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The Brand Rush A revealing week in my life: Monday, a gifted lawyer calls. He quickly explains his problem. He is among the premier practitioners in his specialty, but he is losing business to inferior lawyers in two brand-name law firms. He wants that hole plugged. Wednesday afternoon, the president of a contracting company calls. A heavily advertised competitor is charging far more for comparable jobs and still getting the bids, despite my caller's roomful of industry trophies. Thursday morning, the president of a professional consulting firm calls. Her firm has grown incrementally by word of mouth, and cannot penetrate the more lucrative, challenging, and prestigious accounts that would give the firm more stature. The big-name firms own all those accounts. This was an actual week in my life in 1995. By year's end I was ready to dub it The Year of the Brand Rush--the year when thousands of service companies finally realized the enormous clout of brands. Each caller was getting beaten by a brand. Each caller's company offered demonstrably excellent, even superior service, yet each was losing business to brands. Each company was growing, but more sluggishly than it deserved. But each executive had finally realized something critical: In service marketing, almost nothing beats a brand.
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