Beauty's only skin deep
Does your construction firm truly embrace differentiation?
BY SUZANNE LOWE
Most professional service firms pursue some sort of differentiation.
According to one of Expertise Marketing's recent studies, 81% of professional
service firms reported they used differentiation as a marketing approach
in the previous three years; unfortunately, a majority thought of differentiation
as simply an exercise in image enhancement. But, like the adage "beauty
is only skin deep," image-oriented differentiation strategies only
go so far in their ability to deliver an effective marketplace advantage.
The reality is that when it comes to differentiation, the more complex
and operationally deep the differentiation strategy is, the more competitively
potent it is. The "easier" and more operationally shallow methods
reap the least rewards.
In recent surveys, it appears that the most-used differentiation approaches
were not necessarily the most successful (for example, developing a new
positioning, repackaging current services or using new techniques and tools
to "deliver" services). The more operationally "deep"
the differentiation strategies were (for example, those requiring the implementation
and alignment of human resources, financial, change management, technology
or training and development processes), the more successful they were.
Examples of competitively advantaged differentiation methods include adding
new-to-the-firm services that blend into the services of another industry
or implementing a formal relationship management program to strengthen a
firm's bonds with its current clients.
- Ultimately, the most competitively robust differentiation strategies
are grounded in a firm's professionally driven and culturally supported
processes, protocols and methods; many of these are already unique to each
firm. But beyond that, professional service firms are building differentiation
strategies upon a number of foundations besides the already mentioned "image"
foundation. These include:
- a firm's geographical focus,
- service offerings,
- client needs addressed,
- a project's "point of entry,"
- staff,
- service delivery,
- value delivered (this goes much deeper than "price"),
- targets,
- position, if it's first, or
- the consistent delivery of a unique emotional "experience"
to clients.
Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., an environmental engineering, science and consulting
firm, incrementally differentiated itself by making a series of choices
to distinguish its service offerings from its competitors. The firm's results
as of the writing of Marketplace Masters were impressive:
1. Pirnie became one of the most honored firms in the environmental profession,
recognized for engineering excellence in competitions nationwide; many of
these projects reflect the firm's differentiation strategies.
2. Always profitable, the firm doubled in size since its initial forays
into differentiation.
3. Its employee retention has been higher than industry norms.
Guidelines for differentiation
How does one truly approach competitive differentiation, and imbed these
concepts into the firm? Following are guidelines and a methodology for developing
a differentiation strategy that works best for your firm and that also is
competitively preemptive in the marketplace.
Past track record on differentiation: Has your firm ever undertaken
any kind of differentiation initiative? What was the outcome? All too
often it's a blandly broad statement, residing in a pretty report or perhaps
on a firm's web site that expresses how your firm is different.
Knowledge about differentiation: How well do your firm's leaders
"get it" about differentiation? That it means your firm is the
only firm to be, to do or to have something that can't be copied; something
that no other firm is, does or has? Many professionals (and marketers too)
have varying definitions of the terms "differentiation," "positioning,"
and "branding." Often, they treat these strategies as if they
are the same (they are not!), or at least interchangeable (again, not at
all!). What does each platform mean separately, and in relation to the
other?
Leadership: How keenly do your firm's leaders perceive the crucial
role of differentiation in a professional service firm's corporate strategy?
Is it viewed as a critical firm-wide strategy that is supposed to be implemented,
as it should be? Or instead is it viewed as a marketing communication initiativeevidence
of a lightweight approach to differentiation? (It's lightweight if you
see that your firm has not set up any processes or tools to operationally
support its differentiation strategies.)
Do your firm's leaders understand how to assess the criteria for determining
the most robust possible differentiation platform for your firm (value for
clients, credibility, attractiveness, sustainability, narrow focus and protection
against copycats)?
Attitude about differentiation: Do many of your firm's professionals
scoff at the notion of real differentiation, that it cannot be achieved?
If so, this is a signal that they may not understand the elements or foundation
of differentiation strategies. Are your firm's leaders convinced that the
firm is different, when in fact this is nowhere near the case (and everyone
else knows it!)?
Differentiation champions and influencers: Does your firm have
a professional-side partner or director whose voice on marketing has earned
his or her colleagues' respect? This would be a person who is not viewed
as so avant-garde that s/he is held on the firm's metaphorical "sideline."
("There goes Jean-Philippe againhe has such a strong voice that
people have just begun to tune him out.") This could also be someone
who has demonstrated successful leadership on previous firm initiatives.
If so, how tired or skeptical is the organization of seeing this person
step up to the plate to push the firm toward a new initiative? ("Nadia
really pulled out all the stops last year to get us to do the XXX project;
I think people are tired of hearing from her!") Does your firm have
a staff-side chief marketing officer or marketing director? If so, is this
person mainly responsible for marketing communications activities (anything
related to building visibility and not developing marketing strategy)?
What's this person's level of "power" in your firm?
Knowledge, leadership and attitudes about differentiation will indicate
how ready and willing your firm is to undertake the process. With a differentiation
champion, you can make inroads into the firm's differentiation process and
truly create a compelling, competitive position in the marketplace.
BXM
Lowe is president of Expertise Marketing LLC and the author of the
newly published Marketplace Masters from the Greenwood Press.
