Branding for the service sector

Replacing 'try before you buy' within the service sector. Before we purchase something we seek an example of what we can expect. Sometimes this is very tangible. For example, when we purchase a car, we can test drive it, take it home, show our friends and family and attain a real insight into what a purchase would deliver to us. ithin the services sector, this insight is often impossible. !t is understandable that the consumer"s desire to try before you buy would transcend across to the services industry, however it is impossible to truly experience what would be delivered upon proper engagement of a service business. ithin my industry, some advertising agencies and graphic design studios try to trick prospective clients by offering a solution up front and for free as proof of their capability# this is referred to as free pitching. !n fact this#!"ll call it disease#became so virulent, that our clients came to expect our service for free and it is taking considerable effort to eradicate. $hanks to the hard work of the likes of %&'% and Blair (nns, free pitching will soon become an unfortunate part of our history. Similar challenges are faced by lawyers, financial advisors, accountants and many other service businesses. So how can branding solutions assist the service sector and their customers? A) Convey a promise that is trustworthy and possible for your business to deliver. !f your positioning seems too good to be true, most likely people will perceive it that way and not take the risk. Similarly if you can not produce examples of delivering on your promise in the past, this will also discourage prospects to engage you. B) Inspire trust in your expertise process and experience. !t is important your business communicates what it does, why it does that and how you achieve it. )nce your prospects start to see the methods behind what you do, they will trust the process and take the next step with you. C) !ind what is at the heart of why people engage businesses li"e yours. *our language should be geared around resolving that deep need of your prospects. $his should be what guides your communication strategy and it will determine what sales tools you re+uire and how to structure them , often all of these will be available on your website, so that is a good place to start. #) $eputation is everything. !t is highly important once you are engaged by a client that you deliver. )nce you"ve delivered to a satisfied client, you can use this case study as an example of your capabilities to other prospective clients. -ase studies are the key to business development within the service sector. %) &astly and perhaps most importantly be inspiring. $he best service businesses create a position that is both realistic but exciting for the prospect. !f you can get your prospect in a position where they are starting to think big and get them truly excited about

the idea of working with you, then you"ve got it right. hat you"re aiming for, is for your prospect to be thinking .that might /ust be possible, do you think we can do that01 $o achieve this re+uires ex+uisite execution of all elements of your brand. So if prospects are tentative to engage your service business, then refocus the positioning of your business to address what is their core need.

Steps for building a service brand

ith appropriate senior management commitment, building a relevant and powerful brand for any consumer,focused company, including a bank, is a reasonable goal. $here are six components that go into successfully branding a service sector firm. $hese steps blueprint the process of developing a concise message or promise that an institution wants to communicate to its customers, and for executing a strategy that delivers on that promise. $he above figure illustrates the process of building brands. 23 $he first step in building a branded business is to understand the role of the brand in that particular business, including the leverage it can provide across markets and product categories. % brand can provide information and communicate efficiently, +ualify a product or service, or establish differentiation. % truly powerful brand can do all three if necessary. $o decide what role brands should play, it is important to take a dispassionate look at the current status of the organisation and product4service offering,how they are perceived by customers, competitors and employees. !n addition, the institution has to understand what these distinct constituencies need to know and believe about the brand. For instance, in &eneral (lectric"s 5&(3 appliance business, the retail trade is most interested in product +uality, marketing support and access to credit. -onsumers are interested in product +uality, but in addition seek a set of design attributes. &("s brands thus play two roles. 63 Secondly, brand builders must choose a brand architecture consistent with the chosen role and the institution"s products, services and market landscape. $here are three types of brand architectures7 the first is a single brand#one brand that covers the entire product range, for example, Sony, 8ome 'epot and 9isa. $hen come tiered brands#with a parent brand supported by sub,brands for each product line. -ompanies such as Sears and :abisco use a tiered brand architecture, where individual brands benefit from the corporate brand umbrella. $he third architecture is multiple brands#with each product carrying its own brand distinct from the parent. ;rocter < &amble is a company that uses multiple brand architecture, with each of its products#$ide, ;ampers, !vory Soap#building and supporting its own brand identity. hich brand architecture you choose depends on business ob/ectives and market conditions. $he single brand architecture best applies when customers seek the same attributes across market segments and product lines. $he tiered

brand architecture allows the institution to build on critical foundation attributes while still tailoring the marketing message to specific segments. =ultiple brands are needed when each market segment has distinct needs. >3 $he third step in branding a business and developing a brand strategy is to position the brand to effectively communicate the value proposition. -ritical here are clarity, consistency and relevance. 9olvo 5safety3, :ike 5limitless performance3 and al,=art 5good deals3 are examples of companies that have clear brand positions. $he clarity is achieved through the consistent use of all marketing levers 5price, product design, image and channel selection3 to drive home a single message. ?3 !n the fourth step, a company must develop the programmes needed to deliver the brand and the brand promise. $his happens through programmes or services that convey the brand message to the target audience. :ike"s support of grassroots athletic events and 9isa"s )lympic sponsorship illustrate the type of programmes needed to creatively deploy brands. :ike helps amateur athletes perform, while 9isa demonstrates its global reach. @3 (ssential for generating brand performance is the fifth step in effective branding7 creating or designing an organisation to lead and manage a branded business, one that includes the right skills and structure to execute the brand strategy. -itibank, for example, has recently recruited a number of people with brand,building skills, including illiam -ampbell, formerly the marketer behind many of ;hilip =orris" successes. A3 Finally, for a brand to be effective in the marketplace, the business system must be aligned with the brand promise. !t must start at the very top with a vision and strategy that is embraced and articulated by senior management. !magine 9irgin %ir without Richard Branson or :ike without ;hil Bnight and the importance of leadership in establishing and driving a brand becomes obvious.

Industrial Branding
B6B branding has its specific features. First of all, these features are related to the fact that the commercial brand is working with the professional audience. Re+uirements for the professional audience are tougher, so the emphasis in creating brand shifts from the emotional angle to rational one. Re+uirements for the B6B brand are the same as the re+uirements for professionals , being reliable, predictable and guaranteeing +uality. !f the emotions are decisive in the brand's future on consumer market, industrial brand is a brand that solves the problem. !t is the brand that is trusted in business as a serious partner. %nother important detail that should be taken into account in the industrial branding

is the factor of marketing communications. =arketing communications which help to develop a B6B brand work in more sophisticated way. $he brand has to build relationships at different levels of decision,making, each time from scratch. 'e recommend distinguishing ( main phases in industrial branding)

:aming -orporate identity 'eveloping the concept of brand

*aming *aming is the choice of brand name. -hoosing a name in the industrial branding is the choice of the brand's future. $he name in the B6B sector is clear associations with a specific area of activity. $here's nothing more dangerous in the industrial branding than an abstract and empty name. )f course, there are some cases when a fundamentally new product, a uni+ue product, is created in the B6B sector and the task of the name is to inform the market7 C;lease do not compare me with anything0 ! am really like a uni+ue product0 $hat's /ust what my name tells about0 C. 8owever, to be frank, there are not so much cases today. %s a rule, the new product can be classified and put into a number of similar goods. $he task of the name is to win the competition. $he task is to draw attention, make the first impression, say about the brand as much as possible and do it very +uickly. 8ow to create the name which can do itD e believe that creating something new it's always good to consider the existing experience. ell, you can always look at the experience of others and learn useful lessons. ho of the predecessors was successful and whyD B6B should not have unnecessary words because the task of business is to earn more money0 !t means that the most successful brand names are CspeakingC names. %bout what should they speakD $hey should speak about what is important. $he brand name which says nothing about the product and the company's business will not help to find new contacts and proper positioning and even affect it. !t's not /ust that the brand can not be correctly perceived by the market and re/ected only on this ground, but that the abstract name of the brand will make the owner to invest more money in brand building. $he brand name is like its testimonial letter. $he brand will be perceived by its name immediately making the first conclusions. %ctually, one of the features of industrial branding is that it has very strong stereotypes. $o some extent, this is the very feature which is associated with the fact that industrial brands are harder to diversify or reposition. 8owever, the explanation is simple , more sophisticated marketing communications are to blame. $heir complexity is explained by the fact that industrial brand has to build contacts at various levels of decision,making because the decision making process in business, as a rule, includes several stages.

!ndustrial brands are the big fish of modern industry. $hey are trusted, they are matched and they are the marks of economic prosperity as a whole. $he appearance of a new name is the event and the disappearance of the old one is the tragedy. $he decisions on the B6B brands are sometimes taken by the governments as so great is their role in the modern society.

Creating the Corporate Identity

-orporate identity in industrial branding should reflect several +ualities of the brand7

!ndustry specialiEation &eography of business

$he potential customer will have only several seconds for the corporate identity contact to make a decision whether to continue the dialogue. !f a business card will go in the trash it will be difficult to return to constructive dialogue. $hat is why the corporate identity should be not only recogniEable, uni+ue and attractive, but also substantive. -orporate identity should represent the business telling the maximum useful information about it in a short period of time provided. Creating a corporate identity of a company operating in the B+B sector includes several stages) 2. -reating a design solution 6. -reating a slogan >. 'escription of design solutions and a slogan, description or creation of business legend from scratch ?. -reating a brand,book or guidelines for corporate identity use :one of these items can not be missed because the corporate identity will be the image of your brand for many years. *ou should understand it, you should be comfortable with it, but, and which is more important your customers should feel comfortable with your corporate identity. *ou create a corporate identity not for yourself, but for the business, and, strangely enough, your business has different needs. -orporate identity must be recogniEable and understandable. $his is of crucial importance when we talk about B6B business which is the professional sector. $he -oncept of b6b Brand $he B6B is going through the same stages as the brand of the consumer market. 8owever, there are certain features. First of all they are associated with the target groups the brand is oriented to, as well as with marketing communications in the b6b sector.

!f you plan to develop the brand in the b6b sector it will be interesting for you to learn about some aspects of the development of the b6b brand. $he concept of the brand in the b6b sector or industrial branding helps to see the future of the brand, its prospects and its regional growth potential. $he concept of the brand development will allow you to avoid mistakes at the stage of brand creation and putting it on the market. $he most common mistakes are those associated with naming, when the brand name has to be +uickly changed in one of the strategic markets, because it can not be used the way it is for lexical or psychological reasonsF corporate identity, when the corporate identity is associated with +uite contrary to what the brand owners expected to get when developing it. Brand is an asset of business, since its inception and through its whole life in the market you should work to increase its price and value. !t is these challenges, the challenges of long,term strategic planning the brand concept handles for the brand. ,he concept of industrial brand development should handle the following tas"s)

defining the goals and tas"s of the brand shaping the corporate mission of the brand. !t is important to remember that the b6b market is real people who make decisions on the ground of business feasibility never forgetting about the moral aspects. !f there are two competing brands on the market one of which has a more human,friendly image it is the image the customers will prefer. Gltimately, people like to make decisions that from their point of view make the world a little better. $he corporate identity mission of the brand solves this particular problem explaining what exactly this brand is different from its competitors and why it is so important for the brand to be successful. specifying the target group as industrial brand usually works in one or more clearly defined sectors. !t is important to know these sectors very well, to investigate the decision,making process in the companies represented in the sector in order to make sure that marketing communications really contribute to the dialogue with all the links of the decision,making chain. specifying a plan of geographic priorities of the brand . %t the stage of brand development is necessary to anticipate that the brand can go beyond the certain geographical scope and become successful in various countries. $he brand should be technically ready for the eventual success. developing the concept of brand extension, its development in the market, entering ad/acent markets. specifying the communication brand concept. Fist of all, you should specify the communication tools which will help to bring the brand on the market. $his is very important to make the brand technically ready to work with certain media. %ll technical +uestions concerning the use of the brand should be reflected in the brand,

book, but we must be realistic. $oday's world is so diversified offering such a large number of communications solutions that it is almost impossible to predict everything. !f you need a +uality brand,book you should focus on the decisions that you plan to use without spending time and effort on something that won't be popular in the foreseeable future. -reating the concept of industrial brand development is the creation of a better future because every successful brand it is the way to make the world better and solve one more problem.

$etailer as Advertiser - Building a $etail Brand Successfully

Retailers can successfully shape perceptions about their brand by creating and executing marketing programs with the same creativity and discipline as manufacturers. !n its /ourney to rebuild its brand in a differentiated and relevant manner, algreens has achieved milestones that offer other retailers important lessons in brand building. Bim Feil, -=), algreens describes the practices that helped rebuild the brand. Retailers can build a more distinctive proposition for shoppers through creative and disciplined marketing, noted Bim Feil, -=), algreens during her presentation at the :ielsen -onsumer >AH event in Florida. Feil noted that while the Sunday circular has been the vehicle of choice for most retailers, it is limited in its ability to shape brand perceptions effectively in a differentiated manner. hen algreens began its /ourney to reshape its brand perception and resonate with consumers despite a difficult economic scenario, it crafted a comprehensive marketing program with all the elements of a contemporary marketing mix. Feil described the process at algreens when she took charge of the marketing function and worked towards a more broad,based approach for communicating the algreens" brand as well as its offerings. !t began by understanding the brand"s lineage and long history of innovation, which shaped a well,recogniEed brand. 8owever, consumers saw the brand as old, convenient, cluttered and a standard, undifferentiated store. -onsumers did not recogniEe algreens as a comprehensive health services provider, despite the fact that they employ the second largest healthcare team after the government. algreens embarked on a /ourney to rebuild the brand. By segmenting consumers carefully, they realiEed that while shoppers wanted to be helped, they also needed to make their own informed choices. $his realiEation reconfigured algreen"s positioning to become

the first choice for health and daily living that helped consumers live well, stay well, and get well. $o execute on this positioning, algreens broadened the set of Itouch points" to reach out to consumers using a variety of media that included television, mobile and online amongst others. For instance, the algreens" online team converted shoppers" online experience to echo the brand"s proposition by offering information and advice as well as integrating more social media. $his created the real,time ability to conduct a dialogue that helped the retailer offer promotions that resonated with consumers. $he strategy yielded positive, tangible business results in 6HHJ and 6H2H when algreens applied its new marketing mix during the flu season. By taking the same core principles and what Feil described as Iconnection points" with consumers to other areas such as consultations, health services, outdoor, mobile and online algreens was able to increase awareness, consideration for their offerings and reinforce the brand"s new positioning. Similarly, in the mobile arena, the algreen"s mobile application became one of the top 2H downloaded apps during the weeks that it was advertised. %s a result of these actions and their positive outcomes for both sales and profitability, algreens has demonstrated that by applying the right marketing mix models and metrics to brand building, retailers too can be successful advertisers.