Without spelling out what it means for its CCH operations, Wolters Kluwer has said it is starting a new brand strategy. The Dutch company, parent to CCH, late last week issued a statement it would have a single, worldwide brand. However, the company has been moving toward more visibility of the WK name with the CCH website offering a login to CCH for tax and accounting customers, but to Wolters Kluwer Law & Business for the other major segment of operations.
The company also introduced the tagline "When you have to be right" to accompany the new brand platform. CCH has been carrying the tagline "A Wolters Kluwer Company." There was nothing in the prepared release that gave a timetable for rolling out the brand or stating if it will be a one-time switch or a phased-in approach or state outright that the CCH brand would be replaced by the corporate brand.
In a prepared statement, chief executive Nancy McKinstry said, "This brand strategy, which applies across all our employees and customer segments worldwide, is centered on that conviction. It marks an important evolution of our business: we are increasingly developing integrated products that combine essential information with technology solutions to provide our customers with answers, insights and improved productivity."
The company played a video at the end of today's earnings webcast that included the new tagline. At the very end of the presentation, McKinstry described the change with this comment: "What you will hear from us going forward is a much stronger emphasis and the WK brand and many of the product brand and other brands that exist within the operating companies will diminish over time." However, there was no other discussion of the change or specifics related to CCH.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind