PROPOSAL FOR BRASS TAXES PART 1

As we were doing a case study of a niche brand, it was a preparation for making a proposal for Brass Taxes. Brass Taxes is a niche brand in tax market, it focuses on helping freelancers filing their taxes. The boss of Brass Taxes, Rus, is our client in this project.

About the problem of Brass Taxes:

"Brass ​​Taxes ​​​has ​​earned ​​great ​​credibility ​​and ​​loyalty ​​among​ ​its ​​customers.​ ​This ​​tax ​​season, ​​BT is ​​moving ​​from ​​30% ​​online ​​appointments ​​and ​​70%​​ in-person ​​appointments ​​to ​​100%​​ online.​​ It’s critical​​ that ​​the ​​brand​​ is​​ still​​ as​​lo vable​​ and ​​contagious ​​when ​​they​​ move ​​online,​​ so​​ they​​ don’t lose​​ any ​​customers. ​​Additionally, ​​Brass ​​Taxes ​​is ​​launching​​ in ​​Los​​ Angeles ​​this ​​season ​​and needs ​​at ​​least​​ 400 ​​new​​ customers​​ this ​​tax​​ season.

Solve ​​these ​​problems:

1. Maintain ​​brand ​​credibility​​ while​​ changing​​ the ​​product​​ offering ​​to ​​​online ​​only.

2. Maintain ​​brand​​ credibility ​​while​​ expanding ​​and ​​​launching in​​ a ​​new ​​city.

3. Enhance ​​the ​​brand ​​experience."

So. our mission is to solve one or more of these problems that Brass Taxes has.

In order to come up with some ideas, I first did some research about Brass Taxes on line. I looked all those information it has on it main website: https://brasstaxes.com/; went throught its reviews on another website; and also searched freelancer tax questions on Google to see how Brass Taxes would come out.

After my research, I found that there were two main problems of Brass Taxes. First, not giving customers enough confidence to let it do their taxes. Employees there are not CPA, they are just freelancers as their customers, which is also its main branding as sympathy because of the same position. However, it also generates a problem "why should I believe you could do a better job than me to file my tax?". It actually reflected on the reviews too. Some customers found Brass Taxes did some mistakes in their taxes filing or maybe just something they couldn't understand. Then they blamed those things as "they are not real CPAs", that meant they are qustioning Brass Taxes' ability to file taxes correctly because of their identity. Even though they all like the employees there because they are nice and cool, they chose to leave because the money is the most important thing in tax filing. In the meanwhile, the brand itself didn't provide enough information to compensate this flaw like telling customers how they can file the taxes better than others, how their emplyees are qualified, etc. In order to attracting new customers, it is very important to give them enough information about the brand's abilities. And the second problem is that it is not exposed enough online, which means few people know about this brand. When I searched questions about freelancer taxes, I could barely find Brass Taxes come out. I think the online exposure is critial especially it is going 100% online. Because if it is going 100% online, it means its customers are those people who are using internet. And nowadays, what would those people do when they have a problem? Ask Google of course. In order to let those people become its customers, it would have to get a better chance to get into their eyes. So, a higher ranking in Google is improtant when the brand is moving 100% online.

Based on above, I came up with three ideas as in the powerpoint below:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

But, as I was doing the presentation to Rus, the boss of Brass Taxes, he told me I could skip all those bad reviews to his brand. He said he didn't care about what those people said. If they don't like his company, he would rather just let them go but not trying to find a way to keep them. I think I shouldn't have put that part in my presentation to the client saying bad news. But, I did that part for several reasons. First, I think those bad reviews somehow reflect the core problem of the brand itself. A relaxing and funny vibe to do your tax is definitely a great idea, but it should be in the premise that the company can do your tax professionally, which means no mistake or trouble after filing, if any, the company would fix it for you. If the profession problem can't be solved, customer won't choose this company no matter how funny and kind the talk was. Second, I thought it was one of its requests to keep the current customers. I didn't know those current customer are only those who totally believe in its abilities. I found that some leaving customers have been filing their taxes with Brass Taxes for years but left because the mistakes. I think it means some current customers are still having the question if the brand could do the taxes right even though they haven't left yet because they really like the funny and relaxing idea here. In a way, it tells us more customers might leave in the future if some mistakes come up. Third, bad reviews will have a critial impact on new customers. Brass Taxes put that review link in their main website page. For a customer to choose a new company, he/she must have go through all the information he/she could get before the decision. Think if a potential customer see all those bad reviews in a consistence talking about this company is not professional, will always make mistakes but the people working there are very nice, do you think a customer looking for someone to file taxes will choose that company? I mean, fun and relaxing talk is good of course, but will you pay a tax preparer just for that? Why don't you just have a talk with a friend, it is free, right? So, that is why I think it was important to do something to solve those bad reviews. I know there are always some dissatisfied customers no matter how hard you try with them. But, from those bad reviews I saw, they have consistence in telling the same problem, and they are not those unreasonable people. I think with some effort, it won't be impossible to change some of them, and it would be better than doing nothing at all. In that way, the brand is keeping more current customers and attracting more new customers as well.

But, I guess I just didn't figure out a right way to let my client to accept that. It is an art of communication I still need to learn.

And based on the reaction of Rus, I chose to focus on developing the idea of increasing online exposure.

#branddesign1 #nichemarket