The Challenge
Growth through acquisition is one of the most efficient ways to build a diversified enterprise. It is also one of the most efficient ways to build a brand disaster. Each acquisition brings its own logo, its own colour palette, its own tone of voice, and its own digital presence, and without a deliberate architecture to hold them together, the group becomes invisible at the holding company level while the subsidiaries remain siloed.
This Saudi Arabian conglomerate, operating across construction, technology, hospitality, logistics, education, and financial services, had exactly this problem. Each business unit was well-regarded in its sector. But when investors, partners, or talent looked for the group as a whole, there was nothing coherent to find. The holding company's website was a placeholder. The subsidiaries did not acknowledge their shared ownership. And the leadership's vision for where the group was heading had no brand expression at all.
The mandate was to design a brand architecture that unified 12 business units under a coherent group identity, without erasing the sub-brand equity that each unit had built. The goal was endorsement without homogenisation: each subsidiary would benefit from the group's authority, while retaining its own distinct market position.
"A conglomerate without coherent brand architecture is a collection of assets with no story. The story is worth as much as the assets, sometimes more."
The Approach
Brand Audit Across 12 Units
A comprehensive audit documented the current brand state across all 12 business units: existing visual identities, naming conventions, digital presence quality, audience perceptions (gathered through 24 stakeholder interviews), and the strength of existing sub-brand equity. The audit produced a clear picture of which sub-brand elements were worth preserving and which were liabilities to be retired.
Group Brand Architecture Design
A branded house architecture was designed, a shared system where the group's master brand provided visible endorsement to each subsidiary, while each subsidiary retained its own name and market positioning. The architecture defined three tiers: the group identity, the primary subsidiary identities, and the service/product identities within each subsidiary. Clear rules governed how each tier related to the others.
Group Identity Creation
A new group identity was created: wordmark, logo system, primary colour system, typographic hierarchy, and tone of voice guidelines. The identity was designed to work across both Arabic and English contexts with equal fluency, a requirement for a group operating in Saudi Arabia's bilingual business environment. The design language was contemporary without being transient; authoritative without being institutional.
Sub-Brand System Harmonisation
Each of the 12 subsidiary identities was reviewed against the new group architecture. Eight required updates to align with the group's visual system while preserving their individual character. Three were redesigned more substantially where existing equity was low. One, a recently acquired premium hospitality brand, was deliberately kept at greater distance from the group identity to protect its luxury positioning.
Brand Implementation & Governance
A comprehensive brand implementation programme rolled out the new system across all digital and physical touchpoints: group website, subsidiary websites, social media profiles, office signage, document templates, and investor communications. A brand governance framework was established to ensure consistency as the group continued to grow, including an internal brand team training programme and a brand compliance review process.
Results
12
Units Unified
+89%
Brand Consistency
3
Tier Architecture
AR/EN
Bilingual System
Brand Consistency Score by Business Unit (Before vs After)
Business Unit Coverage by Sector
Group Brand Recognition, 6 Months Post-Launch
“For the first time, our group presents a coherent face to investors and partners. The brand architecture Rima designed has given us a framework that works now, and that will scale as we continue to grow through acquisition. Our leadership team is genuinely proud of it.”
Key Deliverables
Brand audit across 12 business units
Three-tier brand architecture with relationship rules
Group identity, AR/EN wordmark, colour, type system
11 subsidiary identity updates + 1 premium brand separation
Group website design & build (bilingual)
Brand governance framework & compliance process
Internal brand team training programme
Investor & communications templates for all units
Enterprise Brand Projects
Complex brand challenges require strategic thinking
From group architecture to sub-brand systems, built for the scale you are growing towards.
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