Introduction - Conscious Solutions · “Not all law firms are the same”….Oh really? ... law firm brand that has a quill pen in it!! ... marketing materials including short-run

Introduction

Forget the legal market for a second. What are your favourite brands? My personal top five would be Apple, Mercedes, Waitrose, Cobra Golf,

Virgin Atlantic. Each for completely different reasons of course to do with different emotions.

What emotion do you think your brand instills in your clients? Love, hate, antipathy? Which of those is worse? In the last 8 years we have worked with over 300 law firms on all manner of projects from rebrand to brand refresh, from website audit to new websites, from social media to email marketing. In that time I think we have seen every mistake in this booklet made multiple times.

Some of our observations in the following pages are so blindingly obvious that you might well smack yourself on the forehead and utter a Bart Simpsonesque “Doh!”. Others may be less obvious to you.

Is your brand ready to “work” for you and your future plans in this brave new world? Or do you think the time is right to look at how your brand stacks up against your local competitors, QualitySolicitors, The Co-operative Legal or whomever is coming over the hill?

Either way, I hope you find something of value in our latest tips booklet. Whether you do or whether you don’t, why not hop over to the Law Society Gazette group on LinkedIn and join in the debate on our discussion thread there (http://linkd.in/gazettegroup).

David Gilroy, Sales & Marketing DirectorConscious Solutions Limited.

Brand Objectives

1 Allowing a Poor Brand to Undermine Credibility. Let’s be honest - you can’t judge a book by its cover…but a great cover certain helps sell books! Similarly, marketing a law firm that has no brand identity or is poorly presented is like paddling a canoe up-stream. In this ever changing market with brands such as QualitySolicitors.com, Co-op and others spending significant sums on “their” brand. You need to make sure yours can compete.

2 Failing to develop the brand around the “message”. “Not all law firms are the same”….Oh really? What’s special about your firm and does your brand allow you to emphasize this fact? Brands in the legal sector don’t often convey any particular message in the way that (say) car brands do: Audi (smart-tech), Honda (smooth-eco) or Mercedes (robust-luxury). When you develop your brand start with the message that you are trying to convey and work from there.

3 Not living by a “brand bible”. Make sure that you have a “brand bible” that summarises all the important aspects of the brand in particular all the visual elements. Show all the permitted logo options, confirm the pantone references for colours, and confirm any important language.

4 Inconsistent brand usage. A “brand bible” certainly helps maintain consistency but without clear responsibilities for review it’s easy for a brand to become diluted as more and more “cooks” start to stretch the brand in ways that were never envisaged. Appoint someone as your “brand guardian” to police and review material and collateral as it is being developed.

5 Lack of shared core vision/mission. Before any strong brand can be developed it’s obviously very important to agree objectives and for these to be consistent across the Partnership and your various teams. Designers will often try to “square a circle” trying to accommodate inconsistent views of different Equity Partners, the result of which is usually unsatisfactory to many and pleasing to no one. .Appoint a core team led by a senior partner, who are responsible for finalising and communicating the agreed core vision and mission of the partnership.

6 Allowing personal preferences to trump professional judgment. When you hire a Solicitor most people are inclined to take their advice, but so often when developing a brand identity Partners will influence the details far too much, sometimes with disastrous results.To achieve a strong brand, first make sure you are working with people you trust and then be prepared to go with their judgment. Encourage a culture mutual respect between teams upwards, downwards and sideways whilst maintaining defined areas of responsibility.

7 Reluctant to ask what clients say/think? Have you ever asked your clients, referers or anyone else who knows the firm what they think of your brand? What your brand means to them? Most firms don’t, only because they don’t want to know the answer. Having too much input from too manyJust the management team? Just the CEO if you are that large? The marketing team? All the partners? Just the EPs? Who should be involved in making decisions on “brand”. Whether it’s a name change, a change of colour or just a tweak to an existing logo, having too many people involved is usually a project killer. Sure, everyone needs to have a say, but how much of a say? Can you do it with internal surveys, workshops, just work with Heads of Departments? When we say “project killer” what we mean is that having too many inputs usually delays a brand project, in some cases to a point where people start to “give up”.

8 Thinking “beautiful” rather than memorable. A common mistake amongst Law Firms is to think that a brand identity should be a thing of beauty - as if it was something that should be worthy of being framed in your client’s living room. The most important characteristic of a brand if that it should be memorable not necessarily beautiful. Yet so often when Partners participate in the development of new brands they chose conservative, clichéd approaches in preference to anything novel and memorable.

9 Seeing a Brand as a desitination instead of a journey. Many firms have a fear of brand evolution. What we mean by this is that many firms have no commitment to evolve their brand over time thus not keeping up with the times in terms of colours, fonts, imagery etc. I’m sure if we looked hard enough we could still find a law firm brand that has a quill pen in it!! Its common for some firms to still have an over-reliance on paper based marketing materials and print quantities that mean they end up lying around becoming stale. There are techniques to help get round the need to stockpile marketing materials including short-run digital printing & folder/insert approaches. If you are going to undertake ANY work on your brand, make sure you appoint a “Brand Champion”, usually someone at or near the top of the partnership. Also, don’t forget to ask to clients for feedback, it may not be as formal as a survey or interviews, but at least do it anecdotally when you meet them. A great question is “What name to you use for us internally when talking about us”.

10 Inconsistent Brand Voice. What tone of voice does your brand “speak with”? Are you a shouty brand (WeBuyAnyCar.com) or a quiet brand (Scottish Widows lady)? When we think about “brand voice” we mean everything you do. How your printed materials look, the look and feel of your website, and the tone of voice in your written language , Does it gel with the way your people speak? and by “speak” we really do mean their tone of voice, language patterns body language and the type of vocabulary

they use. etc. This may vary depending on the area that they work in (family law requires a different tone to litigation for example), but there still should be a common thread.

Visual Brand

11 Inconsistent logo presentation. Maintaining logo consistency you would think, was a given. It is however, one of the first things which firms lose control of. Consider how weak and diluted your brand appears when the logo is printed in different shades of your corporate colour; incorrect size and weight of fonts are used or the logo is poorly positioned on the page. All of these “sins” can have a detrimental effect on your overall brand.Brand guidelines will help establish consistency. They provide a set of rules that can be used by designers and in-house staff giving a guide to colour reference (Pantone references) and usage that will cover all aspects of the design down to the finest detail. Think of the investment that has been made in creating your logo. Isn’t it worth maintaining, monitoring and safeguarding it?

12 Poor reproduction of the logo. So, you’ve decided on your logo. Always make sure you have a high quality version of your logo, in different formats for usage in print and on the web. A crisp, sharp, well produced logo will convey quality and a sense of pride and the high standards that your whole brand will convey. A poor quality logo will only have a negative impact on how your clients and your staff view you. After all, it is a fundamental part of your brand, often the first impression they get of you. So make sure it’s a good one!

13 Cheap looking Signage. At the end of the day – size doesn’t matter! If budgets won’t allow, go for smaller, understated quality signage that reflects your brand well. Larger, poor quality signs that weather badly can look cheap and shabby, giving the wrong impression. Above all keep it consistent with your brand, well-placed in key visible areas and clean and polished!

14 Thinking their logo is their brand. It is easy to think that you’ve decided on your logo so that is the brand taken care of. Well, despite what many think, your brand is about so much more than your logo, tagline or new glossy brochure. Your brand is composed of your firm’s personality, your image, your firm’s capabilities and your firm’s characteristics. With a strong brand, you build credibility, pride and loyalty from both your clients and your staff. Strong brands can increase sales and retain the best employees. Your people are one of your most important assets, so make sure that you communicate a consistent mission and vision to your people and that they are well trained in delivering the core values of your firm.

15 Colour inconsistencies CMYK v RGB. Two very simple rules. Any artwork being used for print must use CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). This is a four colour process used by your printer for all printed material such as brochures, stationery, adverts, signage etc. RGB (red, green and blue) is used for all digital work on the web ie. your website, emails etc.

16 Having an unprofessional visitor book. How many times have you visited someone’s office and been asked to sign into a ‘dog-eared’ visitors book? Or some crummy piece of paper,it makes a poor first impression. Make sure you have a smart and discreet visitors book. Respect your previous client’s privacy and use a system that doesn’t allow your next visitor to see who signed in before them.

17 Not having social media “skins”. Now this is an area where you can have some fun. Show some personality and reinforce your brand. Social media is only going to get more popular. Think of all the visitors who will view these pages on your website. Use your branding on the backgrounds to these pages, keep it fresh, even change the skins from time to time to keep visitors engaged, or consider themes.

18 Having a ‘cheap as chips’ website. They do say ‘you get what you pay for’. So try to push for the best you can afford. The investment will be worth it. Keep it simple and up to date and don’t waste your budget on unnecessary bells and whistles. Concentrate on good, relevant content, clean easy to use navigation and great staff profiles. Up to 35% of users will visit your site to check out your people to see whom they are going to be dealing with. Profiles are emotive but you need to have some consistency of voice. Consider using a template or creating separate professional and personal profiles. Make your people interesting and 3 dimensional, not flat and uninspiring. Ultimately people relate to people, you cant have a relationship with a logo or a brand! .Also make sure your photos are good quality and up to date and encourage people to review their profiles regularly and keep them current!

19 Using DIY photos on website. No-one ever likes a photo of themselves, particularly a quick snapshot standing in the library with the unfortunate plant sprouting out of the top of your head! If your photo is 5 years old, then it is definitely time for a new one. Invest in a professional photographer who will know how to get the best shots. Lighting is a crucial part of a great photo. So get the experts in! There are some great styles out there, from formal, serious and professional to a more relaxed friendly and approachable style. Your designer and photographer can help you decide what is best suited to your firm and its brand. Your profile photo could be on your website for 4 years or more! So make sure it’s a good one!

20 Lack of consistency online v offline use. You go to great efforts and expense to create your brand so it is important to establish consistency throughout all aspects of how your firm is portrayed. Printed matter verses online use often sees gaps in brand consistency. Make sure that each employee is aware and empowered to identify inconsistencies in your brand. Constantly evaluate your actions and set your standards high. When brochures

are updated make sure this is reflected online too. Keep staff profiles up to date. There is nothing worse than a client wanting to talk to a member of staff only to find they have left the firm. Your staff and your clients will appreciate this attention to detail and learn to value the pride you have in your brand.

Invisible Brand

There are only two ways of gaining recommendations, asking for them or giving them first. We prefer the latter, let me explain.

21 Poor presentation of brand via phone. When was the last time you called into your own switchboard? How long did you have wait before the call was answered? Was it after 5pm, did you get an answerphone or a real person? What about calling a Solicitor’s direct line? Does it say where they are on that day? This is always an interesting exercise to better understand how your brand is being conveyed on the phone. And one more thing. How do your staff answer the phone, both the switchboard and direct line?. Do they use a consistent greeting “Smith & Smith Solicitors, David Gilroy speaking how can I help?” or do some (on direct lines) just say “’Hello!”? If you need to, consider guidelines scripts, targets for answering a phone in a number of rings and training. That old chestnut of smiling as you pick up the receiver really does make a difference.

22 Staff dress code not supporting brand values. If I visited your office, what impression would the dress code of your staff make on me? This starts the minute I walk through the door. What do your receptionists look like? Smart I would hope? Do all your Solicitors still wear ties? I say “still” as increasingly in business men are eschewing ties in favour of a more relaxed look. But let’s face it, most lawyers are still predominantly conservative when it comes to dress code, but what about the rest of your firm? Do your support staff “support” your brand with THEIR dress code as well as your fee earning staff? Visitors will be making split second judgments that will colour their perception of your brand.

23 Poor presentation of meeting rooms. One of my clients, well more than one of my clients (I won’t name them to protect the guilty) still have meeting rooms called “Interview Room 1” etc. Makes me feel like I’m attending a Police Station every time I go and see them. Now this might be an extreme point, but when was the last time you looked at your meeting rooms to see how congruent they are with the rest of your brand. Are they tidy? Are there old papers lying around? Are their branded pens & notepads available to use? Does the phone work? Do you have guest wifi access? What are the pictures like on the wall, do they get replaced only when a partner redecorates their house? That 30 year old Athena print of a scene in Provence really should go! Why not get someone from your family who does not come to the office every day to visit and pretend they are a client and critique your meeting rooms?

24 No employee training about “brand”. What happens when someone new joins your firm? In fact, let’s go back a step to the recruitment process. Do you tell people “as” you are hiring them about your brand? What your brand stands for, how your culture supports your brand? Then when they do join what happens in their first week? Some kind of quick “induction process” or just plonk them at a desk and “let them get on with it”? I understand that this will be a very different process based on the size of your firm, as this tends to be something larger firms tend to be more organised about - not necessarily better at though. My point? Make sure that when someone new joins the firm that a discussion about your brand is included in their induction process (however brief that might be). At periodic reviews ask if they think that your brand is consistent, or if they think it could be better. Use this fresh feedback to make improvements and pug gaps.

25 Poor speed of follow up to phone calls. How quickly do your staff return phone calls? Is there a target response time as part of your brand values? What might that be, one hour, four hours, two business days? What happens when someone takes a message for you? What does that person tell the caller? “She’ll get back to you as soon as she can”? What does “….as soon as she can” mean? Today, this week? It means nothing. The key thing here is that you have some kind of policy as part of your brand. Lastly, don’t even get me started on voicemail. What does your voicemail say? Does it tell the caller what day it is, whether you are in the office, by when you might get back to them? Or, is it just some kind of generic rubbish about how busy you are and how you might get around to calling them back sometime? And your on hold musak…………..

26 Not empowering all staff to promote the brand. It’s simple. Do all your staff have business cards? Most firms say not. We hear things like “why would a Secretary need a business card?”. Well if you want them to promote your brand, saying good things about your brand, then surely you’d want them to have a business card to give out to people? Everyone in your firm knows “someone”. Give them a chance to promote your brand, don’t just rely on the Partners, Associates & Solicitors to do it.

27 Paying lip service to CSR policies & impact. Does your firm have a CSR policy? If not a policy, at least a statement. Is this on your website? How does your brand support your CSR activities? Whether you are a large firm or a small firm engaging your staff in CSR activities is a great way to promote your brand in your local area (which is where most CSR activities take place) It can present one of the best forms of PR.

28 Poor congruence between what you say & do. Your Partners, Associates & Solicitors are out there talking to prospects & clients. They’re saying how great your firm is etc etc. Then a client comes to reception and it’s a mess, they call in and you never answer the phone, they email and it’s a week before anyone responds. This lack of congruence goes on in many firms and most firms have no idea. Head in the sand wont make it better, list four key areas, reception, call answering and follow up times and tackle them. You will see the difference!

29 Not knowing the value of a name. So you want to rebrand do you? Firstly, ask yourself this “would you sell your old name?”. If the answer is no, then why not? The point is that if the name brings tangible benefit through reputation and associated referral work then why do you want to change it? We’ve all seen mistakes made in other sectors e.g. Royal Mail to Consignia and back to Royal Mail just as quickly! If you do decide to make the change then what do you call your ‘new’ self? Think about your values and what message you want to convey. Also consider how your clients and prospects will use your name. Smith Jones & Williams LLP may be accurate but SJW Law is easier to remember and makes for a much snappier logo and website address. Get your supplier to show you some options and don’t be afraid to play around with the ideas. Compare your potential new brand to brands you like and admire and be honest about how your new ‘clothes’ make you feel. If it doesn’t work for you then what chance is there that it will have the desired effect on your clients and prospects.

Testimonials

“I wish Conscious had written this booklet before we merged & decided to completely change our name! It was a big decision and even without it, Conscious were really patient and responsive. And, most importantly, we ended up with a brand, logo & website that we love.”

Mark Griffith, Partner Redkite Law LLP

“Chubb Bulleid are currently going through a rebrand of the firm and a redesign of our website. The booklet produced by Conscious, and indeed the feedback and input from their team, has provided myself and my colleagues with some invaluable advice and guidance.”

Matt Chalfont-Griffin, Partner Chubb Bulleid Solicitors

“The reality is that successful law firms present a clear and consistent impression to the world. Consciously defining and managing your brand actually makes other marketing effort more straightforward and more effective. This booklet will help with that”

Peter Mills, Marketing Manager www.harrowells.co.uk