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Promise moreand deliverbetter:Business consulting rms needto shit their understanding
o brands
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Interbrand | Pg. 2
Promise more and deliver better:Business consulting rms need toshit their understanding
o brands
As economic conditions shit, so do buyers
perceptions o value in the business
consulting sector. Clients that have put
projects on hold are tentatively reaching
out to services rms to re-start initiatives.Many o these clients are keenly aware
o proessional service rms desires to
reinvigorate their pipelines and clients
requently nd themselves in a position o
great power over the services they choose
and their ability to demand more or less.
At the same time, clients also eel a resh
openness to
weighing new options against their tried-
and-true provider.
When it comes to weighing options, clients
see a sector in ux. On the one hand,consolidation among large players has clients
considering whether their business would
be better handled by the biggest and best:
global organizations that keep expanding
to oer everything they could possibly
outsource. On the other hand, clients see
the emergence o boutique players who are
walking away rom large players, taking years
o experience with them, and oering it up
aster and cheaper.
In business consulting, brand is still poorly
leveraged and understood
With business consulting rms competing
more than ever or client attention and
loyalty, one might assume that proessional
service leaders would be hard at work
positioning their corporate brands to ensure
dierentiation, relevance and credibility.
Remarkably, this is not the case.
In business consulting, the importance o
brand oten goes unrecognized. When it
is acknowledged as a component o the
organizations presence in the market, it
tends to be considered a marketing expense,
rather than a driver o value or the company.
As a consequence, a brands ability to provide
a competitive advantage is minimal tonon-existent.
Whats so tragic about this lack o
understanding among services rms is that
brand has become a more powerul actor
than ever in the sector. The perception
that other drivers o choice (price, services,
experience and quality) are separate and
untouched by brand, is based on old mental
models and the desire to keep on conducting
business as usual.
The truth is that brand drives value in
business consulting. Interbrand recently
helped a global services client quantiy the
impact o the brand on customer choice.
The results indicate that in some categories
o their business, brand was driving
30-40 percent o client choice behavior.
Unortunately, ew service players know
how much inuence their brand has on the
clients buying behavior.
Build powerul business consulting
brands through people
For brand to be a driver o choice, two
things need to change. First, business
consulting rms must rethink their
prejudices about brand. In a world where
not-or-prots, arts organizations and othebusiness-to-business rms are reaping the
benet o innovative brand programs, the
time has come or business consulting rm
to re-examine their outdated belie system
Second, business consulting rms must
take advantage o the high-touch, human
centered nature o their sector. When
services rms do prioritize their brand,
they oten rely heavily on the application o
mass market branding techniques without
by Josh Feldmeth
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Promise more and deliver better: Business consulting rms need to shit their understanding o brands Interbrand | Pg. 3
sufcient thought to their relevance to
business consulting. To break through
via human relationships, internal brandengagement will be an essential driver o
success and a key component o the rms
brand model.
Why is branding so poorly understood in
business consulting?
At rst glance, some business consulting
leaders may disagree with the assertion
that brand is not understood in their
organization. Some leaders would assert
that they have consistent visual and verbal
expressions and proudly boast high-quality
advertising campaigns. And yet, thatsprecisely the problem their eorts to
make an impression through a mass-media
promise are only one component o a strong
brand and may not always make an impact
on decision making. Decision making is
instead inuenced by whether or not the
brand can deliver on that promise and drive
business success.
In a recent study conducted by Interbrand,
more than 40 leading global engineering
rms were audited to assess their brand-
building eorts. An analysis o their external
communication and brand experience
revealed shockingly homogenized
propositions: visually undierentiated,
described with dense industry-specic
terminology and technical jargon, and
positioned with service oerings so similar
that the descriptions o one rm could have
been interchanged or those o the next.
In a sector so concerned about competitive
pressures and commoditization o services,
these engineering rms almost universally
use the brand in a way that is opposite o its
intent. Brand has become a tool to suggest
similarities rather than point out unique
qualities and dierences.
This isnt isolated to engineering rms.
Similar reviews have been conducted in
accounting, law and HR consulting, and
in every case, our insights yield similar
recommendations: dierentiate, or
accept the inevitable erosion o value
and relationships are critical, and rely on
existing models.
change and rely on existing models.
When it comes to understanding
brands, there are three mental modelsthat prevail, all o which serve as an
impediment to understanding and
leveraging brands:
From current mental models ...to a shift in thinking Example
1: Reputation is everything. In the
traditional model, the rm rejects thenotion of a brand; it i s an un-word,removed from the lexicon of thebusiness. As a proxy, the rmrefers to its reputation, which theleadership and/or partners of therm passionately guard and honor.While reputation is both a corporateand individual responsibility, it isdisconnected from the brand program,since individuals tend to believe thattheir approach to relationships issacrosanct. Reputation and brand aresimilar, but not the same.
Reputation is only one part of the
brand experience: Relationshipscontribute to reputation, and brandcan help isolate which behaviorsmake relationships more valuable tothe highest priority customers. Here,business leaders create a consistentbrand experience by insisting on setof behaviors from everyone in therm. These behaviors both clientrelevant and competitively distinctive will not only preserve reputation,but will drive client loyalty and pricepremium.
Brand is a strategic businessasset: Business consulting rms havealways struggled to harness their
intellectual capital and have investedbillions into internal knowledgemanagement systems to leverage this
asset. Leaders in the future will treatbrand in the same way. They will builda compelling brand proposition aroundthe strategic growth agenda and putmetrics in place to manage successand return.
Brand as a way of working.Leadership must commit to buildingits brand over the long-term make itclear that brand is never going away.
While a journey with no destinationis hard to justify, a brand programshould require at least several yearscommitment, with milestones of
success and specic outcomes inmind. Brand teams that launch a newidea and visual system with a splashyevent suffer when these point-in-timeactivities lead to brand as a supercialproject with a beginning and end.
Hays, another leadingtalent services provider,has a long-term plan. Afterdening how their brand
will create value, they areembedding it into their go-to-market strategy and culture,which is reinforced through
communications and brandedexperiences.
Randstad, the worldsnumber two stafng andtalent services company,
uses a value-based systemto manage the brandscontribution to corporatestrategy initiatives. Market bymarket brand performancedata is mapping marketingspend data across theircommunications mix, resultingin a clear picture of ROI and
the insight required to ensureshare responses
Accenture. One of the
few services companiesthat actively build acomprehensive brand ratherthan passively preserving areputation: a consistent andwinning culture, thought-leadership IP and powercommunications all aligned
around a clear promise ofhigh performance.And now the strength of theAccenture brand will be putto test. Will the experience oftheir brand insulate the rmfrom the reputational damageof Tigers monster duck hook?
2. Brand is an expense. A secondmental model is one in which brandsare viewed much like insurance -its something the rm must spendmoney on, and they grudginglyprovide some investment. Spend onbrand is chalked up to the necessarycosts of doing business, and is rarelylinked to business performance orindividual behaviors and their abilityto produce business results.
3. Brand is a special project. Thethird way of thinking about brand setsit out as an exciting project. Many anenthusiastic CMO has put together acompany-wide brand team, hoping todrive a long-term shift in thinking. Butafter convincing the rms leadershipto allocate a substantial short-term
investment to the brand, evencompelling research ndings and acase for urgent change cant prod theservices rm to fund the brand effortfurther, since short-term results arentimmediately produced.
Brand teams that launch a new idea
and visual system with a splashyevent suffer when these point-in-timeactivities lead to brand as a supercialproject with a beginning and end.Inspired participants become cynics,feeling as though their contributionswill go nowhere. The accountantsand architects go back to managingtheir relationships to save the rmsreputation, or to seeing brand as anexpense rather than a driver of value.
drop in price that your brand is able to
command, along with the inevitable
impact on your business.
To build understanding, shit mental
models
Business consulting rms must shit
their thinking. Easier said than done
changing mental models is nothing short
o challenging. Its human nature to avoid
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From understanding to engagement
Any eorts to build a strong
business consulting rm begin with
understanding: What brands and
branding means, what opportunities
a strong brand presents and why it is
relevant to everyone at an individual
level. By changing perceptions and
shiting mental models, a rm can begin
to move rom thinking to doing. Thats
where internal brand engagement
comes in.
As mental models shit, employees
will be open to seeing their notions o
branding shit. For business consulting,
brand has oten been limited to the
promise: acquiring customers through
communications and marketingcampaigns. O course, this narrow
application ails to leverage the very
best o the rm its people as well as
its ability to prove the brands power to
deliver on its promises.
To build brand value, have the courage
to both promise and deliver
Engagement means involving employees
in delivering a specic, desired customer
experience, over and over again, via the
touchpoints that matter most.
Using internal brand engagement to
improve the value o the brand is a
natural t or business consulting, where
high-touch relationships are critical,
and the transition rom thinking about
reputation to thinking about the larger
brand experience can be smooth when
done strategically and comprehensively:
A strategic internal brand engagement
program utilizes brand as a strategic
tool to achieve specic, long-term
goals (that is, there is no o-the-shel
solution). It requires involvement rom
leadership to the most junior positions,
and includes learning experiences with
specic objectives and outcomes.
A comprehensive internal brand
engagement program means that every
unction in the services rm must play
a role in delivering on what the brand
promises. This takes brand out o the
sales and acquisition role (closely tied
to marketing) and puts it in everyones
hands, including human resources, who
have a uniquely critical role in attracting
the talent necessary to make the brand
experience second to none.
When brands drive decisions and
behaviors, returns are inevitableThere are substantial benets to using
internal brand engagement as an approach
to building a stronger business consulting
brand. Whereas traditional branding tools
may help rms set out new promises to
the market in a shiny new campaign, an
internal brand engagement program can
help produce real results.
Any eforts to build a strongbusiness consulting rm beginwith understanding.
Promise more and deliver better: Business consulting rms need to shit their understanding o brands Interbrand | Pg. 4
Competitive pressures Benefits ofbusiness consulting brand engagementprograms
Acquiring, building and retaining top talent is anongoing challenge.
In business consulting, not only are brilliant mindscritical to success, but these industry leaders often havethe ability to take clients with them upon departure.Attracting the right new talent is also critical asworkforce demographics continue to shift.
Strengthen the employer brand.Employees benefit professionally from an internal brand
engagement program via development opportunities,successful client relationships, and more efficient,consistent approaches to business challenges.
Strong employer brands are of the products of cohesive,brand-centric cultures. Employees who are selectedbased on behavioral alignment with the brand are morelikely to stay.
Industry consolidation threatens firms of all sizes.Big firms are getting bigger and may appear unwieldyto clients. Their increasing aggressiveness puts otherson the defensive. Small players who are unable to offerfull service capabilities wont compete with the biggest,but have to focus their offering and challenge others onprice and agility. Mid-size firms fear they will be lost inthe category.
Clarify points of differentiation and improve servicedelivery efficiency.When a firm undertake a brand engagement program,its employees recognize precisely why their branddifferent and what role they play in emphasizing thatevery day through the touchpoints that matter.Whatever the size of the firm, employees will beempowered to act in a way that supports a focused anddifferentiated brand promise.
Internal engagement also drives efficiency whereconsistency can be improved, time and money are savedand both the firm and the client stand to benefit.
Commoditization of services puts pressure on every
kind of firm.As the industry consolidates, firms expand their serviceofferings, attempting to prove that they can doanything and everything. When service offering changesare perceived as reactive measures or dont fit the brand,it only serves to clutter the marketplace and erode thevalue of the services for everyone. This can also lead todownward pressure on pricing.
Ensure clear differentiation and command a
premium.Knowing precisely what matters to your highest valueclients will enable leaders to make smarter decisionsabout service offerings, and ensure that what they dooffer is seen as worthy of a premium. Moreover,employees will be able to focus on what matters most aswell both in terms of the service offering itself and theway in which it is delivered.
Rapid replication of IP and innovation can be hard tocapture and leverage. Through social media, it is easierthan ever for leaders to advance thinking in their areasof expertise. With ease comes speed of replication anddistribution. However, speed may reduce the likelihoodthat firms can leverage thinking to drive innovation anduse it broadly across the firm. Great opportunities canbe missed.
Increase collaboration and evolve servicesEngagement programs prioritize idea generationthroughout the organization as well as IP development.This helps employees recognize the way in whichcollaboration adds value to the broader externalexperience (as well as the value of collaboration tointernal efficiency).
When a services firm uses brand as a filter for productand service innovation, great ideas are developed tofulfil targeted needs and applications.
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Creating and managingbrand valueTMinterbrand.com
Josh Feldmeth
Josh Feldmeth is Chie Executive Ofcer o
Interbrands New York ofce. Since joining
Interbrand in 2002, Josh has led project
teams working with some o North American
and Europes best brands. Josh ensure that
everything we do or clients, rom strategy
through creative creates business value. He
helps colleagues and clients understand the
mechanics o how brands create value and
where capital should be deployed to maximize
that value.