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Brand Development for Professional Services Companies
Creating a brand and brand development for professional services businesses and B2B businesses, whether small or medium size is nothing short of competitive strategy and should be approached with the same focus. Strategic research and positioning. Research shows differentiation, especially in hard economies, is far tougher for professional services firms and the drive to create a brand is really about survival, as much as anything else. Creative brand design. Innovative business consulting. Iconify combine these elements to deliver effective brand development for professional service companies and SMEs. With the goal of building resonant and responsive brands fit for ever-changing competitive and technologically dynamic modern business landscape, our brand services run the full gamut of solution provision that a new business would need to make a splash or that an established one could utilise to renew, rejuvenate or extend their market position and perception. Brand development for professional service companies is just as important for small or new businesses as it is for those who are scaling or larger and transforming.
Our brand development strategies for professional service companies encompass a range of services that make building your brand as much about gaining and using insights as it is about building the image desired, based on those insights. Services defining your brand’s purpose and values, identity, using ideation for brand naming processes and the creation of strong straplines and collaborative idea generation for marketing and brand communications. We are highly creative and combine this with strategic vision and expertise in branding and design, and leverage the input of cross-functional teams.
The challenge and thrill of a creating a new brand is one big reason we really love the work we do. Uncovering of layer after layer of possibility and the fresh opportunities it presents for expression and differentiation is something we never get enough of and why we really love the brand development process.
The journey to make a lasting statement about your brand and creating a successful brand starts with an idea but the purpose of the brand starts with your product or service offering. We work to pinpoint the relevant market segment and identify their unmet wants and needs in order to articulate a strong offering and pitch of about your brand’s value. Your brand’s message should encapsulate that value in emotional and benefit terms.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]
Differentiating your Professional Services Business is more important than ever before.
Brand development for professional services is critical in these times. The professional services field is characterised by homogeneity in messaging, promise and identity. All firms promise the same things, ‘value, great service, trustworthiness’ but appear interchangeable. Unique brand positions are notoriously difficult to come by in the professional services sector and a differentiated brand, especially post COVID19 and the depressed global economy is more important than ever.
Why should your professional services business create a brand?
If it’s hard for brands to tell what is wonderful about your business and why you are absolutely the right company for them, you are not sufficiently differentiated. This is especially difficult for professional services businesses. To be seen, heard and felt, your business needs to create a brand. It is absolutely necessary. You need messages and statements that make your company stand out and stand for something for your clients. The answer, undoubtedly, is to create a brand. To create a brand means to take your purpose and the core attributes and assets of what you offer and create a construct that can be embedded in your clients’ minds and perception, as the place to go to solve their problems because you understand them but you have the something extra they need. The ‘brand’ does that heavy lifting and brand creation is critical to the competitiveness of your professional services company right now.
Businesses were just regaining stability post the 2008 crash and here COVID19 has razed hard-won gains to the ground, seemingly overnight, opportunities are much harder to come by. Trust is harder to earn yet business leaders who still need services need to hear messages and promises that resonate and that they can trust.
We can help you identify the primary attributes that can be woven into your brand story and promise based on your purpose. Yes, purpose. We can help you discover and identify what that purpose is, and with that purpose, we can help you differentiate. We can help you create those resonant messages your clients need to hear.
There’s a difference that’s going to move the needle. It’s our job to help you find it, name it and project it. The right start is to create a brand.
Brand Development
A key outcome of the brand development process is defining positioning, the space you want to occupy on the competitive field and in your clients’ minds. Are you an indispensable implementation partner or occupy a trusted advisory role? Positioning claims your uniqueness as a professional service firm in a way that is practical and ambitious.
Your brand’s personality and voice are critical factors of brand development for a professional services brand, that can be approached once the purpose of your company is clear and principles and positioning are established and viable. This brand voice and personality will define the nature of the messaging in the communications that your company sends to ensure it is consistent as well as resonant. Are you rebellious or quirky, serious or playful?
Brand Strategy
Part of the process of brand development for a professional services brand is developing a brand strategy, which simply put, is the strategy your business will use to compete once it is clear what the differentiated attributes of the brand are and what it means for your brand’s position. Clarity on this fully informs the messaging adopted because your position must be based on the stated or implied needs – met or unmet – that your prospective clients have.
Brand Communications
With the strategy in place, we work on your core messages. Core messages are a set of core messages mapped back to your purpose and positioning that can be aimed at all your company’s target segments and from which scenario-specific messaging can be derived. These core messages are decomposed into more specific messages for the specific segments. This helps maintain consistency and authenticity.
Content Communications as Strategy
Google has changed its algorithms in how it serves data to the whole world. iN and out of work, we are all buyers and that includes prospective clients. They understand that Google is in the big data business – serving content to people who want to be educated and informed, people who want value from everything they choose to click on. Content Marketing is one of the key strategies that professional services companies use to reach their clients. However, clarity on strategy – brand voice and personality, is crucial to using content correctly because it is easy to fall into the sameness trap when what is required is to make meaningful connections.
The brand of a professional services firm must build lives in the mind, associations and in the perceptions and conclusions of your target clients, reinforced by the right message and identity. In order to truly differentiate, your professional services company needs a well thought through brand strategy, based on which your visual brand identity and message may be crafted. All brand assets must have a purpose and the brand identity must be designed with the aim of eliciting rational and emotional responses that will represent what the brand means to your clients.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][wgl_double_headings css_animation=”bounceIn” title_color=”#151515″ subtitle_color=”#c10e0e” title=”What’s the Big Idea?”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1592775767211{margin-top: 25px !important;}”]Ideas are catalysts for the deployment of huge potential, especially when it comes to brand creation. Finding the idea that encapsulates your difference and ambition for your brand, that can engender brand passion and has the stamina to stay sustainable, is precious. It’s also central to building your brand. The ability for that idea to be easily expressed is also important but the process needs to be accessible and done in as open a manner as possible. We focus on the big picture, the concept and the mission to describe it visually as well as literally, in order to touch and move, influence and inspire or provoke and divide.
Ideas. They could be where we start but they are never where we finish.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_cta h2=”Get started with brand development” style=”3d” color=”juicy-pink” add_button=”right” btn_title=”GET STARTED” btn_color=”mulled-wine” css_animation=”bounceInRight” btn_link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Ficonify-staging.co.uk%2Fcontacts%2F|||” css=”.vc_custom_1569413555223{border-radius: 15px !important;}”]The first step is the hardest but we are here to hold your hand.[/vc_cta][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1552505784500{margin-bottom: 60px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Verbal Branding, Straplines and other Stories” font_container=”tag:h4|font_size:24|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Prata%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1553785330887{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column_text]We help you coin the phrase for your purpose and name your meaning. The phrase your customers recognise, the short text string that speaks volumes to so many. Once we get your purpose, and we capture the essence of your target segment, we encapsulate your brand’s meaning in words will form part of a generation’s lexicon. It’s everything you want to stand for and be known for. We believe in storytelling as a great tool for getting to the heart of your target audience, one that will captivate and convince them. It’s a core element of brand development.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Be heard with our verbal branding” font_container=”tag:h5|font_size:22|text_align:center|color:%23c10e0e” google_fonts=”font_family:Prata%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1553962760504{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”3032″ img_size=”470×310″ add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_class=”brand-dev-same-height”][vc_column width=”1/4″][wgl_info_box ib_type=”full_size” icon_type=”image” thumbnail=”3090″ ib_title=”New Brand Creation, Naming and Storytelling” ib_content=”Establish emotional connections through purpose and USP, then activate it through a seamless multi-channel journey.” add_read_more=”true” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Ficonify-staging.co.uk%2Fideation-brand-creation-brand-naming-and-storytelling%2F|||”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][wgl_info_box ib_type=”full_size” icon_type=”image” thumbnail=”3081″ ib_title=”Research and Positioning” ib_content=”Conduct wide ranging industry and competitive research and use analytics for targeting and positioning for your offering, then provide marketing & messaging clarity.” add_read_more=”true” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Ficonify.org.uk%2Fbrand-strategy-and-positioning%2F|||”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][wgl_info_box ib_type=”full_size” icon_type=”image” thumbnail=”3092″ ib_title=”Strategic Analyses and Insights” ib_content=”Analysis of USP , market dimensions to determine positional opportunities, threats, strengths and weakness, and identify gaps, insights and new methods.” add_read_more=”true” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Ficonify.org.uk%2Fbrand%2Fbrand-strategy%2F|||”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][wgl_info_box ib_type=”full_size” icon_type=”image” thumbnail=”3091″ ib_title=”Strategic and Creative Branding” ib_content=”The process of translating values and image to a strong and compelling identity in a a way that shows and solidifies your position and recognition” add_read_more=”true” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Ficonify-staging.co.uk%2Fbrand%2Fbranding%2F|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]