sequencing rebrands across a twenty-plus-brand portfolio, building the internal Brand Ambassador Programme so employees became the face of the change rather than bystanders to it, and coordinating a restructuring that touched legal entity names, CRM systems and regulatory notifications.
£49.85m — the investment case approved across a three-year, four-workstream programme
The recommended structure was approved and delivered on schedule. Refinitiv fully retired as a brand in November 2023. Outcome data specific to this transition was still being gathered when I left in early 2024; LSEG's 2023 results reported the wider integration had exceeded its acquisition targets in the meantime.
