KEY POINTS FROM the CONTINUOUS BRANDING BOOK 

Service-based organisations have to overcome issues that manufacturers of products do not – the intangibility of their services, market differentiation, adding value to their offers rather than cutting costs and engaging people in new ways.

There is a fundamental relationship between branding and design to be exploited by those that recognise the existence and relevance of it.

Continuous Branding is a strategic tool to be used by service-based organisations to grow consistently, sustainably and to communicate clearly.

Measure the impact of branding against your organisation’s key objectives and link it strategically to your brand’s performance. This encourages continuous innovation and renewal with more consistent growth.

Recognise the feeling of a ‘head wind’ slowing you down, because Continuous Branding is like a ‘tail wind’, making progress a lot easier.

There is considerable evidence for design acting as a strategic motor for growth and innovation.

Design is more than merely styling. Organisations can incorporate it into their own particular way of doing things.

Awareness of the strategic importance of using design in both the private and public sectors across the European Union is growing through better design management.

Servicing the wrong clients will drain your resources. Your brand only needs to be relevant to clients that are an ideal match. Don’t bother with the others, let your competitors struggle with them.

Explain why you do what you do, then develop and share your point of view to make it easier for clients to choose your brand.

Having a point of view increases or creates demand for a service, and brands without one will always be followers not leaders.

Create services that are useful, helpful and relevant to your ideal type of client to save them time and make their lives simpler.

Agility, flexibility and informality are prized attributes for all service brands as the world speeds up around us.

Re-think and re-organise the way your people work together and with third party agencies and suppliers to help you provide a better brand experience.

A company’s size no longer matters as much as quality of service.

There is a premium to be enjoyed by keeping things simple.

People relate to service brands like their other personal relationships, using all their senses to set their expectation before actually experiencing the service itself.

People with the right attitude and approach will personify your brand. Give them authority and discretion to flex their appearance, behaviour and communication depending on the particular situation in hand.

If you have more than one service brand within your portfolio, make sure that the skills, experience and personalities enable each of them to compete strongly in their respective markets, and not with each other.

Proactively manage the relationship between your service brand or brands and the personal brands of the key people that work for them.

People don’t buy from companies, they buy from people. Actually, from experts they like - so don’t hide yours away. They are your only real point of difference, so make the most of them.

Spend time talking to your people about your brand, what it means to clients and why you do the things the way you do.
To personify your brand, make your people feel valued, important and cared for and you’ll bring out the best performance in them.

To outshine your competitors, provide personalised experiences for your clients that they’ll find memorable and will want to share with others.

Small shifts in behaviour can lead to bigger shifts in thinking and a dramatic effect on your clients’ experiences of your brand.

Successful organisations recognise that branding and design are essential components for growth and innovation regardless of their size. Service still tends to be under valued as a key differentiator by many organisations.

My most successful clients share a common pattern in terms of their thinking, behaviour and communication that helps explain why the best of them grow consistently, whilst others do not. This is mirrored in successful world-class organisations.

I wanted to develop an easy way to explain how service brands grow by linking an organisation’s strategy to its clients, its leader and its people as well as its suppliers - in a way that everyone can understand and support.

My aim is to share this in a form that you can adapt for your own advantage, first by thinking differently and then looking at your specific circumstances from a new perspective. Then introduce changes that make a fundamental difference over the long term.

Continuous Branding is made up of five principles and is for anyone running or marketing a service-based organisation and building their brand through their people.

Use Continuous Branding strategically, by putting the principles at the heart of everything you do for greater brand performance and success with more consistent and sustainable growth.

Motivating your people to personify your brand is both challenging and rewarding and Continuous Branding can help you with it.

Greg understands the power of Continuous Branding by linking it to his strategy and his people, and putting the five principles at the heart of everything he does.

Principle 1: Greg thinks like a brand owner by continually building the value of Rapport through excellent service and growing the company at the same time. Clients want to appoint Rapport because they’re the best in the market and to experience their unique brand of hospitality.

Principle 2: Greg leads from a powerful market position because he understands that his clients crave an intuitive service, one that anticipates needs, that saves time and makes their guests feel welcome and relaxed. This is conveyed through the Rapport website, driving home its market position and continually reinforcing it with ‘industry firsts’ like National Telephonists’ Day to celebrate the role of professional telephone operators.

Principle 3: Greg and Rapport have an engaging point of view. With his five-star hotel experience, he has a crystal clear idea of how clients and their guests should be looked after. Although, his real gift is his ability to inspire his people to personify the Rapport brand by thinking and behaving like him. He is always telling stories about his wonderful Rapport Ambassadors and the annual Excellence Awards are recognition, celebration and reward for the most outstanding examples of service.

Principle 4: Greg personalises the Rapport brand experience for clients and guests. This makes them feel important, valued and good about themselves. It comes from empowering his Rapport Ambassadors to take control of situations that are ‘out of the ordinary’ and trusting them to do the right thing. This personalisation is powerful and extremely difficult for competitors to replicate.

Principle 5: Greg invests continuously to grow consistently. He knows that the minute he stops investing will be the minute Rapport stops growing. This is what drives him on to win new contracts and prestigious awards for service and excellence in workplace engagement whilst still growing the Rapport brand at more than 20% per annum.

Service-based organisations have to overcome issues that manufacturers of products do not - the intangibility of their services, market differentiation, adding value to their offers rather than cutting costs and engaging people in new ways.

There is a fundamental relationship between branding and design to be exploited by those that recognise the existence and relevance of it.

Continuous Branding is a strategic tool to be used by service-based organisations to grow consistently, sustainably and to communicate clearly.
Measure the impact of branding against your organisation’s key objectives and link it strategically to your brand’s performance. This encourages continuous innovation and renewal with more consistent growth.