Page 92 - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - PDFDrive.com

company to deliver air freight for the Federal Reserve.)
So Federal is a more distinctive, more memorable, and more authoritative

way to convey “nationwide.”
Now look at Federal Express in color. The colors again hint at the

government-sanctioned theme with their twist on red, white, and blue, but
connote better quality by replacing the government’s ordinary blue with a richer
purple-blue.

So Federal Express conveys a distinctive and powerful message—“like the
US mail, only faster and better”—in just two words and two colors—a terrific
information-per-inch ratio.

Use Federal Express as your standard, and ask: How much does your
name communicate, how fast? Are you using color effectively? Is it conveying
the same message as your name?

The Brand Rush

A revealing week in my life:
Monday, a gifted lawyer calls. He quickly explains his problem. He is among

the premier practitioners in his specialty, but he is losing business to inferior
lawyers in two brand-name law firms. He wants that hole plugged.

Wednesday afternoon, the president of a contracting company calls. A heavily
advertised competitor is charging far more for comparable jobs and still getting
the bids, despite my caller’s roomful of industry trophies.

Thursday morning, the president of a professional consulting firm calls. Her
firm has grown incrementally by word of mouth, and cannot penetrate the more
lucrative, challenging, and prestigious accounts that would give the firm more
stature. The big-name firms own all those accounts.

This was an actual week in my life in 1995. By year’s end I was ready to dub
it The Year of the Brand Rush—the year when thousands of service companies
finally realized the enormous clout of brands.

Each caller was getting beaten by a brand. Each caller’s company offered
demonstrably excellent, even superior service, yet each was losing business to
brands. Each company was growing, but more sluggishly than it deserved.

But each executive had finally realized something critical:
In service marketing, almost nothing beats a brand.

Aren’t Brands Dying?