Branding or bragging?

If, like me, you’re a sad addict of The Apprentice, you will have noticed how branding became a laughing stock in the persona of Stuart Baggs. This cocky, self-important 21 year old insisted throughout the series that he was “a brand”, until the myth was debunked by veteran businessman Claude Littner, who announced “You’re not a brand, you’re a 21 year old kid”. Exit Stuart Baggs, slightly shamefaced.

The term “branding” has been bandied about and, over recent years, businesses large and small have been convinced of the need to “grow their brand”. Many law firms, particularly the larger ones, have invested heavily in the services of design companies to help them develop or redevelop their brand identity. In most cases though, by the time the champagne bottles have been cleared up after the launch party, the meaning of the brand, if it ever had one, has been forgotten in the hurly burly of life in a busy firm.

A powerful brand is not a badge simply applied to a garment for decoration: think rather of a stick of rock with “Welcome to Blackpool” imprinted in its centre, which stays visible right down to the last lick.

Why the fuss about brands?

Companies like Apple, Coca Cola and John Lewis/Waitrose invest multi-millions in their branding, so they must see a healthy return on the investment. If you think of the most successful brands, such as those mentioned, the visual identity is not only clever (in the case of Apple), iconic (Coke) and reassuring, it is what lies behind the brand that makes the branding work. In each case, the company has decided what it wants the brand to represent, i.e. the values of the company, and has worked hard to ensure that at every level, everywhere it is represented, these values are demonstrated and borne out throughout the customer experience.

Brands work when, on sight, they are instantly recognisable and they evoke particular emotions that the companies want the consumer to feel. One could argue that at the moment, some banks’ brands evoke more negative emotions rather than positive, due to the banks’ actions. No amount of money spent on clever tweaking or brand promotion will change that, until the public believes that they have changed for the better – don’t hold your breath.

Powerful communication tool

Used effectively, the brand of a firm or a company should be like an ensign or standard, round which all those associated with the company rally and are united in one cause. Johnson & Johnson is a multi-million dollar organisation with a huge global presence. They use their brand and mission statement (they call it their “credo”) to focus the minds of all staff on the job in hand, which is to give all their customers the best experience they can. They work hard at constantly embedding this message in the attitude of their employees and the service they give, to ensure that the visual identity, the brand, represents excellence and innovation in the minds of all their customers and stakeholders.

On a smaller scale, an exercise worth doing is to consult with your staff, to identify what they think are your “brand values”. Once these have been reviewed, the selected ones should be communicated to all staff. It may be at this stage that you feel your visual identity does not actually reflect them. This is a very subjective matter and there is likely to be disagreement within. If so, engage a designer to advise and produce some options – tweaking your existing brand is probably better than replacing it altogether.

Through regular training, induction of new staff and ongoing internal communications, the brand values must be monitored, to ensure that all staff are delivering a service which lives up to and projects these to clients. To keep these brand values fresh and meaningful, review them every few years and involve your staff, since they are your standard bearers.

It’s not just about profit

In a recent article in The Marketer (the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Marketing), Jason Gissing, co-founder of online supermarket Ocado, describes himself as the “guardian” of their brand. Last July, the company was floated on the stock market and at the eleventh hour, the initial public offering (IPO) was cut and the share price plunged due to investor fears about its lack of profitability.

Gissing believes that this fear was misplaced and that critics missed the point. He believes Ocado is well placed to exploit changing shopping patterns and technological advances, but this requires substantial investment. He concludes, “It’s a great brand and needs nurturing. But what we have to get right is ensuring that customers are happy and that we continue to innovate”. In other words they cannot rest on their laurels and think that the brand on its own will work for them. It is what the brand promises to customers that matters and you cannot stand still: you have to continually upgrade and improve.

How do we measure results?

Unlike groceries or widgets, it is not easy to measure before and after a “brand enhancement” exercise, if you are providing legal services. However, one clear indication is the volume of repeat business and referrals. If a client is happy with your service, they will come back when they have a requirement, and recommend your firm to others.

It is essential that you keep a record of these clients. A simple way of finding out whether a new client has been recommended by another client is to build that question into the initial questionnaire which he or she completes. On a quarterly basis, calculate the number of repeat clients and recommended clients who have used the firm’s services and monitor the pattern of these statistics.

Some law firms send out a questionnaire to every client following a transaction, or send one out to a sample on a random basis. Generally, the return rate is low and it seems that it is sometimes more of a lip service exercise than one which really benefits the firm and its clients. A more effective method is to use a third party market researcher to conduct a telephone survey, and within this to include the question, “What words would you use to describe our firm?” If the adjectives given do not match those you would like to hear, action is required and, by the way, critical comments are more useful, if you act on them, than praise.

In this time of redundancies and gloom, it is easy to forget that only a couple of years ago, law firms were competing fiercely against each other to recruit the best staff. These days will return, and another clear indication of the strength and value of your brand is how appealing it is to potential employees and how loyal your staff are. You may think that money talks and that is the only reason why staff will stay or leave. That is not the case, as numerous HR studies have shown. Employees want to feel appreciated as well as being well remunerated, but they also want to work for a firm which shares the same values as they do.

In summary, a brand should not just be a pretty face. It can be a marketing tool of use both internally and externally. Internally, it should act as a visual reminder of the values of the firm, its “brand values”, helping to keep employees focused on providing the optimum, client-centred service. Externally, it is a symbol representing the qualities and values that your firm embodies, as demonstrated in everything you do.

Back to “Baggsy”. Much to his undoubted chagrin, a newspaper article confirmed after he was “fired”, that Baggs had become a brand – his name was applied to a particular footballer who “oversells and underdelivers”. He’ll rue the day he ever uttered the B word.

e: info@webbermarketing.co.uk w: www.webbermarketing.co.uk