How do professional services firms, including general contractors, engineers, CPA’s and architects build their brand? Is a promise something you can build?
Management at many firms believes that marketing creates brands. This isn’t the case for most companies. The marketing budget for a professional services firm would have to be in the high seven figures to effectively change a brand.
When I was Chairman of the Corporate Marketing Committee at Walker, management was toying with the idea of changing the name because the founder, Carl Walker was back in business. He had signed a non-compete clause when he was bought out, but immediately had gone back into the parking consulting business. The business consultant informed management that two million dollars would be needed to make the change and even then there were no guarantees of success. Her final words,"Why spend all this money to give away your brand when the new name might take years to impact the market?"
Although it takes time to build a powerful brand, sometimes it takes only a few broken promises to destroy it. How is the Toyota brand doing today? The brand is hurting even though the company is now spending a million dollars a day on safety improvements and using a massive marketing expenditure to tell consumers about their commitments. Better yet, where is the BP brand today? Granted those two examples are in need of expert crisis management advice, but, in the end, it is their brand that will suffer.
When customer complaints have the potential to go viral on the internet, you have to pay careful attention to your brand and its promises. A few years ago, a national hotel chain treated a customer badly. This was a business traveller who was in their guest honors program. He put together a Powerpoint presentation of what happened and posted it on the internet. Within a few weeks it had more than a million hits. It is not difficult to connect the dots to how that minor incident at a Houston property impacted occupancy across the brand.
A brand reflects past performance of the delivery of your services. Your brand will prosper (or suffer) based upon future performance of your service delivery system.
The “system” is the combination of all the promises you make to clients. Your brand is your promise to clients that you will deliver something. It includes the quality of what you will deliver, your team, schedule and your “wow” factor. Therefore, your brand begins with your value proposition. The marketplace recognizes your brand when clients reflect your promise. Brands are transparent.
Transparency has gotten a bad rap in the last two years. People talk about about a lot of things, but often fail to deliver. Politicians come to mind when discussing talk and little action.
Marketing is the sizzle of your brand. But, the actions of your firm are where the rubber meets the road. When all of your marketing is peeled back from your brand, the only thing that remains is the promise. Remember when “a man’s word is his bond” ruled business transactions? Brands says the same thing about your firm’s promise. The gap between words and reality are clear when looking at Toyota or BP. Does your firm have a gap?
Some professional services firms are getting beaten up in this economy over fees. Much of this happens because of the gap factor. Companies that live their brand and maintain many client advocates are not affected as much by pricing issues.
Although marketing can’t hide a weak brand, it can expand the brand image to new markets and clients. The management of your firm should initiate a brand audit. It should have the same commitment that firms had in the 1980's when they were involved with creating a "quality improvement" process for the entire company. Today might be a good time to start the brand audit. Go to www.businessdevelopmentpros.org for information.
Management at many firms believes that marketing creates brands. This isn’t the case for most companies. The marketing budget for a professional services firm would have to be in the high seven figures to effectively change a brand.
When I was Chairman of the Corporate Marketing Committee at Walker, management was toying with the idea of changing the name because the founder, Carl Walker was back in business. He had signed a non-compete clause when he was bought out, but immediately had gone back into the parking consulting business. The business consultant informed management that two million dollars would be needed to make the change and even then there were no guarantees of success. Her final words,"Why spend all this money to give away your brand when the new name might take years to impact the market?"
Although it takes time to build a powerful brand, sometimes it takes only a few broken promises to destroy it. How is the Toyota brand doing today? The brand is hurting even though the company is now spending a million dollars a day on safety improvements and using a massive marketing expenditure to tell consumers about their commitments. Better yet, where is the BP brand today? Granted those two examples are in need of expert crisis management advice, but, in the end, it is their brand that will suffer.
When customer complaints have the potential to go viral on the internet, you have to pay careful attention to your brand and its promises. A few years ago, a national hotel chain treated a customer badly. This was a business traveller who was in their guest honors program. He put together a Powerpoint presentation of what happened and posted it on the internet. Within a few weeks it had more than a million hits. It is not difficult to connect the dots to how that minor incident at a Houston property impacted occupancy across the brand.
A brand reflects past performance of the delivery of your services. Your brand will prosper (or suffer) based upon future performance of your service delivery system.
The “system” is the combination of all the promises you make to clients. Your brand is your promise to clients that you will deliver something. It includes the quality of what you will deliver, your team, schedule and your “wow” factor. Therefore, your brand begins with your value proposition. The marketplace recognizes your brand when clients reflect your promise. Brands are transparent.
Transparency has gotten a bad rap in the last two years. People talk about about a lot of things, but often fail to deliver. Politicians come to mind when discussing talk and little action.
Marketing is the sizzle of your brand. But, the actions of your firm are where the rubber meets the road. When all of your marketing is peeled back from your brand, the only thing that remains is the promise. Remember when “a man’s word is his bond” ruled business transactions? Brands says the same thing about your firm’s promise. The gap between words and reality are clear when looking at Toyota or BP. Does your firm have a gap?
Some professional services firms are getting beaten up in this economy over fees. Much of this happens because of the gap factor. Companies that live their brand and maintain many client advocates are not affected as much by pricing issues.
Although marketing can’t hide a weak brand, it can expand the brand image to new markets and clients. The management of your firm should initiate a brand audit. It should have the same commitment that firms had in the 1980's when they were involved with creating a "quality improvement" process for the entire company. Today might be a good time to start the brand audit. Go to www.businessdevelopmentpros.org for information.
