And your strategy is… ?

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Can you summarize your company’s strategy in 35 words or less? If so, would your colleagues put it the same way?

That’s the provocative question that David Collis and Michael Rubstad use to open their article in the April issue of Harvard Business Review (www.hbr.org). If you can’t, don’t feel like you’re alone. In our soon to be released 2008 Competitive Strategy Study of 100 top professional service firms, we asked the CEOs a very similar question. The result?

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Devilishly Clever or Too Cute?

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

I just returned from a trip to Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Illinois. A local company there offers services for internet, phone and cable television needs. They feature 24 hour customer support. Their name? Pavlov Media. Their tagline? “You ring. We respond.”

To round it out, their logo is a cute cartoon dog. Now if you remember your Psych 101 class, you’ll recall the Russian psychologist whose famous experiments first identified classical conditioning. Ring the bell; deliver the food to the dog. Soon, just ring the bell and the dog responds by salivating. Devilishly clever or too cute by half? You decide

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5 Signs It’s Time For a New Brand

By Andrea Goulet

You may have heard the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” After all, when it comes to branding, doing it right is a significant investment, both of time and resources. So how do you know when it’s time to change your brand into something new? Here are five common reasons that companies re-brand — and links to articles demonstrating real-life examples.

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Do Your Habits Match Your Brand?

By Andrea Goulet

A brand is more than a name, logo or corporate colors — it’s everything your prospects, customers or vendors use to form an opinion of your firm. As Jeff Bezos (yep, the Amazon.com guy) says, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” And that means everything — from the way you answer the phone, to how you sign off on your e-mails.

Take for example Craig Galati’s thoughts on how a firm’s habits can create a disconnect with their brand:

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The Sticky Niche

By Andrea Goulet

A recent article in the Pittsburgh Business Times notes how many companies are combining in-house efforts with smaller, niched agencies to maximize their marketing value.

The article quotes Adam Golomb, Director of Marketing for Eat ‘n Park Hospitality Group, whose marketing team includes over a dozen agencies working together in collaboration. “Our goal is to find the best. I don’t think any one agency can be the best at everything.”

This specialization approach has permeated more than just the marketing world and effects professional services across any industry. We see this on a daily basis with our clients.

When a professional service positions themselves as filling a general purpose, it is difficult for potential customers to distinguish and keep the brand on top of their mind.

Rather, a service who embraces a niche enjoys the spotlight in an otherwise crowded marketplace.

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Is the US Brand Broken?

Is the United States brand broken? Businesses have long realized the importance of branding. A stellar brand solidifies an emotion in the mind of the consumer. As Al & Laura Ries say, “What’s your brand? If you can’t answer that question about your own brand in two or three words, your brand’s in trouble.”

A recent article in the Washington Post suggests that “since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its “show of force” brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. military.”

The article sites cultural differences (specifically the use of the University of Texas “hook ‘em horns” representing the “sign of the devil” in some cultures), the confusing connotations of specific words (like “jihad”) and the current attitude of U.S. military and civilian authorities who “think[ing] of themselves as a ‘good idea’ factory whose every thought has greater merit than those of their customers.”

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