Brands have more fun

As I prepared to lead another brand workshop and looked through the library of brand related books in my office, it occurred to me that there was nothing devoted to corporate or service brands in the professional services sector. We all know that it cost Andersen Consulting a reported £100m to change to Accenture. And anyone travelling through the City will have seen the latest poster campaign for Grant Thornton. Amongst smaller firms, Divorce Online down in the West Country did its ground breaking TV campaign around this time last year. But branding is so much more than big budget, hit-the-headlines advertising.

As I worked through a healthy brand checklist for one of my property clients, it occurred to me that just about all of the leading legal and accounting firms would have some difficulty passing with even a reasonable degree of success. Why is that? When you start to consider brand (or reputation) as a personal relationship (going through stages from price beater, through steady and reliable and then onto performance improver, solution provider, connected to the business environment and right up to market leader) you can see where the value in a stronger link between the professions’ proper obsession with relationships and brands might hit pay dirt. Maybe it is because so little attention is paid to the emotional charge or perhaps it is because the underlying market segmentation doesn’t really allow for a persuasive positioning. Anyway, it’s food for thought…