Branding is an essential part of every company. Whether we are talking about products or services, proper branding strategies are the beginning and the end of a company’s future. Setting up a company’s branding strategy requires time, it can be uncomfortable and from time to time, it might seem worthless. But it is not.
Branding for products is a bit easier. When you have an actual physical object that you are trying to sell and you know that you have good quality then the odds that the branding strategy will actually work are much higher. But what happens when what you are offering is services? How will the branding work?
Starting with the basics
The truth is that there is a common starting point. Basics on which every branding strategy is built on. The promise. A company needs to be able to promise excellent services, excellent quality and of course excellent results. With products, that promise is easier to make. Services however are based on each customer’s individual experience with the company.
Even the tiniest group of unsatisfied customers can be a severe blow to a company’s branding strategy and reputation. Companies with products have many different ways to ‘’sell’’ the good quality of what they offer and build a reputation. Services are usually spread through word of mouth. Negative comments will be heard a lot more in this case.
Common challenges of service branding
When trying to brand services, inconsistency, complexity and intangibility are the most common challenges. As mentioned above, every customer has a different experience so consistency with the brand’s promises is essential. Unfortunately, through technology, your competitors can see and copy your methods and results so uniqueness is very difficult to establish.
When branding for services you need to follow these steps to make things easier for you and your business:
- Make a proper promise
- Create visual stimuli to connect to your company/organization
- Be consistent with your results
- Establish a trust relationship with all your customers
- Learn what they need and offer that to them every chance you get
- Keep the business moving. Continue improving your methods and try to get as close to uniqueness as possible
You will still need to use the basics for branding in order for the process to work. Consider these to be extra steps that you will have to adapt to a basic branding strategy. Try to incorporate proactive strategies that will be related to the unique element of your services and mix them up. A combination of the basics of a branding strategy with some extra steps for services will give your company a steady, improving result.
