On the surface, our emphasis on telling an organization’s authentic “Story” with a capital “S” and our strong beliefs on the brand vs. story argument might appear to be philosophical in nature, but they are two of WordWrite’s defining principles. Moreover, our extensive experience in media relations demonstrates that these concepts successfully inform our tactical execution for clients, especially those operating in a professional services space.
Professional services are tasked with making the intangible tangible. Lawyers and accountants don’t manufacture or design a product, but no one argues the importance both have in our daily lives. But why do clients choose a particular firm or agency?
Traditional marketing would place a heavy emphasis on the “brand” name of the professional service or consulting organization, as if the mere gravitas of the title on the wall will provide results. Certainly, once you’ve established a brand, the name is meaningful and will engender future good will and business opportunities. The steps you take in building the brand, however, are dependent upon the skills and expertise of those you employ.
The outcomes we’ve been able to achieve for our clients tell us that a company’s people, not its name, give the organization its luster. A name is largely a table stake unless you’re perennially one of the 20 most respected brands in the word – a space occupied almost exclusively by businesses that make something concrete for consumers.
Thought capital, not brand name, matters most to those in the B2B sphere. In-house counsel, CIOs, CFOs, etc. seeking out a complex commercial litigation practice don’t just search the web for firms featuring that particular practice group and then choose based primarily on the name on the masthead. No, they want to know the qualifications and capacity of the lawyers who work in that area of the law. The firm name, assuming it’s an established corporate provider of legal services, is secondary.
Consider it in terms of the movement of lawyers from one firm to another. Law firms don’t raid other law firms for their attorneys or groups of attorneys because of the name of another firm. They recruit them because of their capabilities and the results they’ve demonstrated for clients.
Our experience with the media is similarly grounded in the belief that who we position to our contacts in the press as a thought leader is vastly more important than the name of that expert’s organization. Our credibility with the media relies on the credibility of those we provide them with as sources, just as their credibility as a news organization to their audiences is dependent on the reliability of the people they quote.
The New York Times hasn’t been regarded as this country’s paper of record for more than a century because its name is The New York Times. The New York Times is the most-respected, comprehensive news organization in the country – if not the world – because of the individuals validating and verifying the information it reports in individual stories.
A marketing brochure won’t seal the deal with prospects, but a well-placed quote, op-ed, byline or media hit for your people in a reputable news organization just might.
So it’s only appropriate then that I turn to The New York Times article I linked to earlier in this blog for the final say.
In its article discussing the most respected brands in the world, The Times quotes Andy Palmer, executive vice president for marketing and planning at the Nissan Motor Company.
Nissan made the biggest jump on this year’s top 100 list, from No. 90 to 73.
Palmer said, “It’s the ultimate external proof point that we’re doing the right things as a brand.”
And why exactly is that?
“(W)e’ve become a heck of a lot better at telling stories . . . ”
There might just be something to this storytelling thing after all.
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Jeremy Church is an account supervisor for WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at jeremy.church@wordwritepr.com and on Twitter @churchjeremy.
