What do winning A/E/C firms have in common? They all have strong, differentiated brands; loyal, raving clients; and a culture driven by engaged, client-centric employees. The secret to success lies at the intersection of client experience (CX), employee experience (EX), and brand experience (BX). These functions work together to deliver your firm’s brand promise.
Your Brand Is a Promise, not a Logo: A brand is much more than a logo, color palette, set of fonts, and photography styles (although visual identity does play a huge role in branding). At its core, a brand exists in the mind of your audience—the sum of their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with your firm. Every brand, regardless of the industry, promises something. Marketing and branding should reinforce what your existing clients experience when they work with your firm and offer a glimpse of what potential clients can expect.
Strategic Branding Reinforces That Promise: Branding is the process of defining, conveying, and maintaining your firm’s core values and differentiators. It’s about figuring out who you are, what you stand for, why it matters to your audience, and then reinforcing that promise in a meaningful and consistent way.
The Promise Is Realized Through Experience: Your firm’s brand promise is only realized through the experience you serve your clients. No amount of marketing and communications can change what clients actually experience. This is why it’s critical to align brand experience and client experience.
Everyone can think of a brand whose marketing makes promises completely detached from what customers actually encounter. In fact, Gallup surveys have consistently found that most companies fail to live up to their brand promises. Experience is where your branding is either validated or discredited.
The Convergence of Experience To Deliver Your Brand Promise was written by Tim Asimos, CPSM, and first appeared in the December 2018 issue of Marketer. To read more, download the full article.
