Engineering Inc - July/August 2017 - 24

Five Key Points to Building Your Brand

Use a multilevel approach

Ask the tough questions
Enlist an outside
consultant who can
lead executives
through the process
of asking questions
related to brand
identity through the
use of surveys and
focus groups.
Employees, clients
and prospective
clients should be
asked what the firm
represents to them.
An outside consultant
can facilitate and
analyze results with
neutrality.

Armed with information
from clients and employees,
companies should then come
up with a message and a
multilevel approach for
communicating it-
including advertisements,
a social media strategy
and employee
education as well as
increasing the profile
of thought leaders to
the industry.

Impress website visitors
Keep the website
aesthetically current,
easily searchable and up to
date. More prospective clients
and job candidates are looking to
websites to validate what they hear
and read about the company.

those talking about the latest trends, techniques or regulations.
Or it's being quoted in articles or producing content that's not
sales material," says Feldman.
Furthermore, brand strength
in professional services is measured by reputation and visibility. "You can't see your reputation, but you can build up brand
strength and visibility by sharing
your knowledge in a thought
leadership capacity, so you can
develop trust," Feldman says.

"It is amazing
how recognizable
your brand
becomes
when you are
embedded in
the community."
RENEE LANE
C&S COS.

ENGINEERING INC.

BATTLE OF THE BRANDS

So how would you approach trying to sell into a market where
there already exist dominant players providing similar services as
you? Mike McDermott, president
of Bash Foo, an inbound marketing agency, says marketing teams
are often faced with this branding
challenge.
"When Lyft entered the scene,
their competitor Uber already
had a dominant market position,"
McDermott says. "However, while
Uber spent their time and coin
battling in the headlines with taxi
drivers, Lyft quietly grew as the

JULY / AUGUST 2017

Reinforce messaging daily
Post at least one or two new pieces
of online content per week. The
content will rise to the top of search
engine results faster with frequent
updates that incorporate a proper
SEO strategy, but it takes time.

Create brand ambassadors
Implement a good training program
in place, then train the trainers-
and have them become the
message evangelists. "Don't think
you're going to train everybody and
get them there all at once," says
Rex Fisher, senior vice president
corporate relations for HDR.

reliable alternative to the embattled 'black car' service.
"With bright pink logos, themed rides, and Lyft riders being
encouraged to sit in the front seat, Lyft provides the same exact
service of getting their customer to where they want to go. They
simply chose to not be so stuffy and uptight about the ride experience," he said.
Lyft still has to be careful with their branding decision. Things
like low cost, an easy to use mobile app, a stable of good drivers and
reliability of service are marks that Lyft must continue to hit.
McDermott recalled how similarly, Southwest Airlines knew that
to compete in the cut-throat airline markets they'd have to do some
pretty drastic things to get recognized and still stay profitable.
"You've probably heard of, or experienced, the inflight shenanigans of the Southwest flight crew. This choice to be the 'entertaining' one of the bunch, along with its desire to operate out of smaller
airports within hub cities across the U.S. proved to be the winning
cocktail for them over the past 35 years," he said.
McDermott summarized, "in both of these examples, the companies chose to dive into these competitive markets with an understanding that at the core, they had to differentiate within an established product or service and make that differentiation inextricably
bound to their brand."
WEBSITE, SOCIAL MEDIA IMPORTANCE

Websites have become the information hub of a company's brand.
Prospective clients and job candidates go to a company's website
to verify what was said in an interview or in a project proposal. "If
they can't find it on your website, they immediately question what
you're saying about yourself," Heroux says.
"Your website is an opportunity for you to design someone's

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc - July/August 2017