It appears to us that the post-recession state of
professional services branding is like living in a bland,
empty room. Wherever we look we see reduced brand
activity and sameness. Once creative and compelling,
service brands (via websites and advertising) seem less
visible. In fact, it seems both the quality and quantity
of branding efforts are regressing.
That’s not all. If you wish to undertake a brand
exercise, it appears it must be titled, “Strategic
Positioning Initiative” to avoid the factious response
that sometimes arrives as talk turns to branding.
Are past failed efforts to blame? Is the stumbling
economy a disincentive to act? Or is it the pendulum
swing to BD, the tremendous pressure on CMOs to
drive revenue? Has anyone else noticed the falloff in
brand awareness and memorability? Do we still believe
brand is critical to creating preference?
Good questions, we thought. So we asked firm leaders
for their opinions. The goal was to confirm or deny our
own—replacing opinion with fact.