Increasing Your Firm’s Brand Equity

Increasing Your Firm’s Brand Equity

Over the last few years, the accounting profession has taken a cue from product marketing and now actively embraces the concept of branding as a means of building firm awareness.

Essentially, a firm’s brand embodies three things: what a firm means to its current and potential clients; the firm’s promise to its current and potential clients; and the firm’s core beliefs.

Benefits of Branding

Firms that create a successful brand have an advantage over their competitors because they make it much easier for the marketplace to understand what they offer and how they differ. Their brand is their reputation and their good name. But more than that, the brand also is a message about how a firm distinguishes itself. With so much information available through mail, e-mail and the Internet, clients have the daunting task of sifting through the marketing communications clutter in order to make wise decisions about their service providers. Having a clearly understood brand message enables the clients to make an informed choice.

Branding Begins from Within

Interestingly, a successful branding campaign begins inside the firm. Partners and professionals invest their time, working together to identify the unique characteristics that define the firm and set it apart from its competitors. This process encompasses several phases, including getting each partner’s and professional’s honest assessment of such things as:

Vision of the firm’s future (e.g., a local or regional presence)
How the firm will grow (e.g., merger or acquisition)
The firm’s strengths and weaknesses
Opportunities for growth
Anticipating difficulties
The firm’s internal organization and operation

Note that managers often have information that can be vital to the process. Because they are in a position to obtain “grassroots” feedback, they can provide valuable insight into what clients think about the quality of service, focusing on critical issues like the rapidity of response time or the firm’s commitment to relationships.

Client Input

Sometimes it is helpful to assemble a client advisory board to help with the branding process. Usually, the firm’s top clients comprise such boards. These clients are asked questions similar to those asked of the partners and professionals, and their responses can help the firm confirm its brand identity.

Capturing Information and Turning It into a Brand

Once these things have been determined, the next step is capturing that information and using it to build a branding campaign that promotes the firm’s distinctive qualities. The message that appropriately defines the firm will become its brand.

It is important to remember that:

There must be firm-wide buy-in. Everyone involved must believe in the brand. Efforts to create a brand can be undermined if there is no consistency or strong support from everyone in the firm.
A brand cannot be imposed on a firm. Instead, it evolves as a physical and emotional demonstration of the firm’s personality. If a firm is not really committed to client service, for example, promoting relationships as the firm’s brand will ultimately fail. Similarly, a firm cannot say it has an expertise it does not possess.
Clear, simple messages are best. In branding, the goal is to state the message in the fewest words possible.

It is imperative to truly understand the firm before converting its special message into a look, tagline or logo that, over time, will automatically trigger the public’s perception of the qualities that best represent the firm.

Visibility in the Marketplace

Once the brand has been developed, it must be used in a focused and organized manner in order to send a consistent message. Accounting firms that have successfully developed a brand use a variety of tactics to communicate it.

The brand should be communicated on everything, from stationery and business cards to websites and brochures. Some other obvious components include use of the brand mark and logo on shirts, cups, mouse pads, hats, umbrellas, pens and any other item that is appropriate. This provides added exposure for the logo and helps the firm build awareness in the community. It is critical that the logo and brand be in concert with the firm’s message and be used consistently in all of the firm’s marketing materials.

Honest Ends

Honesty is the key to establishing a successful brand. The process can be painful because it forces the firm to look at itself from the inside as well as from the outside. The marketing director or a professional branding consultant can be helpful here. Using a third party provides a certain amount of objectivity that can be valuable.

As more mid-size firms incorporate branding programs into their marketing strategy, they are enjoying the advantages that come with building brand equity.

Sally Glick is the chief marketing officer at J.H. Cohn, LLP, and can be reached at 973-631-8000, ext. 4356, or via e-mail at sglick@jhcohn.com. Marsha Leest is president of Practice Management Associates and can be reached at 845-369-3224 or via e-mail at PracticeStrategy@aol.com.