Building a veterinary practice brand

The use of brands and branding to market and differentiate veterinary services is a relatively recent development in the UK. At the time of writing, published material on the subject is limited and there is as yet no veterinary context specific research to draw on. Although this marketing strategy is being embraced by corporates and other types of veterinary practice, implementation often only extends to the use of external symbols, such as logos, the choice of corporate colour schemes, staff uniforms and signage. Branding is much more than a set of external symbols. It is a complex, multifaceted construct and needs to be fully understood as such by practice owners and managers before they can utilise it as a marketing tool effectively.

This article explores the multiple meanings of the brand concept and the adaptation of the concept for marketing services. An approach to branding a veterinary practice is then proposed utilising the corporate branding model, which is particularly appropriate to services branding, and which practice owners and managers who wish to create their own practice brand may utilise.

What is a brand?

Brands first became important in the USA well over a century ago and were a method by which companies selling similar goods could differentiate their own offerings from those of their competitors (Berthon et al. 1999). When the brand concept was originally developed, its main purpose was to differentiate tangible goods or products and not services. It was used mainly by large organisations and rarely by small to medium-sized firms (SMEs). Over time, however, the application of branding principles became ubiquitous and has now extended outwards to embrace services as well as products and small organisations as well as large, although SMEs, including veterinary practices, are still lagging behind in taking full advantage of the benefits of branding, mainly due to a lack of marketing expertise and resources (Spence and Hamzaoui Essoussi, 2010). Today brands continue to provide the primary means of differentiating competing offerings and, as such, are critical to the success of companies which have to compete for a share in the same market (Wood, 2000).

Despite the ubiquity of brands, there is no one commonly agreed definition of the concept. Definitions vary depending on the perspective from which the concept is viewed and the underlying philosophical stance taken (Wood, 2000). Thus, a brand may be defined from the consumer's perspective, the brand owner's perspective or in terms of its purpose or characteristics, among others. So, for example, a consumer may define a brand as:

‘A set of features and attributes, which are instantly recognizable and which promise quality, assurance, satisfaction and/or status.’

The brand owner may define a brand as:

‘Any one or a combination of symbol, name, design, catchphrase, word or sign intended to uniquely identify the product and differentiate it from similar competitor products.’

Keller and Lehmann (2006) examine brands from the point of view of their key functions and levels of impact. Thus, the functions of a brand are:

• To serve as markers or identifiers for a company's offerings
• To simplify consumer choice
• To reduce consumer risk
• To build trust.

Brands are constructed starting with the core product, proceeding through the type and level of marketing activity undertaken to promote the product and, finally, to the consumer response to this marketing activity, as demonstrated by consumer purchasing behaviour. The impact of brands, therefore, occurs at three distinct levels — the core product or service, the consumer and the organisation. The benefits accrued at each of these levels build the value of the brand, which is referred to as ‘brand equity’.

Pringle and Gordon (2001) define a brand as representing ‘promises’ about what a customer can expect from a product, service or company. According to the authors, brands are a combination of functional and rational attributes and emotional and psychological imagery. The functional and rational attributes concern the product or service itself — the tangible features and functions that deliver value to the customer or client, which must be unique for the brand to be successful. Emotions are formed by the tone, style and imagery of the marketing communications promoting the product or service.

A number of associated concepts have emerged, which describe additional dimensions of the brand construct and which serve to underline its complexity. Three key concepts are brand identity, brand values and brand equity.

Brand identity

Aaker (1996) defines brand identity as the combined effect of all of the external, visible features of a brand, which are perceived by consumers, hopefully in the exact way that is intended by the organisation which created it. A key aspect of brand identity, therefore, are its external manifestations — the unique symbols, logos, phrases, tunes, colours and/or trademarks that are used to represent the brand and which customers instantly recognise and associate with it (Figure 1).

Brand values

Successful brands are underpinned by a consistent set of brand values. These are the beliefs, aspirations and attitudes that describe and define the brand and differentiate it from others. Clearly identifiable, genuine brand values are an extension of the internal values of an organisation, which the people working within it espouse and enact every day. If brand values are to be sustained, however, they must be delivered consistently, both internally and externally. For example, an organisation that claims to value quality must ensure that this is delivered throughout its entire operations — in its premises, advertising, staff training, professional conduct and the quality of customer care (Jobber, 2001).

Brand equity

Feldwick (1996) offers several different meanings for the concept of brand equity:

• Brand equity is the total value of a brand as an asset, when it is sold or included in a company's balance sheet
• A measure of the strength of consumers' attachment to a brand — also known as brand strength or loyalty
• The totality of the associations and beliefs a customer has about the brand — also known as brand image.

Wood (2000) argues that there is, in fact, a causal link between the three definitions above, which she labels the ‘brand equity chain’ — brand identity is created to fit the needs of the target market and, if this is done effectively, the strength of the brand increases through growing customer loyalty. This, in turn, determines the financial value of the brand, which, if substantial, brings competitive advantage to the brand owner.

Brand equity has also been defined as a strong and unique brand association resulting from consumer familiarity with a brand; the sum total of all of the different values people attach to the brand and the value and quality that have been added to the core product, which elevate the product to a status greater than simply a commodity (Keller, 1993).

To draw together the different strands of the discussion so far, for specific products or services to become brands and to be perceived by consumers as such, these products or services must meet the following key criteria:

• They must be unique or distinctive and be recognised as such by consumers
• The core product or service must meet, in every respect, the claims made about it by the supplier or service provider
• They must bring significant additional benefits both to the consumer and the supplier/provider, which cannot be obtained from unbranded products or services
• They must bring competitive advantage to the supplier/provider
• They must be underpinned by a set of values, which are delivered consistently, both internally and externally, by the organisation
• They must consistently and actively build positive associations with consumers and foster consumer loyalty.

How can a veterinary practice fulfil all of these requirements? How can it achieve significant differentiation and gain competitive advantage? Veterinary services are generally seen by clients to be broadly of a similar type and quality, irrespective of marketing effort undertaken, so differentiation of the service itself might be difficult. However, it is possible to gain an advantage in a variety of other ways if the practice focuses on how the service is delivered.

Branding services

In 1999 De Chernatony and Dall'Olmo Riley began to question whether the product-centred brand concept could also apply to services. Their research, involving interviews with brand experts, led them to conclude that the basic principles of branding are in fact as applicable to services as they are to products. However, they found that the way service companies implemented their brand strategies differed — services branding required a shift in emphasis to account for the specific characteristics of services. Services are intangible in that they cannot be touched, seen or handled, but, instead, must be experienced. It is not possible to separate production and consumption of services, as it is with products. The quality of the service is entirely dependent on the people delivering it, on their knowledge, skills and abilities and so the role of service personnel is crucial. Services cannot be stored for later consumption, as can products. Because of these characteristics, branding services has to involve both internal and external activities and has to encompass the entire organisation — integrating all of its internal processes and its external communications in such a way that the organisation itself becomes the brand.

De Chernatony and Dall'Olmo Riley (1999) put forward a number of branding strategies based around the characteristics of services and these are summarised in Table 1.

De Chernatony and Segal-Horn (2001) argue that services branding strategies need to attend more to internal company issues than is the case with products and specifically point to the importance of internal communications. They also point out that while product branding focuses primarily on the consumer, successful services brands focus on all stakeholders, especially staff. Thus, successful services companies employ people whose values concur with their own, so that they behave in a way that fulfils the ‘brand promise’. A key finding of their research is that services brands are built on a relationship between the brand and the consumer, which is developed through greater consumer dialogue and the integration of consumers into brand delivery processes. Furthermore, services brands are more likely to succeed if service delivery staff can build consumers' trust through genuine rather than superficial relationships.

De Chernatony and Segal-Horn (2003) asked brand experts what criteria they associated with successful services brands. The most frequently mentioned criteria for success were clarity of position, consistency, values and systems. The company's brand position, i.e. what it stands for, must be clear and understood by both staff and customers. Thus, the brand must be real in the minds of the people delivering it and each customer contact point, otherwise known as ‘moment of truth’, must reinforce the brand message. Consistency of the customer experience is essential and is assured through the systems that are put in place to deliver the service and communicate with customers. Managers should reflect the company's core values in their own behaviour and professional conduct. Finally, these values should not be superficial, as customers will detect this, but rather should be strongly-held beliefs and convictions founded on a culture that is focused on putting the customer first.

Building a veterinary practice brand

De Chernatony and Dall'Olmo Riley (1999) proposed the ‘corporate branding’ approach, as an effective branding strategy for service-based businesses. Corporate branding is a holistic approach which encompasses all of the activities of a business, both internal and external. Key features of corporate branding include:

• Internal marketing — the communication of brand values and strategies to all staff so that they understand the company ethos and what the company brand is about
• Training of frontline staff — so that they personify the brand to clients
• Corporate identity — which articulates the company's ethos, values and aims
• Consistent communications — to establish a favourable impression with clients and other stakeholders.

This approach provides a framework for the development of the necessary processes, communications and attitudes to support the brand. It can help to support rebranding efforts where a culture change may be required throughout the practice.

De Chernatony et al (2003) identified nine stages in the brand development process. These have been re-interpreted and simplified for the purposes of this article and are put forward as a generic model for building a veterinary practice brand.

Stage 1

Carry out a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities- Threats (SWOT) analysis in order to identify internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. Close and honest scrutiny of what is and is not currently working is essential, gathering opinions from staff and from clients about the service provided and their perceived image of the practice. Client surveys are useful in obtaining current satisfaction ratings. The information gathered is then analysed in order to clarify the identity and values that the practice wants to move away from and those that it now wants to portray. This process should also enable the practice to identify its core competencies, which can be built on or changed in favour of a different, better offering. This may carry a greater risk, but could provide the desired level of differentiation from competitors' offerings.

Stage 2

Agree a brand vision. To do so, practice owners and staff need to answer the following questions:

• What is the brand and what does it stand for?
• What does the practice currently offer that can be developed into a brand?
• Can the brand essence be expressed in words?

As a result of this process, it will be necessary to assess whether the desired brand vision can be practically achieved utilising currently available resources. Resources include staff skills, attitudes and abilities, premises and equipment, procedures and protocols needed to deliver the brand in the desired way. If further resources are needed, can these be obtained cost effectively?

Stage 3

Agree brand positioning and differentiation — ensure that the practice brand is sufficiently unique and different to competitors' offerings and that it provides real value for clients. This requires a good knowledge of competitors, their services and particularly how they operate.

Stage 4

Build staff commitment to the practice brand concept. A series of staff workshops to discuss the brand and aimed at explaining the methods by which staff, particularly frontline staff, can represent the brand will be necessary here. Staff guidelines will also need to be formulated. A clear, concise written explanation of the practice's brand vision should be posted up in strategic places as a reminder. It is essential that staff identify with and ‘own’ the brand. If they are unable to do so, they will be unable to deliver it consistently to clients.

Stage 5

Promote the brand to clients. Put in place all the external symbols of the brand, e.g. practice name, logo, waiting room, corporate stationery, staff uniforms, client communication tools, which are integrated and which support the brand concept so that it is clearly recognisable by clients in everything that they see and experience.

Stage 6

Communicate and deliver a consistent, strong brand message. The processes by which the service is delivered are the brand and so these must be monitored to ensure that the brand vision and values are delivered consistently, ensuring that the client experience is positive, irrespective of whether the animal gets better or not.

The above brand building process is not necessarily linear — some or all of the stages could be carried out concurrently. In addition, success is more likely if there is a ‘champion’ who can encourage and enthuse staff (de Chernatony et al, 2003). This role could potentially be performed by the practice principal, practice manager or by members of the team tasked with implementing the brand strategy.

Conclusions

Veterinary practices can no longer afford to stand still and must undertake effective marketing in order to remain competitive. The corporate branding strategy is an appropriate marketing approach, which provides a framework for building a unique veterinary practice brand. As has been shown, logos certainly form part of the practice's brand identity, but represent a very small part of the corporate branding process. Whether this brand-building process is highly structured and managed, or whether it takes the form of informal staff discussions aimed at identifying a practice's unique offering and identity, it will oblige management and staff to rethink the overall values and image of their practice, what these currently are, and what they would like them to be in the future. A scrutiny of internal processes and procedures and the way service is delivered to clients will inevitably follow. It is arguable whether veterinary practices can continue to thrive in this economic climate without considerable marketing effort to ensure competitiveness, but it is through the quality of its services, premises and equipment and, particularly its staff, that real value is delivered to clients. Branding merely helps clients to see this value more clearly.

Key Points

• It is arguable whether veterinary practices can continue to thrive in this economic climate without considerable marketing effort to ensure competitiveness.
• Practice owners and managers must understand the full meaning of brands and branding if they are to use this marketing tool effectively.
• The corporate branding approach is an effective branding strategy for veterinary practices.
• The brand must be real in the minds of the staff delivering it and of the clients receiving it.
• The processes by which the service is delivered must ensure that the brand vision and values are communicated consistently and powerfully.