Why brands matter
June 1st 2011

You've got a name, a logo, some liveried vans and a website. But do you have a brand? Not necessarily, says Anelia Varela from language consultancy The Writer

Look at the tender responses for any big cleaning contract and you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart. Everyone's 'delighted to present our proposal'. Everyone delivers a 'professional service'.

Everyone's trusted by big, prestigious clients. Everyone feels it's their people who make the difference.

When everyone's saying the same thing, it's your brand that makes you stand out.

So why are there so few real brands in the cleaning business? Sure, people might have heard of some of the bigger players. But do they feel any warmth or fondness towards them? Looking at their websites,my guess is not. Like most business-to-business companies, they're cold and functional.

It's as if B2B companies forget that their customers are still people, with children and Labradors and school holidays spent in Spain.And those business customers, like consumers, are increasingly looking for brands they don't just trust, but like.After all, who wants to do business with someone they don't like?

The Eddie effect

One B2B brand that people not only like, but love, is Eddie Stobart.

Who doesn't remember playing the Eddie Stobart game while driving along the M1 on the way to some family holiday destination? Maybe you even had an Eddie Stobart toy truck.The thing is, people have a genuine emotional connection with Eddie Stobart. And that's what makes it a great brand.

But how do you make that emotional connection? The good news is you don't have to have been around for as long as Eddie Stobart to build a distinctive brand. Nor do you need to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on a flashy rebranding project.

The quickest and cheapest way to inject some personality and emotion into your brand is through the words you use. (We would say that,wouldn't we?) That's what ACT Clean found when they came to us for help defining their brand. But they also found it's not as simple as just rewriting your brochure and your website. It's about changing the way you think. Because if you have nothing interesting or different to say, all you'll end up with is eloquent fluff and waffle.

For ACT, the key was understanding what their clients really wanted from their cleaning partner, practically and emotionally, and tapping into that in their writing. So now, instead of talking about their 'passion, ability, care and endurance', they're showing those things by talking about 'spotless floors, dust-free surfaces and gleaming kitchens'. Instead of '24-hour support', there's 'a real person on the other end of the line. 24 hours a day'.

Will you follow?

Since ACT launched its new brand, at least one other cleaning company has upped its game with a chic new website that echoes its clients' luxury credentials.Or rather, the design does ? look beyond the glossy veneer and the messages are the same old, same old: from the 'committed and passionate employees' to the 'personal service delivery'.

If only they'd gone for a deep clean, rather than a dust.

Five steps from bland to brand

• Find your story. What makes you different?

• Know who you're talking to.What do they really want from your service?

• Find your voice.What's your brand's personality? And how can you get that across in your writing?

• Break out of the B2B mindset.Remember, you're still one human being writing to another. So speak to your readers like real people.

• Don't be boring.There's really no excuse.