Written by
Jamie White on December 10, 2008
When it comes to brand management, you can’t help but feel that law firms get all the short straws.
Take employer branding as a starting point. In the world beyond law, there are a number of compelling reasons why classic methodologies for developing employer brands work wonders. The marketing of an organisation is linked intrinsically to commercial success, so taken seriously. Audiences are responsive to advertising. Cultural consistency is actively encouraged. There’s a drive towards direct resourcing that empowers employer brand projects. Vitally, the creative approval processes are centralised and in specialist hands.
Most, if not all, of these reasons don’t apply to law firms.
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Written by
Mark Brandon on October 29, 2008
Law firms are a brand consultant’s worst nightmare.
Unique Selling Points (USPs) are the Alpha and the Omega of branding – this car goes faster, this mobile phone has more functions; new business ideas are rarely launched without one or more USPs.
But at the top end of the UK legal profession in particular, the differences between law firms are far subtler, and genuine USPs are rare.
The facts about firms – such as size, global reach, diversity of offering are rarely unique. Law firms’ assertions about themselves – quality of service, speed of response, commerciality and so on – are never unique, and mostly impossible to quantify.
Determined scholars are left to work their way through a choice of 8lb directories for some kind of answer, but are left – quite accurately – feeling that often the ‘differences’ are highly-subjective and mutable from year to year.
The central problem is that law firms struggle to define themselves, and struggle painfully to articulate what differentiates them from their competitors.
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