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PCCA Journal|1
st
Quarter 2011
26
encourages active mental participation among customers.
The brand vision, or identity, tends to go beyond the service
being provided. Branding has two unique aspects. The first
aspect creates market awareness or a “promise in the mar-
ket.” The second aspect of branding is even more important.
It is delivering on that promise. A failure in delivery is more
destructive than not having a brand.
So what really is a brand? Well, it is different for a product
and a service. In a service business like construction, a brand
is nothing more than the promises you make to the market-
place that you actually deliver. That means that your market-
ing efforts need to provide promises to current and future
customers that operations deliver in a consistent manner.
Three branding principles are:
•
Develop a favorable relationship between your customer
and your brand.
•
Keep the brand fresh in the customer’s mind.
•
Focus the brand on your company’s unique point of differ-
ence.
Branding helps establish familiarity, and familiarity helps
create trust. Brands help you be remembered. They are a
tool to communicate your strengths and capabilities. To be
effective, brand messages must be consistent through all
levels of your organization. Brands are one of the most valu-
able corporate assets and, as such, need to be nurtured and
protected.
Logos represent a common graphical signal of the brand.
Careful placement of your logo adds to brand awareness and
recognition. When a customer sees your logo, it is a quick
reminder of your brand and its promises.
Personal relationships are an element of branding and need
to be managed throughout organizations. They are a key part
of how you deliver on your brand promises. Your customers
need to have a consistent experience when connecting with
your firm. Consistency increases the clarity of your brand in
the mind of the customer. The clearer the brand, the easier
it is for customers to know when to engage your firm. Value
propositions, marketing, and personal contacts all serve to
create a powerful brand in the market.
What should be incorporated in your brand? Ask your
customers how you are different and where you add the most
value. Perhaps it is your unique systems and processes for
delivery. Or is it pre-project meetings, planning sessions, or
project execution? All can be elements of your brand.
Customers, not the company itself, own the brand. The
only way to understand the brand is to ask its owners, the
customer. Once you understand the brand today, you deter-
mine if that is the brand that you want it to be or if you want
to begin the process of nudging your brand toward a new
reality.
Promoting your organization in a unique dimension is an
important part of marketing. The brand needs to represent
that uniqueness. Be creative, build and promote your unique
capability through the brand. Use your marketing efforts and
marketing tools to communicate the brand message inter-
nally and externally. Communicate your brand to your team
as diligently as you do to customers and prospective custom-
ers. Brands get stronger and more valuable by delivering the
promises 100 percent of the time.
Reduce Cost
Today’s customers are responding to the current marketplace
by being overly focused on price. As previously mentioned,
market-based pricing is difficult, but not impossible, in
the current market. You need to get ready for the changing
market now. Get clear about who you are, what services you
provide, and the brand that you are living.
Cheaper, better, faster is a mantra in the market. It does
not mean giving up on positioning your firm on value. It
means becoming creative on cost-effective ways to deliver
high-quality projects to customers. Find ways to deliver
on your promises while still being diligent about your cost
model. The best people, the best systems, and the best execu-
tion always produce the lowest unit cost. The new normal
will drive productivity to levels of intensity that most orga-
nizations have not experienced. Profitability will be sustain-
able only when all levels of “muda” (as the Japanese refer to
waste) are eliminated or managed to minimal levels.
Growing efficiency trends include Building Information
Modeling (BIM), prefabrication, lean construction, total sta-
tions, and better crew design and mix. Companies with high
Marketing
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