Problem: The growth of the service industry has led to increased competition, and branding has become a tool for gaining competitive advantages. Because services are essentially intangible, the branding of services is important and different from the branding of products. A strong brand offers many advantages in the service industry and when evaluating the strength of the brand, the concept of brand equity is used. As no in-depth research has been conducted to explore how small service firms operate to create brand equity, we have set out to investigate how this is done in the everyday work. Previous research also falls short of relating the area of service branding to small service firms.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how small service firms operate to build brand equity in relation to the service branding model.

Method: We have chosen to use a qualitative approach and conduct a collective, instrumental case study consisting of four companies. The data have been collected through interviews.

Conclusion: The influences of external brand communications are greater in small service firms than in large ones while the impact of the presented brand is less significant. We have therefore adjusted the service branding model in accordance to these differences.