THE IMPORTANCE of the role played by services, in both the economy at large and in organisations in particular, is immense. This encompasses not only 'pure' service industries, such as design, but companies that market goods where the service element is increasingly a point of competitive differentiation.In a first of a series of insights drawn from a Chartered Institute of Marketing report called Services Marketing, we look at brand management, as it affects companies' ability to attract and retain clients.
Brand strategy and clients
Brands are successful because they deliver a promise to clients consistently. The 'integrity' of the brand is founded upon the ability to deliver to a set of expectations. For products, this is the experience of using the product. For services, brand integrity is derived from clients' experience of the service. All aspects of service delivery must embody the brand, with any inconsistency of service quality defining your brand in clients' eyes. An excellent branding strategy can make an already strong service stronger but it cannot rescue a weak service.
It's essential that service providers develop a brand strategy that sets expectation in the minds of their clients and that this becomes a basis for differentiation. Intelligent branding is also important when an organisation wishes to extend its service offering into a new area, and to go after new clients or customers.
Brand case study: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
PwC is the world's largest professional services organization, with revenues of around $20 billion. Its current incarnation stems from a merger with Coopers & Lybrand in 1998. It has six areas of service, including auditing, business process outsourcing, global HR solutions, consultancy, tax expertise and corporate finance and recovery.
In a partnership such as PwC, change can't be pushed through from the top but has to be facilitated through persuasion and encouragement. The post-merger rebranding process began with a central marketing and communications team defining the new brand values, based on the theme of people, knowledge, worlds.
Once the core values were decided upon, there was a comprehensive redesign that included new logo and identity guidelines for all visual aspects of the firm, from advertising and business cards through to the buildings themselves. This initiative brought consistency and discipline to the PwC brand. And while at first its people didn't like having it imposed upon them, the brand is now becoming part of the firm's 'DNA'.
To continue to bolster the brand, PwC carries out a brand tracking survey every year. Based on interviews with senior people across the world, the data can be cut so that it's relevant for each particular division. The survey tracks measures such as loyalty, awareness and familiarity with the brand compared to competitors. In the years 2000-2002, PwC brand recognition rose by 70%.
by Sean Ashcroft
