Procedure of Building the Brand Image for Service Industry

Service industry deals with intangible benefits provided to customers for a particular price set by firm like insurance, banking, computer services, restaurants, tourism, financial, educational services etc. Nowadays, branding and advertising of the business is also being done. So it also needs building an image for itself. Branding, advertising and image building of business is somewhat different from product marketing.  When we establish a firm, proper analysis needs to be done to know market needs and customer’s demands in a better way. Product research can be done by distributing free samples, which cannot be done in this particular case. A corporation can become a good Image branding company when its focus shifts towards building its brand value. Few parameters to design good brand image of service industry are discussed below.

                                                                                   Quality of Service

The service quality affects brand value of firm. Quality should meet benchmark standards. Provided firm should have an ability to perform promised service accurately, should be able to offer prompt delivery and care for customer base. For effective management of quality, firm should monitor, evaluate, upgrade and brief quality performance. Quality is a factor that needs to be analyzed properly for designing a Best image branding company.

Refund for Unsatisfied Service Parameters

Most of the service providers do not give refund to consumers who are unsatisfied with parameters. For example, in banking industry a person gets loan and is unhappy about EMI facility or interest rate. He cannot return loan after it has been sanctioned. So the industry should also provide refund for unsatisfied service parameters that are provided to customers similar to product line manufacturing firms.

Reliability and Assurance

Quality should be reliable such that purchaser does not complain after buying service. For example an education industry is a service sector but nowadays there are many colleges, which are not registered under UGC (UGC is a government recognized organization that provides license to Indian colleges). These unrecognized colleges or institutions award fake degrees to students risking their future. So here we can say that service quality is not reliable at all. If a firm provides reliable and assured services to its customers, there is a maximum possibility that it become the Best image branding company in India or elsewhere.

Advertising

A service industry also needs to do its advertising and promotion. Apart from television and print media, other tools can also be used like web marketing, publishing contents, email Marketing etc. Promotion of service should be done in such a way, audience or end consumer gains enough knowledge about product.

Competitiveness

Basis of competition in service industry is superior performance of service, on time delivery, quicker settlement of complaints, whether service quality meets standards or not and so on. If a firm promotes its own unique service in market, it can monopolize itself in market but in case there are similar services already existing in market then competition arises. Competition helps in upgrading standard of service being delivered. 

How Emotional Factors Influence our Brand Image?

Image branding is consumers’ impression about brand. It is the way in which brand is positioned in market. Brand image can be built by telling consumers who we are, what product and service do we provide, what values we believe in and many more. Reputation of brand is influenced by two factors; what consumer feels and what he thinks. Good reputation can be built through emotional loyalty, which can be achieved by having knowledge about consumer's emotional state, wants, dreams and aspirations. When we want to apply emotional Marketing approaches to our image branding efforts, company should know what purchaser feels about product or service. To develop good image brand for a company, the firm should focus on both emotional and mental aspect of product.

Some strategies to gain emotional loyalty of consumers for better image branding:

Good Quality Along With Better Feel And Experiences

For building a better reputation of the firm, brand quality should not be compromised at any cost. A brand, which provides the right combination of functionality and quality, always achieves higher brand value in minds of consumers. These are superficial qualities of brand, which can be seen directly. It is very important for firm to know how end customer feels about product. For example:

·         Is the consumer satisfied with performance of brand?

·         Does he feel good after using brand?

·         Is he falling in love with brand?

Another important aspect to be considered to build any Best image branding company in India or abroad is kind of experience consumer gains after using the firm’s product or service.

Customized Marketing

Customization gives consumer a product in way he wants. It is an expensive marketing approach but, nowadays many firms are resorting to customized marketing approach to gain customers’ emotional loyalty. It is also called one to one marketing or personalized marketing. For e.g. a firm may design apparels for a consumer after he has revealed what kind of clothes he wants to wear.

Few steps that are to be followed for customized marketing are:

·         Identification and separation of purchasers, on basis of their wants and how it is to be fulfilled

·         One on one basis of interaction with consumer to know what he/she needs

·         Personalization of product to end-consumers.

When an end consumer is provided with a customized solution to their problem then he is happy and hence we can retain him for long term enhancing brand image of company. Customization also helps in fulfilling emotional needs of purchaser.

Shifting from One Way Communication to Interactive Discussions

An Image branding company creates its website or profile on a social media site to make consumers aware about its product. It also does various promotional activities on websites, television, print media and magazines to build a better image. But this type of communication is only one way i.e. only firm makes consumers aware about its product or service offering. Consumers also have full right to express their point of view about brand. This can be done through end consumer reviews, chats, feedbacks and opinions expressed on various social media sites. Interactive discussion helps in retaining emotional loyalty of customers.