US firms RSM McGladrey and McGladrey + Pullen
have rebranded under the common name McGladrey in an effort to
improve market awareness.
The two firms will be marketed under a single
banner but continue to operate as separate legal identities. This
means the firms are still legally named and operate as RSM
McGladrey and McGladrey + Pullen.
“Whenever we conduct ourselves or communicate
there’s a linkage back to the legal entity that provides those
services,” McGladrey chief marketing officer Mark Audino said,
adding that advertising would not focus on any particular
services.
Alternate practice
structure
McGladrey + Pullen is a CPA firm that offers
audit and attest services while RSM McGladrey offers accounting,
tax and business consulting services. The firms have operated in
tandem under an alternate practice structure for more than 10
years..jpg "McGladrey logo"){kind=small}
Audino said the firms’ separate brands had
caused “a degree of confusion” in the marketplace, prompting a
change in marketing strategy.
“We have now got clarity in the sense of a
recallable, easily identifiable brand identity,” he said.
“Ultimately, the awareness and the
consideration are the first steps in driving incremental revenue.
That is our ultimate goal in terms of new clients as well as
business from current clients.”
The McGladrey brand is being promoted through
a nationwide marketing campaign, which included professional US
golfer Chris DiMarco putting golf balls on the world’s largest
golf-themed cake.
Recently, the firms realigned to focus on
national lines of business and industry.
In the past
The decision to form a common brand comes
after months of dispute between the two firms, which kicked off in
July 2009 when McGladrey & Pullen announced it intended to
terminate its relationship with RSM McGladrey.
The threat was not carried out and the two
firms reaffirmed their long-term alternate practice structure
agreement and filed new documentation with the US Securities and
Exchange Commission in February 2010.
According to the latest International
Accounting Bulletin US survey, the combined revenue of the two
firms was $1.46 billion in the year to 30 April 2009, making the
firms’ combined revenue the highest outside the Big Four.
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