The Role of Brand Strategy in Professional Services Marketing

What is the role of brand strategy in marketing professional services? FIND OUT MORE The Role of Brand Strategy in Professional Services Marketing April, 2009

An Introduction to RiechesBaird

TRADITIONAL PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRM MESSAGES

The success of professional service firms depends on a perception of trustworthiness, experience, and hard work. Consequently, many firms emphasize these qualities in messaging and marketing collateral, as well as building their corporate culture around these values.

As competition in your industry increases, however, these concepts alone are proving less and less distinctive. According to the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau, approximately thousands of new professional service firms are founded each year—each of them presumably claiming to be trustworthy, experienced, and hard-working.

Professional service firms are beginning to learn, as other industries already have, that the key to stimulating future growth is to augment traditional messages with new, unique messages. In short, professional service firms need to stand for compelling ideas that help them distinguish themselves from the competition .

THE ROLE OF BRAND STRATEGY

Finding and developing these ideas is the role of a technique known as brand positioning . Brand positioning is the analytical process a company initiates to determine—based on their existing reputation, competencies, customers, and competitors—how they should situate themselves for optimal differentiation and market effectiveness.

Moving beyond tradition

The Role of Brand Strategy in Professional Services Marketing April, 2009

If this business were split up, I would give you the land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and trade marks, and I would fare better than you.

- John Stuart, Chairman of Quaker (ca. 1900)

INTANGIBLE VALUE

John Stuart had it right. While a brand’s value is rarely listed on a company’s balance sheet, modern businesses recognize that the value of a company goes far beyond its tangible assets. Over the last 25 years, companies around the globe have also come to realize the value of their intangible assets, including the value of the brand.

HOW WILL YOU MAXIMIZE YOUR BRAND VALUE?

Every year, BusinessWeek publishes a ranking of the Top 100 Global Brands. The survey evaluates brand value based on a variety of metrics and attempts to attach a dollar amount to the world’s most prominent brands. Other studies have shown that brands can easily account for over a third of shareholder value in public companies, and that those with strong brands outperform the market.

You don’t have to be one of the 100 top brands in the world to understand that brand identity can be your most valuable asset or a significant liability. Moving forward, what is your strategy to maximize your firm’s brand value?

The value of a strong brand

A PLAN FOR FUTURE GROWTH

As your firm looks to the future, it is imperative that you articulate a brand position that clarifies your unique value to both internal and external audiences.

To determine how much work needs to be done, ask the following questions:

Is the brand currently positioned for maximum effectiveness against the competition?

Is the firm’s messaging relevant to current and potential clients?

Is your brand position aligned with your business strategy?

Once the business strategy and brand position are aligned, will the firm be structured to support them both?

Is everyone in the organization—partners, associates, and even interns—aligned around the same brand position and consistently communicating it?

How to unlock brand value

HOW RIECHES BAIRD CAN HELP The Role of Brand Strategy in Professional Services Marketing April, 2009

About RiechesBaird

B2B brand specialists

About RiechesBaird

Our expertise in business strategy leads to stronger brand development, which yields integrated marketing plans in perfect alignment with business objectives—and that drives managed and measurable growth.

Seamless growth

How RiechesBaird Can Help

THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE

One of the most important qualities to look for when partnering with a brand strategy or marketing firm is not only experience, but evidence that the partner firm has learned from that experience. Here are just a few challenges we’ve learned from in helping other professional service firms.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AS LUXURY GOODS

While you may perceive your firm’s services as a necessity, a recent article published in the American Bar Association Journal suggests that professional service providers such as lawyers “increasingly are becoming like luxury goods to many would-be clients.” This creates an increased need to stand out in a crowded field of competitive firms.

DECISION BY COMMITTEE

The relatively flat structure of professional service firms sometimes leads to a tedious and trying decision-making process. RiechesBaird has experience managing clients through this process to ensure that sound decisions are made expeditiously.

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Many professional service firms have been around for decades. Tradition and pride—and sometimes the egos of founding partners—may result in a resistance to change. Balancing the need for updated practices with a respect for past success is critical in these situations.

Professional service firm challenges

HOW WE’VE HELPED OTHERS The Role of Brand Strategy in Professional Services Marketing April, 2009

How We’ve Helped Others

Fisher & Phillips LLP

BACKGROUND

Fisher & Phillips was at a crucial stage in the evolution of the firm’s brand when they approached us in 2007. During the previous five years, the firm had experienced tremendous growth, increasing from five offices to 16 nationally. A key criterion in the consideration of the acquisition of each new office was the culture, integrity, and personality of the individuals that made up that office. This careful and deliberate process formed a firm that shared the building blocks of common culture, belief-set, and integrity standards. This strong culture ethic helped to expedite the brand adoption process, which Fisher & Phillips hired RiechesBaird to implement.

Fisher & Phillips LLP CONTINUED

CHALLENGE & SOLUTION

CHALLENGE To position Fisher & Phillips in such a way that they would gain the national name recognition that they were missing in the marketplace.

SOLUTION Fisher & Phillips already prided themselves on their consistent internal cultural values. Working with a firm that understands the beauty of consistency made branding them significantly easier. As Fisher & Phillips was “one of the first professional service firms to center its practice on representing employers in labor and employment matters”, RB made focus and innovation the basis for their brand.

According to Lexis Nexis, Fisher & Phillips has a “visibility ranking of #81 out of 192,934 law firms.”

The ghost advertisement that we created to go along with their labor practices position won the LMA Your Honor Award in the category of single advertisement. Since coming to us, Fisher & Phillips has opened three new offices in San Francisco, Denver, and Philadelphia. Business must be good.

Fisher & Phillips LLP CONTINUED

RESULTS

How RiechesBaird Can Help

Some of our other professional services experience

OUR TEAM The Role of Brand Strategy in Professional Services Marketing April, 2009

Executive Bios

Ryan Rieches, CEO of RiechesBaird, has more than 20 years of business ownership and experience creating transformational business, brand and communication strategies that result in business growth and increased brand value. His leadership has evolved the firm to international recognition in brand strategy, including been ranked among the top firms by B-to-B Magazine.

With a degree in Visual Communications from Eastern Illinois University, Rieches relocated to California in 1983 and started an advertising design studio. In 1994, he and Ray Baird discovered a shared vision and philosophy for building a new type of firm—and partnered to form RiechesBaird. Today, the firm and its team of seasoned professionals represent a broad range of clients including Toyota Industrial Equipment, American Airlines Cargo, Entergy Corporation, Irvine Company and Edwards Lifesciences.

In addition to his leadership role at RiechesBaird, Rieches continues to serve on many non-profit boards and is an active member in the Young Presidents Organization (YPO).

Ryan Rieches CEO, FOUNDER

Our Team

Alan Brew, senior vice president and principal at RiechesBaird, has more than 20 years of senior executive experience with some of the world’s leading branding companies, including Landor Associates, Siegel & Gale and Enterprise IG. At RiechesBaird, Brew is primarily responsible for the firm’s overall brand strategy capability and leads key relationships with clients that include Cisco, Emulex, Greenlee, Entergy and Equitable Resources.

Prior to joining RiechesBaird, Brew served as managing director of Siegel & Gale in Los Angeles where he worked with such clients as Adobe, Yahoo!, Intelsat, and PG&E Corp. Previously he was worldwide president for Enterprise IG, the WPP agency, based in New York City.

Alan Brew SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PRINCIPAL

Our Team

As a senior brand strategist for RiechesBaird, Rob Meyerson works with clients to conduct market research, develop brand positioning and personalities, and align businesses with their brands through internal adoption, brand architecture, and organizational change. Tackling the strategic side of client work, he conducts deep analysis of company attributes, customer needs, and competitor messaging to develop formative brand strategies.

Meyerson draws upon his background in the financial services industry, as well as his Master of Science degree, to provide an analytical approach to client initiatives.

Before joining RiechesBaird, Meyerson worked in brand strategy and business development at Interbrand in San Francisco, followed by a similar role with Siegel & Gale in Los Angeles. Prior to Interbrand, he worked as a specialty underwriter at Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.