Brand:
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”
A brand provides a consistent message through all its interaction with the target audience. Therefore, a brand exists in the mind of the consumer which is the intangible sum of thoughts and feelings about a particular company, service or product.
Service Brand:
A service brand creates perceived value inside their target audience heart and mind serving their needs without any tangible association. This is quite a contrast than a product brand which is tangible and people could hold, use, and even resell those.
Strategy to Make Service Brand Stand Out:
When a service becomes a brand, it creates awareness, drives perception, and improves desirability. Brands with top-of-mind awareness have higher perceived value, which allows charging higher price points.
To make it service as brand, a company should take the following steps
Target Audience:
First of all you need to figure out the target audience to whom your service brand should focus. Instead of becoming service brand for the mass people, you need to find out market niche and specifically target those customers who have your service need.
Purpose:
To make your service brand stand out, you need to ask yourself first – “what your brand stand for”, that is, why the business is started at the first place other than making profit. A brand purpose focuses on outward service rather than inside, it’s like putting the company staffs into customer’s shoes and motivating them to serve.
The purpose of Disneyland is to create happiness for others – This purpose drives the objective Disneyland set and its action plan. Setting a purpose for the business/brand is very important for a company to create an impact in the market in this present world. Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, explains it best:
Studies show that over 80 percent of Americans do not have their dream job. If more knew how to build organizations that inspire, we could live in a world in which that statistic was the reverse—a world in which over 80 percent of people loved their jobs. People who love going to work are more productive and more creative. They go home happier and have happier families. They treat their colleagues and clients and customers better. Inspired employees make for stronger companies and stronger economies.
Vision:
A vision statement guides a company towards what the organization wishes to be like in some years’ time. It directs company staffs look beyond their day to day activities and leads to the future. For Example, American Express is known for offering credit card services to individuals around the world; their vision statement says that they want their company to be “the world’s most respected service brand”. Through their vision statement, American Express does not focus on being the best credit card service provider. Instead, they focus on being respected as a “service brand.”
Mission:
A mission statement should motivate all the stakeholders of the company – management, staff, suppliers, partners and customers whom the organization hopes to influence. The statement should be articulated in a convincing, yet easy-to-understand manner, without using industry jargon. The aim of a mission statement is to serve to the stakeholders as a kind of internal business compass when they make their day-to-day decisions.
Examples of mission statements
Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Amazon: “To be the most customer-centric company in the world, where people can find and discover anything they want to buy online.”
eBay: “Provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically anything.”
Values
Company values are a set of principles and philosophical approaches to work which guide employee behavior, company decisions and actions in day to day affair. Values let employees know the underlining beliefs of the organization and behaviors that are expected of them within the organization.
A well articulated value statement could:
- Work as a tool to establish your service as a brand to the stakeholders
- Attract the right people who embody the same value which leads to loyalty and high employee retention
- Serve as a basis of corporate ideology
- Motivate and reinforce productive behaviors inside the company
Zappos.com, one of the leading e-commerce in US, stated “delivering happiness” is the core value which drives their day to day operation inside the company.
Zappos.com ten core values are:
- Deliver WOW Through Service
- Embrace and Drive Change
- Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
- Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
- Pursue Growth and Learning
- Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
- Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
- Do More With Less
- Be Passionate and Determined
- Be Humble
Their philosophy is that they are willing to make short-term sacrifices (including lost revenue or profits) if they believe that the long-term benefits are worth it. Protecting the company culture and sticking to core values is a long-term benefit.
Brand Positioning:
Service organizations sells service which can’t be seen only could be experienced with a promise to produce a desired future outcome that improves the conditions of the consumer. The service brand level of reputation and trust in the prospects mind differentiates it from other similar services. To create desired impact in the target consumers mind service brands must focus on revealing their value to the end consumers. When a service brand represents highly valued outcome not in abundant supply, it holds premium position and which lead it to charge premium fees. It makes business development for the brand much easier that will be centered in responding to inbound inquires, rather than outbound marketing and message delivery.
It is all about understanding the target customer and creating value in their mind to build your service as a brand. A brand positioning statement for the company satisfies this requirement.
A brand positioning statement explains what your brand does, who you target, and the benefits of your brand, in a short concise statement. The statement will generally be an internal document, although it should be used as a guide to ensure all content is consistent.
To position your brand effectively in the market, you need to first identify target customers with your brand’s uniqueness and determine what differentiates the company service from the competition. You should have clear understanding of the following before forming brand positioning strategy/statement for the service
- The industry in which the business operates
- Current position of your brand in the target consumer mind
- Who are your direct competition and how they are positioned themselves
- Which service feature is unique/better than the competition
Brand Positioning Statement Development Process
There are four essential elements of creating positioning statement:
- Target Customer: Rather than trying to become a brand to everyone, you need to focus on your niche market, the customers who fall into the targeted demographic and need/interest for your service.
- Market Definition: Which specific category in the market your service brand competing and how your service situation relevant to the customers?
- Brand Promise: What is the most compelling (emotional/rational) benefit to your target customers that your brand can own relative to your competition?
- Reason to Believe / Point of Difference: The compelling reason that your brand delivers on its brand promise.
For example, Zipcar, the leading car-sharing service in the world, was introduced to the market in 2000 and their brand positioning statement below
To urban-dwelling, educated, techno-savvy consumers who worry about the environment that future generations will inherit [target and insight], Zipcar is the car-sharing service [competitive frame] that lets you save money and reduce your carbon footprint [points of difference], making you feel you’ve made a smart, responsible choice that demonstrates your commitment to protecting the environment [target’s goal/brand promise].
Brand Identity Creation:
A brand identity is how your target audience perceives the brand and it’s an essential way to differentiate the service brand from its competition. A brand identity influences your customers’ experience at every touch point. It is the sum total of how your brand looks, feels, and speaks to them—the elements that help them decide if they want to engage with you.
The brand identity includes
- Logo – A logo is an effective way to communicate and tell a customer about the industry you serve and the products you sell. A good logo conveys brand personality, which builds a customer’s emotional attachment to your business – important for retaining loyal customers.
- Color palette – It plays an important part in communicating true essence of the brand and evoke positive emotion in the customers mind.
- Typography – Typography is just as emotional as anything else. It needs to communicate the brand persona effectively.
- Iconography – It also play a role in enhancing perception about the company and encouraging brand loyalty among customers.
- Design system – It is essential to have design system – for example company website, facebook page etc to be consistent with brand personality
- Photography/graphics – A guideline of where, when, and how to use logo, photography and graphics, including guidance on filters and treatments.
Make Company Staff as Brand Ambassador:
Service organizations do not have a tangible display of products that you can see, touch, and test out before deciding to purchase. It is the employees of your service organization carrying the brand in every interaction with the stakeholders, which also includes key customers. You are spending huge amount of money to build the service as a brand but if the service brand promise and brand personality mismatch when its employees interact with the customers, much of your brand building effort fades away.
It is imperative to communicate your service brand message to the employees so that everyone could become a brand ambassador which leads to create a collaborative culture inside the organization. This helps to create an environment where every sales call, every client interaction, and every elevator conversation delivers the brand as intended. “Speaking in One Voice” is very important for a service business as effectiveness as a brand much depends on customer experience.