With a view of expanding public awareness of its brand, particularly in Canada outside Quebec, and in the U.S., ACCEO has moved the ACCEO name more prominently into its many sub-brands, eliminating some confusion that existed among customers.
Gilles Létourneau, president and CEO of ACCEO
On the heels of an aggressive acquisition strategy, which saw it acquire three companies in 2015, and a fourth in the first month of this year, Montréal-based solution provider ACCEO Solutions has moved to enhance its brand strategy with the announcement of a new brand image.
The acquisition and branding strategies are related. While ACCEO began as an integrator of accounting and financial software, through acquisitions over the years, they also have developed a strong presence in three other areas – management solutions, point of sale, and payment solutions.
“We had a lot of products – over 40 – and a lot of sub-brands and it was not easy to remember everything and associate it with ACCEO,” said Gilles Létourneau, president and chief executive officer of ACCEO. “We had customers who associated their product with a sub-brand, and didn’t know they were a customer of ACCEO. So last year, we began a big rebranding last year around the sub-products, and are now announcing the completion of this, and our new brand strategy.”
The new branding, which was conducted with the assistance of Montréal-based marketing agency BrandBourg, makes the name ACCEO much more prominent across the entire product line.
“The new branding will ensure that ACCEO is well known across all four areas that we manage, and includes things like having the name ACCEO much more in front on invoices,” Létourneau said. “ACCEO will be a prominent part of the sub-products that we have as well as the new products that we build for our customers.”
Létourneau stressed that building awareness of the ACCEO brand had become a top priority.
“We have to be more well-known in the market, not just in Quebec but elsewhere in Canada, and in the United States,” he said. “We do aspire to be a public company one day.”
Létourneau also indicated that ACCEO’s strategic goal is to become the North American leader in e-business transaction processing, and that the new branding also works to position that objective to the company’s customers, partners and employees. They have also adopted a new tagline – ACCEO: programmed for your performance.
Létourneau indicated, however, that the branding isn’t bringing about any change to the company’s vision.
“Our mission hasn’t changed,” he said. “We have refined it with this, but it’s the same one as before. We are just now presenting our products within our strategy more effectively.”
