Part 10 (1/2)

In a way, establishi+ng a services brand folows a si tactics, themix you employ, and the quality of your coth of your efforts determines whether your brandthe bel

The question is: What stagesthe bel?

Strip away the apparent co a service brand is al about, and you find that the stages you have to reach with your own stronget clients nize you

Articulate: They need to be able to articulate what you do

Memorize: When they need your service, your company should be the first option they think of

Prefer: Your target clients should prefer to use your service versus al other options available to thees in the services branding process through which you oose of branding-is to establish strong preference for your brand over your coure 121 Wellesley Hills Group Brand RAMPSM To help you visualize your steps to a stronger brand, fol ow the Brand RAMP Within the RAMP franize, articulate,becomes approachable as a process and, at the same time, focused on a hile business outcoe of the Brand RAMP and see how it leads to establishi+ng a powerful services brand

Recognize Question: What's the purpose of this et our name out there You know, establish our identity

We are about as impressed with this answer as we are with the salesperson who has awith a prospective client and says the purpose ”is to have a get-to-know-youis to find sales opportunities and to advance a sale Getting to know the client is part of what is done in that process It's not a goal in and of itself

In services branding, getting your na that you do in the process of branding; it is not the goal For nition leads to inefficient use ofprocess You work hard to get your naenerate actual business development activity

WHO WAS THE AD WIZARD?

John Wanamaker fa is wasted, but I can never find out which half”

We've found both halves They're in the Boston Business Journal (or any sihout the United States)

Nothing against the BBJ-al it does is accept the ads that professional services firms send in The problem is with the firms themselves; they craft such weak ads

From just the perspective of the offers the companies make, these ads need some serious work A quick review of 25 or so ads in a recent BBJ fro firy services, and other like fir analysis

Cal , cal

To take advantage of our expertise, cal

For more information on our services, cal(Offered three times)Visit us at our web site(Offered one tie URL) No offer made occurred 16 ti 16 times, there was no offer at al ! We can hear Adam Sandler now: ”Who was the ad wizard who caood offers for the ad to have any chance at being effective; but without any offer at al , these ads aren't doing much

2 The ”cal for more infor” offers aren't ht as wel just say, ”But enough about melet's talk about ht find hile, but if you want to buy soh about melet's talk about me” vein, many of the offers had announceed,” ”we just hired some staff,” and ”we did some work that we're proud of” Me,analysis”-the only offer that even remotely hinted of potential value for the respondent-didn't have any detail about the analysis itself This could easily have been taken care of by providing a landing page on the company's web site about the offer itself and a Web forn up for the analysis Plus, by providing a landing page and response form, the company could have analyzed the effectiveness of the ad (is it worth the e visits and acceptances of the offer

5 If ere to ask the people who caies to place these ads to explain to us what they were doing and to defend their budgets, they'd probably give us the ”brand building” argument Not only could the ads be much better, but if ere most of these services firms, we probably wouldn't spend our money on ads in business journals For nition for their services

Coh outbound activity leave their business fortunes to serendipity Worse, they never knohere the next lead wil corowth

You need your prospective clients to recognize you Without recognition you are at the whinition proactively, though, you need to do it in a way that serves other, higher return goals (namely the rest of the RAMP process)

Articulate Let's assunition phase of the Brand RAMP At this point, you want to avoid the fol owing: Question from your firm: So you've heard of us Do you knoe do?

Answer from prospect: Yes, I've heard of you What you doI' your prospective clients to be able to state, in clear ter what you do, they wil knohere, and when to apply your services

They wil now be able to refer you to others who can use your services

They are able to explain your services internal y so they can create a coalition (if it's necessary) to purchase your services

It's so ile with how to articulate what they do Regardless of your situation, whether your fire of coe across

The lit a prospect, ”Do you knoe do?” and hearing the answer you want to hear

Meht: ”This is a sticky problemOh, I remember there's a fir this probleain? It slipped s”

The type of brandyou employ and how often you employ it wil affect hoel people remember you at the time of need If they knoho you are and they knohat you do, but yourmix and your co impression, your business development efforts wil never perform to their ful est potential

It's common sense that if buyers can't re Even if you have had aggressive ressive outreach or take a break if the econoh patch, you wil lose much of the business impact of your historical outreach

Research fro coer-ter outreach] can be far ood exaular and reasonably heavy advertiser, this insurance company came off air, with only one subsequent burst two years later Consideration levels plummeted over the next few years31 HOW MANY IMPRESSIONS DOES IT TAKE?

Howpreferences and to increase your brand preference? In going through some old files, we ran across an al -tioes like this: The first tiiven ad, they don't even see it

The second time, they don't notice it

The third time, they are aware that it is there

The fourth ti sense that they've seen it somewhere before

The fifth time, they actual y read the ad

The sixth time, they thuet a little irritated with it

The eighth tiain”