91ÊÓƵ

Any business, large or small, that wants to distinguish itself, take note: Passion and commitment are required to deliver a unique customer experience, but a multimillion-dollar budget isn’t.

For architecture, engineering and construction firms, it’s not the packaging – a logo, office or Web site – that matters; it’s how people talk about them. It’s about how clients feel about doing business with them. Are you architect-friendly, or is tough for you to hide your disdain for design-speak? Are you known better for designing high-end restaurants than strip malls? And is your engineering efficient and cost-effective or creative and cutting-edge?

What you do defines who you are. And all brands have certain traits: consistency and predictability. Brands work because over time, that consistent message carves out a groove in our minds. Think of Harley-Davidson or Nordstrom. You know what they represent and their reliability in how they operate.

Brands are essentially personifications of attributes: edgy, comfortable, established, conservative, hip, large, flexible. They’re just like people. In fact, if you want to identify your brand, just look in the mirror. The impressions that create your brand are right there – not just your image, but also your behavior. The feeling people get when you walk on the job site and the feeling when it’s all over, good and bad. Invariably, the DNA of any professional services firm can be traced to its founders. The personality, the attitude, the employees’ values, the way they work, and the work they do … all of it creates the brand imprint. Professional-service brands lose their way at several junctures. And if you find where they miss the target, you’ll also discover how brands can succeed.

One potential breakdown is when new management doesn’t understand what the brand represents. Or it does, and it doesn’t respect it. For example, one firm had a solid, workmanlike reputation – not sexy, but solid. It wanted to upgrade its dowdy image with new blood. The problem was that the new blood wasn’t consistent with the firm’s value and personality.

Firms should be careful what they wish for. People don’t want surprises; they want predictability in brands. A brand represents a position in the market. As a brand becomes older and more established, its equity in the position increases. Be wary of the influx of managers who don’t share your core values. You can shift directions slightly, but the core needs to stay the same to maintain customers’ trust.

The second common derailment for a brand is to chase anything and try to be all things to all people. That doesn’t mean that a firm needs to focus solely on health-care design or data-center engineering, but it does need enough focus so that it can be equated with a particular kind of work.

Great brands stand out in some way. Within the marketplace, they offer a compelling difference. When you look at the successful A/E/C brands, they are known for one or two main areas – perhaps a look, a market focus or a competency. Yes, there are good firms out there that are well diversified, but they also don’t spring to mind, do they? Brands spring to mind. Be selective in your focus, but focus. Ziba founder Sohrab Vossoughi put it this way: find the difference or create the difference.

The third problem is the slow death of a brand because it cannot manage its own growth. Branding is easy to accomplish for a one-person consulting firm and incredibly hard for a company with weak management skills. It’s easy for one person to be passionate and consistent about the process. One of the hardest tasks for growing businesses is the ability to hire and train employees to deliver consistent results. Will they do it my way? Do they share the same commitment to satisfying the customer? Each new employee holds the potential to erode or sustain the brand by how well he or she delivers on the brand promise.

Consequently, brand management for professional-service firms has more to do with personnel management and organizational development than which logo is selected. Ask anyone in town what makes a great AEC brand: it’s the people. Then, invest in them. Train them. Make sure they know the values of the company. Keep tabs on how they manage the work.

Do you think Starbucks’ quality control stops at a two-hour orientation? That soy nonfat latte is consistent in Hoboken, N.J., or Grants Pass for a reason: attention to employee performance. The great A/E/C brands rely on the wisdom of the founders or senior staff to run universities, employee orientations, charrettes, or take less-experienced project managers out for coffee.

People casually throw around terms like “customer service,” “doing the right thing” and “treating people right.” But we can all tell those firms that really mean it and aim higher to create memorable experiences that stand out.

The rules haven’t changed just because the economy stinks. More than ever, we need brands we can trust. They just need to earn our trust every day.

Leo MacLeod is a strategic marketing and new business consultant. Contact him at [email protected].