After working with a banking software company, I understood that marketing was about building a brand.  The problem was the service was awful.  Piles of change requests and poor execution to customer demands.

This software company had it all wrong.  They spent large amounts of money on marketing to build brand and reputation but were losing the battle on the front-line every day to customers.  What mattered to many of the banks was decent service.

At the time I was working on the customer service calls about the software.  Although they had 100s of change requests and broken code only about 50 got regular complaints from different banks.  While I was working to get the software fixed the focus became to develop the brand.

The management paradox was that they wouldn’t need to brand if the service was good.  The service could be the brand and build the reputation by word-of-mouth rather than false perceptions through slick marketing and semi-annual boondoogles to appease frustrated banks.

In recent years this formula holds true: when you take care of customers you build a reputation and then the brand will follow.  This, of course, is exactly counter-intuitive to the way things are done today.  Most companies brand, build reputation and then work on improving the transactions or service. 

If the service is there customers will reference you to other customers.  If it is not you may still get customers, but it will cost you a lot more.  The constant need to replace or pacify customers will be a drag on the financials.  Taking a different approach to branding will bring you more revenue for less money.

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