The brand: a continuous building process

Achieving sustainability in a service company is a real challenge. Scaling it up is even harder. They all have an inherent need: to seek maximum recurrence with their customers to ensure a financial base that acts as leverage to grow. Reducing uncertainty to a minimum, knowing what resources you will have and how you will have to dedicate them is a necessary springboard to improve, optimize, grow and also, of course, take care of the team.

This sometimes leads to thinking more about shaping a cheap service that people will pay for without whining. A low-cost service for the service company, something that—if there is no technology involved—can easily translate into little added value and, ultimately, overlook the relationship. Assuming that the other person, or the other company, is there out of inertia. A mistake.

At Soluble we are more into working with brands with constancy and flexibility, in a sustained way in time but not in what we do, because that varies depending on the moment and the needs. We are more into taking care of bonsais than having a cactus. And that's because recurrence has more to do with the relationship than with the service, and a brand strategy project is the ideal start.

In our industry, no one doubts the importance of continuous attention to the product, the service, the team, the contacts... or any other company asset. However, when we speak about branding, it seems that the initial impulse is to do a specific, well-defined project and wait for the magic to happen. However, in our experience, the true value comes later. The initial project is fundamental to trigger a succession of very powerful changes.

The brand platform is a toolkit that encapsulates the reality of an organization in words and allows the alignment and training of the team with the aim of maintaining the health of that brand. Thanks to the decisions that are made, the discarded ideas and the actions a team ultimately deploys. We often say it: one of the tangible benefits of brand strategy is that it avoids discussions and removes doubts, something that is very present in day-to-day business.

This exercise of reflection is—at the same time—what leads to a constant review of the validity of this strategic base. When the operational reality of an organization changes, but the essence remains the same, the brand stands firm in its role as a valuable and empowering asset. Rather than a static photograph, the brand is a succession of frames that give rise to a much more complex and richer living image.

Having a straightforward roadmap also helps to narrate more and better what we are because it keeps the radar active to detect new opportunities for brand activation: look for new points of contact, dump those that do not work, make changes to reach the desired audience...

It is inevitable that a brand's identity evolves and adapts to what is happening in the context of the organization. The same is valid for activation. The important thing is that it does so on strategic foundations. Improvement, optimization, and consistent evolution of all the identity elements.

In the evolutionary process of a brand, knowledge is generated in all areas, a capital that goes beyond each person and that can be transferred between teams and areas of specialty. Working with strategic ambition enriches each project and each customized process over time. Particular realities are augmented and broadened by the context, knowledge and skills of the whole team.

Of course, incorporating these capabilities is an iterative work that is optimized after every project, every delivery, and every retrospective, thanks to the holistic vision.

Actually, this approach is nothing new. It is about bringing to the brand everything that is taken for granted in other aspects, such as digital product management: understand, ideate, design, build, measure. Then, it starts all over again, to provide even more value, cultivate the relationship, and ensure sustainability.