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By Mike Schultz and John Doerr

Swing the Hammer

Imagine the strongman game at the carnival. You lift the sledgehammer over your head and swing it down onto the platform. When it strikes the target, a metal cylinder rises up and up—20 feet up the pole until it rings the bell. On its way down the pole the cylinder passes the same words it passed on the way up: strongman, tough guy, athlete, junior, and weakling.

In a way, establishing a services brand follows a similar process. You swing the hammer (your marketing tactics, the marketing mix you employ, and the quality of your company's services) and the strength of your efforts determine whether or not your brand moves up the pole and makes it to the top to ring the bell.

The question is, “What stages must your brand pass through in order to ring the bell?”


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