Research

When customers define service brands

Building a brand for a services business is more complicated than ever. Customers might perceive one hotel chain or insurance company as pretty much the same as its competitors. Customers also are saturated with thousands of messages a day, and they’re relying less on traditional marketing and more on social media and word of mouth to discover and form relationships with a brand. How can services businesses simplify their customers’ experience in such a complex world and still stand out from the crowd?

2016-01-15

Building a brand for a services business is more complicated than ever. Customers might perceive one hotel chain or insurance company as pretty much the same as its competitors. Customers also are saturated with thousands of messages a day, and they’re relying less on traditional marketing and more on social media and word-of-mouth to discover and form relationships with a brand.

How can services businesses simplify their customers’ experience in such a complex world and still stand out from the crowd?

Nancy Gray, clinical assistant professor in marketing, and Bret Giles, professor of practice in marketing, tackled the topic during their breakout sessions at the Center for Services Leadership’s 2015 Compete through Service Symposium (November 2015). Gray is also the principal and founder of brand communication and design firm GrayMatter Creative, and Giles is president and co-founder of digital agency Sitewire.

Gray and Giles acknowledge that branding for service businesses is inherently complex, because customers’ experiences with services are intangible, occurring in different ways at different times. Service businesses also face complexity as they try to differentiate themselves in a marketplace which, from a customer’s perspective, is filled with parity.

Add to that the fact that businesses are no longer the sole owners of their brands. Customers are using social media to stake their own claims to brands, creating new meanings for those brands.

“Companies were once 80 percent in control of the messages people received about their brands. The companies planned and hosted the party. Now, it’s the people’s party,” Gray says of branding today. “A brand’s value is now being determined and communicated not by the manufacturer or service provider, but by customers who use the brand. Who’s in control of the brand is now a complex question.”

To make things simple, find congruity

The first step in getting a handle on all this complexity, Gray says, is to find congruity among the views a business has of its brand, the views the business thinks the customers have of the brand and the views the customers actually hold.

When all three perspectives match, Gray and Giles say, customers can readily relate to the brand and easily experience it, and they are more likely to respond positively to it. Just as person who becomes fluent in a foreign language can easily grasp information delivered in that language and quickly remember it, a person who becomes fluent in a brand can easily understand and recall information about it. People who aren’t fluent, either in a language or a brand, must struggle with translating information and connecting ideas.

Brands that align themselves most closely with the customer’s view — what the brand represents and what its personality is — are more successful, Gray said. “When they mesh, when there is congruity, there are much better brand evaluations and much faster brand adoptions and people receive your message better and more rapidly,” Gray said.

Southwest Airlines’ fun-loving image, for example, is reinforced by the flight attendant who turns passengers into a hand-clapping audience for his rap version of pre-flight announcements. Vespa scooters’ youthful image is reinforced by the fondness their owners have for romantic, sporty, scooter-riding times.

On the other hand, incongruity arises when customers’ experiences with a brand fail to match their understanding of the brand. Customers easily spot those contradictions, leading them to doubt the brand’s believability and authenticity. A cable-TV provider might tout its customer service, for example, but when its click-to-chat reps have no power to make decisions in the customers’ favor, the incongruity is annoyingly obvious.

To find congruity, be curious

Finding congruity takes more than digital metrics and regression analysis, Gray and Giles say. Businesses have to look around and be curious about what their customers are experiencing.

This starts with putting the customer at the center, or the nucleus, of the business’ brand. Around that nucleus go various “brand elements,” creating a unique brand molecule.

To consolidate the years of research on brands, Gray developed what she refers to as a "Brand Element Chart." Just as the periodic table organizes metals, gases and other elements into groups and helps scientists combine various elements into new molecules, the table of brand elements helps marketers home in on unique properties and combinations for specific brands.

The table includes categories ranging from image and attributes to feelings and benefits. Within the feelings category, a brand might suggest the properties of active or adventurous, charming or cool, technical or trendy. The attitudes category might describe a brand that signals acceptance or affinity, respect or trust.

Doritos snack chips, for example, have distinct elements in the attributes category with their triangle shape, orange color and gritty texture. Doritos lovers tap into the attitudes category when they talk about their affinity for the chips.

Gray and Giles suggest that marketers use the table as a tool and choose elements that they think describe their brand. Repeat the exercise with company leaders and employees to check for congruities and incongruities.

The next and possibly most important step is to ask customers to choose elements they think describe the brand. The congruities will help the business understand what it can do to create lifelong relationships with its customers — and the incongruities will tell a business what elements it needs to address.

Social media is a powerful tool, Gray and Giles say, for presenting the business’ view of its brand and starting a dialog with customers.

“Use social media as your friend, because people will definitely talk about what they’re experiencing,” Giles said. “Give them a venue by which they can talk to you, so you can better understand. In some instances, there is not as much disagreement as you might think.”

Incorporating social media into brand management is crucial, too, Giles notes, because digital archives can live online forever. Consumers increasingly are doing research online when they need, intend to buy or have a question about a brand — a phenomenon that search giant Google has dubbed the "Zero Moment of Truth." Those posts, tweets and reviews from previous customers’ experiences become part of the next customer’s experience, so it’s important for businesses to stay on top of what customers are saying and engage in their discussions.

The bottom line

To forge strong bonds between a brand and its customers, Gray and Giles urge businesses to be curious in seeking out the congruities between what they think the brand is and what customers think the brand is. Capitalizing on the congruities helps customers better identify with the brand. Additional tips:

• Take an “omni” view. Don’t focus on just one category of elements, such as the attributes, images or feelings associated with your brand. Build your brand molecule with more than one category of elements.
• Be original. When customers see a brand as more or less equal to other brands in its marketplace, a business has to do something different to escape from parity.
• Don’t be boring, especially for mature brands whose advertisements consumers have seen for years. Stepping outside the industry’s conventional box can create new experiences that resonate with customers.
• Integrate traditional marketing and social media. Engage with customers, and they will advocate on the brand’s behalf.
• Design systems that are capable of adapting.

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