The good news
A compelling brand radically improves return on your marketing investment by helping your core messages cut through the forest of communication to clients. Most professional and financial firms should review their brand every five years or so.
Well-executed brand reviews set the tone for the entire business. With so much at stake, however, there is a danger the review could result in a brand which is watered-down rather than clarified. How can this outcome be avoided? From our experience of brand reviews, we have identified three challenges for senior management to focus on.
Challenge 1 – Understand the emotional dimensions of a brand
Buying advice is not exclusively a rational decision. It is charged with emotion. Advisers are consulted at critical times: when a client is selling a business, when an individual is planning an investment, when a client is in dispute with a supplier. Effective brand reviews tap into the rational and emotional needs of clients and uses them to frame tone of voice and personality. How you communicate is as important as what you say.
Challenge 2 – Apply branding science
Branding is not a ‘fluffy’ subject. It is important to use a rigorous, validated framework to distil the essence of your brand. Use techniques such as correspondence mapping, key driver analysis, projective techniques and cluster analysis to unearth insight.
Challenge 3 – Search for simplicity
Understanding the needs of different customer segments and market dynamics is incredibly complex and nuanced. But the goal of a brand review must be to develop a brand proposition that has a strong single idea and laser-like focus. Many brand propositions fail this test because firms skimp on the analysis and, as a result, don’t have the confidence to make the right choices.
Our analysis among executives shows that the content, style, even the vocabulary of materials leaves buyers unable to distinguish between advisory firms they don’t know already. A clearer positioning will help a firm cut through the marcoms jungle and get noticed.”
Is your positioning the right one?
- Does it fit with the segments set out in the firm’s business plan?
- Does it fit with an objective assessment of client needs?
- Does it focus on properties unique to your business and to which the competition cannot equally lay claim?
- Is it credible? Will your clients and prospects believe it?
- Is it aspirational for all those working for the organisation?
- Does it energise your staff and attract talent?
Ben Kent, Partner
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