Brand Concept Testing: Confirming Organizational Beliefs

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“Know thyself” is one of the tenets of good communications -- a concept that’s often easier said than done. It’s also the reason why many professional services organizations turn to concept testing to confirm brand positioning lines and related advertising concepts -- particularly when significant resources are put behind the introduction of a new promotional direction.

“What’s important to our members is always what’s important to us,” said Charlie Thompson, a lawyer and president of the Chicago-based American Bar Endowment, a charitable affiliate of the 400,000-member American Bar Association. The ABE sponsors group insurance products with a unique charitable giving option to ABA-member lawyers.

Indeed, staying close to the sensitivities of the target audience is one of the top reasons firms consider brand concept testing.

In the ABE’s case, it had undergone a brand development process and emerged with the line, “Insuring Your Life’s Needs. Advancing Your Life’s Work.” When the line was presented to the ABE’s all-lawyer board of directors, there was an about even split in preference between this line and one other. “We’re a rather democratic organization given that our board members are lawyers who volunteer their time to work with us. With the fairly even split in brand line preferences, we not only wanted to undergo concept testing to help with our brand decision but also to make sure we were being clear in communicating our distinction to the ultimate consumer: the ABA member,” said Thompson.

In fact, one of the reasons the ABE undertook a brand process was to help it clarify its offerings in the minds of its members as well as increase the visibility of the charitable aspects of its insurance products. Additionally, the ABE wanted its brand to be broad enough to encompass any new programs beyond its insurance programs such as the introduction of its Charitable Gift Fund in August (pending IRS approval). “Our family of programs had to all fit under a single brand banner and they had to fit well,” explained Thompson.

Thus, at the 2000 ABA Annual Meeting, the ABE proceeded to test three possible brand positioning lines. Its approach was to use “intercept interviews,” -- that is, qualifying ABA-member lawyers and then asking them to meet with an interviewer to answer several questions about their preferences. Unlike focus group testing, concept testing is designed to elicit information about a brand positioning line’s communications effectiveness as measured against an organization’s points of desired distinction.

With about 30 individual interviews complete, the ABE had its answer: the original, recommended positioning line was confirmed. These findings were presented to the ABE board and the brand line, “Insuring Your Life’s Needs. Advancing Your Life’s Work.” was accepted.

Phoenix-based law firm Fennemore Craig also decided to use concept testing as it developed its brand essence. “We wanted to see if we were correct in our analysis and also be certain about what aspects of our firm were most important to our clients and prospective clients,” said Jay Kramer, the chair of Fennemore Craig’s Client Development Retention Committee.

In identifying its brand, Fennemore Craig discovered that several factors made the firm distinctive, not least of which was its status as Arizona’s oldest law firm as well as its reputation for broad transactional and litigation experience, and its deep contacts in the Southwest’s business and governmental communities. “Our goal in undertaking concept testing was to make sure our brand was aligned with the interests of our clients,” explained Kramer.

For its concept testing, Fennemore identified six high-level executives, including in-house counsels and asked for their participation in a telephone conference call. Each participant received a possible brand line and three advertising applications prior to the call. During the call, each participant was asked specific questions about the communications ability of the brand line as well as each advertisement.

The result? The firm’s clients felt a deep sense of connection to the firm’s history, steadfast service and connections. “Concept testing was one of the most valuable things we could have done. We were surprised by the strength of our clients’ convictions. We as a firm had a perception that they might have associated our history as stodgy. Instead, it was an important factor in why they retained us and worked with us,” said Kramer.

Based on the concept testing findings, Fennemore has adopted the brand positioning line, “A Tradition to Leverage.” In July, it began the process of internalizing the brand and is now investigating externalization strategies.

This article was published in the August 2001 AMLAW alert.

Anne Gallagher and Merry Neitlich are partners in Extreme Marketing, which provides full-service brand development and marketing consulting services to professional services firms. Anne can be reached at anne@extrememarketing.org and Merry can be reached at merry@extrememarketing.org.