Helping North America’s Largest Rail Solutions Provider Navigate a Major Merger
Project Overview: North American Rail Solutions Naming & Identity
In April 2023, American Track Services and Universal Rail Systems partnered together to become North America’s largest rail solutions provider. While the merger empowered these two undisputed industry leaders to expand their collective size, reach and suite of services, it also presented the practical challenge of establishing a shared corporate identity under which both brands could seamlessly operate. For starters, what would the parent organization be called?
What We Did
Leadership partnered with Bailey to help them navigate the swiftly approaching merger. Our team began by immersing ourselves into both sides of the business; we scrutinized a wide range of internal assets and branding materials and took a deep dive into the category to better understand the present state of the market and competitive landscape. Conducted over a period of several weeks, this analysis illuminated opportunities and challenges alike, as well as powerful points of overlap between the two brands and areas of stark differentiation.
Our team leveraged the insights we uncovered to develop consolidated brand positioning materials, including ownable attributes, key messaging and actionable pillars of success. After finalizing these foundational elements of the brand, we embarked on a naming initiative in close collaboration with the American Track Services and Universal Rail Systems leadership teams.
Our recommended solution was strategically unambiguous in communicating the consolidated organization’s ability to serve customers across both the United States and Canada—and so, North American Rail Solutions was born. Bailey’s design team then set to work developing logo treatments that strongly conveyed credibility, capability and forward momentum.
The unique “N” mark we landed on is composed of two identical inverted shapes that tie the theme of partnership directly to the brand identity. The shapes can also be read as a nod to the merger itself and together form parallel diagonal lines suggesting rail or track.
Results
Internal rollout of the new corporate name and identity was supported with branded swag including business cards, hard hats, coffee mugs and more. Finally, Bailey’s strategy and web development teams collaborated to create a dedicated external landing page that delivers a high-level overview of the North American Rail Solutions brand positioning and messaging platform. The merger was officially announced via press release on April 17, 2023.
