It's Branding. Get It? Many Law Firms Don't

Originally published in:

Ask five lawyers of five legal marketing professionals what branding is and you're likely to get at least 10 different answers as well as a great deal of resistance to the concept. Whether your test group knows it or now, the reasons for these differences of opinion are fairly simple to explain.

First, branding is still very new to the professional services field. Being new, it tends to fall into the buzzword category quite easily. After such flurries as just-in-time management, total quality management and others, the believability factors for branding are low. Second, when people think of branding, they usually associate it with the myth of flashy ad campaigns and lots of public, external events. We would like to debunk that misconception.

What Is It?

At it's essence, branding is simply a claim of distinction. A mark of what a company stands for. But in it's depth a brand only becomes real only when it is credible and believable internally. The implication here is that everyone in a company must understand why the brand exists and how it pays-off the company's message.

The internal work is the difficult and most time consuming piece of the process. It involves introspection into the core essence of the firm through discussion, coordination and training. That's because the best and highest use of the brand is to create a distinction that can help lawyers deepen and strengthen relationships with clients.

Externalizing the brand through brochures, ad campaigns, public relations, newsletters and the like is simply the frosting on the cake. All these efforts are designed to create the awareness for clients and prospects that creates entree for more and better, one-on-one, face-to-face relationships with clients.

Branding As the First Strategic Step

Can the branding process work for your law firm? It may. Or it may not. What you need to know if your firm is considering the process is this: There is a formula for branding a law firm and there is now precedent, albeit in small numbers, for successfully doing it. Firms such as Californias Haight, Brown, & Bonesteel and Trorontos Goodman and Carr are examples of two law firms whose primary focus in building their brand began internally. In the case of Haight, Brown, and Bonesteel, their externalization may not even be evident until the firm completes the development and launch of it's internal branding phase.

But branding will not be the right strategy for many firms. Here's why. Remarkably, the whole idea of branding for law firms has just started to enter mainstream conversation in the legal community. After the Bates decision in the late 1970s, most law firms that decided to market did so backward on the marketing continuum-- a continuum that logically should start by identifying a brand essence.

Instead, many firms -- even today -- view marketing as those efforts that support specific practice initiatives, such as brochures, seminars or newsletters. Even if a firm puts forth an advertising campaign with a catchy slogan, it is most often an external effort.

And that is what makes branding a strategic first step. A brand, by definition, is a claim of distinction. A law firm that brands itself simply identifies its unique essence. It finds that part of itself that makes it distinctive within its market. That process combines the firms views internally as well as perceptions in the marketplace. It bears repeating that what separates a brand from an ad slogan is the firms ability to live its brand internally, while communicating it to its external audiences. Clients feel the difference.

The reason that so many law firms find it difficult to brand themselves is because the process involves finding a single brand essence. Imagine getting every lawyer in a firm to agree that the firm stands for just one thing? Our experience has proven that this is not only possible, but an outstanding way to bring a firms culture alive.

In our work with branding, we believe that every law firm does indeed have a unique essence. The challenge is to simply find it.

Finding the Unique Essence

Working with brand builder Jim Hughes, we have been indoctrinated into his patented "Turning the Telescope" process for branding. In essence, that process turns the telescope onto the firm and helps uncover what the firms truly unique characteristics are. What we've learned from the process is that it works best when it is facilitated by several marketing disciplines. The best mix is one that includes diverse skill sets such as a familiarity with brand building in a corporate context, an ability to navigate within a law firm culture and the communications savvy to see it through internally and externally.

With the Haight, Brown, & Bonesteel firm, our overall process involved a number of steps. Most important has been an understanding that the process will evolve over a year, perhaps longer. The key steps involved:

1) Meetings to identify the "right" lawyers to be involved in the process;

2) A half-day branding meeting with these lawyers;

3) Development of the brand essence for presentation;

4) A half-day formal presentation session of brand options;

5) Developing a schedule of internalization of the brand. This involved developing an internal communications program with staff, associates and partners.

6) Presentation and discussion of the brand at the firm's annual retreat;

7) Development of a program to create collateral material based on the brand essence;

8) Development of an external program to communicate the brand to the legal and business communities.

If your firm or one of your practice groups decides to brand, be prepared for some process-- but process that truly bears fruit. A positive byproduct of the branding process is increased morale and motivation to market and deeply explore client service issues. This creates a win-win for law firms and clients. Simply put, branding works.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merry Neitlich and Anne Gallagher provide law firm branding services through their venture, Extreme Marketing. Merry can be reached in Orange County at 949-260-0936. Anne can be reached in Chicago at 773-227-0700.