Why do your clients buy services you offer from other firms?
It happens time and time again. You learn through the grapevine or a loyal client that another client has just chosen a competitor for a service that you provide. When you ask your client why he chose a competitor, he says, “I didn’t know you did that.” You feel frustrated and perhaps even angry or threatened by this change to your relationship. When these situations occur, consultants often blame a lack of marketing volume or effectiveness for the lost business. While this may be the case, the primary cause of “I-didn’t-know-you-did-thatitis” is more frequently a discombobulated brand architecture—one that confuses and overwhelms clients and prospects. Let’s look at what brand architecture is and its critical importance in professional services.
DOWNLOAD: The 20 Biggest Brand Mistakes Firms Make (And How to Avoid Them)
What is brand architecture?
Brand architecture is nothing more than a systematic way of organizing the identity of the products and messages of an organization so people understand how clients are served. Here is an example of a familiar company, BMW. This format is referred to as a “Branded House” and brands all products with the corporate moniker, BMW followed by a number. It is straightforward and shows clearly a manageable number of product levels.
This example reflects a “House of Brands” where the corporate brand is relegated and each product or service has a unique, proprietary name and brand identity.
Here is an example of a typical (actual) mid-sized HR-focused professional services firm’s brand architecture at the practice/service level:
- Communication
- Strategic HR and benefits communication
- HR branding
- Employee Listening
- Learning programs
- Global communication
- Change management
- Corporate communication
- Communicating green
- Mobile apps
- Comm.Unity
- Compensation
- Board advisory
- Equity Compensation
- Global Compensation
- Management advisory
- Nonqualified deferred compensation
- Performance and rewards
- Sales effectiveness and compensation
- Surveys and benchmarking
- Total remuneration
- Valuation services
- Global Investment Advisors
- Global Technology and Delivery Solutions
- Defined benefit administration
- Health and welfare administration
- Global equity solutions
- Kinetic application technology
- Separation solutions and administration
- Health and Productivity
- Health and welfare plan management
- Clinical strategies
- Consumer engagement
- Health and welfare audits
- HIPAA compliance
- New directions in healthcare management
- Health and welfare administration
- Specialized services
- Retirement
- Plan strategy and design
- Defined contribution plan consulting
- Plan governance and fiduciary responsibility
- Compliance and regulatory risk management
- Actuarial consulting and financial management
- Multi-employer and governmental plans
- Investment management and consulting
- Ongoing plan operation and administration
- Talent and HR Solutions
- Talent planning
- Talent deployment
- Talent engagement
READ: The Fallacy of Professional Services Productization
At which word did you stop reading? (I made it to number 28, “Kinetic Application Technology.”) Most firms believe that for clients to understand a firm’s full breadth of services, it must list them all. As this list illustrates, the strategy overwhelms people, and they stop listening. This is an issue that plagues large and small firms alike. Large firms want to represent a full breadth and depth of services. Small firms want to look bigger than they might actually be.
There is an axiom among marketers that clients do not buy drill bits; they buy holes.
Most firms are just selling ¼ inch, high-speed, titanium drill bits! Clients want a ¼ inch hole that is fast, easy, and cheap; whether it is made of titanium, laser, or water jet is less important. If we intuitively know that simple is better and that clients buy benefits not features, why do so many firms fall into this trap?
Two reasons professional services brand architectures are ineffective: Opportunity Costs and Partner Rewards.
1. Opportunity Costs
Many firms believe that if they limit marketing to a smaller core set of services, then, they limit their growth prospects. Leaders are loathed to limit themselves. After all, the firm is filled with savvy problem-solvers and broad capabilities that can add value in many places. Again, firms think that the more they promote everything, the greater the chance that something will stick. We anecdotally know that the opposite is true.
2. Partner Rewards
Firms promote and reward based on an individual’s ability to build a growing practice and keep many mouths fed. By not “listing” a practice on a webpage or brochure, a potential or existing partner feels that he/she is penalized in the business development game. No one wants to put someone at a disadvantage or create a political firestorm.
How to develop an effective professional services brand architecture
There is a simple—not easy—way to overcome these issues. All it requires is strategic, collaborative leadership and answering some key questions that look at who the firm is, whom it serves, and who the firm wants to become long-term.
Ask your leadership team the following:
- What is our current brand architecture?
- What is our firm’s value proposition and positioning? Does our brand architecture make it clear to the market and our people?
- Does our current brand architecture align with our business strategy and brand positioning for the future?
- Does our current brand architecture position us for changes in the industry/category and support our company strategy over time?
- Does our current brand architecture focus on our ideal client’s perspectives or simply represent our internal organizational structure?
- Does our current architecture foster increased demand generation or confuse the market? How do we know?
- What should be the driving precept of our brand architecture?
Here is a nice example of a client-focused brand architecture (actual) that speaks the client’s language and makes it easy for the client to see how the firm can help.
- Creating a high-performing organization
- Successful M&A
- Global expansion
- Driving and encouraging innovation
- Employee engagement
- Workforce productivity
- Developing top teams
- Attracting and retaining talent
- CEO succession
This firm is from the same industry as the prior example. Which firm do you think makes a stronger impression, is more memorable, and clearly demonstrates how it can help?
Takeaway
One of the consistent drivers of firm selection is that the client feels heard and the firm demonstrates it understands the client’s business. To make it easy for your client to see how you can help, you must speak to the client’s issue or aspiration and straightforwardly communicate your value.
Developing an effective brand architecture is a firm-wide effort, and it requires firms to make strategic choices and investments. These decisions involve opportunity costs and require political capital to prioritize. As you evaluate your brand architecture, keep these goals in mind:
- Business success depends on aligning your firm with your clients and their needs.
- Brand architecture should support your client-focused business strategy and play a defining role in how you communicate your firm’s value.
- As a client-centric firm, your business and marketing messages should articulate and reflect the needs of your clients by making your offer simple and relevant to your clients and prospects.
- Your brand architecture should be composed of the elements that you deem the most important to support and extend your brand in the marketplace (not just the largest practices today).
- Your brand architecture should exist to help the marketplace understand the many elements of your offer and not reflect your internal structural biases.
- The brand architecture will influence and inform all of your brand activities –- from people to processes to products and services to environments.
Remember these key goals and you will go a long way in curing “I-didn’t-know-you-did-thatitis.”
Be prudent.
