Branding is an often misconstrued word. Yes, it refers to the visual expression of your firm – the logo, colour palette and images. But more importantly it refers to an idea, a unique message that is capable of resonating with your target audience. It’s about understanding what makes your firm distinctive and how you can look and sound appealing to your audience in an authentic way. This marketing jargon may sound all well and good but you should still ask – what makes a great Canadian Law Firm brand?
Last month, Acritas, a UK based provider of legal market research, released their annual Canadian Law Firm Brand Index for 2014 revealing the leading Canadian law firm brands most favoured by “influential” clients from Canada and around the world.
Based on their research, Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP received top place honours with strong performance in five of the six categories that Acritas measured (I’ve included their methodology at the end of this article). They were praised for their brand with the research stating that,
“Blakes’ popularity is testament to its success in creating a clear, differentiated offering built on practice areas directly relevant to the largest sectors of the Canadian economy”.
Norton Rose Fulbright ranked in second place attaining the best ratings for overall top of mind awareness and being the most used firm for high value work and rounding out the top three was Stikeman Elliott which received high marks in the areas of level of awareness and clients’ use for high value and inbound work.
Commenting on the results, Elizabeth Duffy, Vice President of Acritas US, Inc., said:
“In a slow market, law firms which fail to identify their strengths and build their brands and value propositions around them find they are facing even greater downward pressure on rates. In turn, it becomes more difficult to stand out and achieve top of mind awareness among the most lucrative clients. Tightening competition and clients’ use of a greater number of firms than ever, means law firms cannot afford to take the risk of being last in clients’ minds.”
Maybe your firm didn’t make the Acritas list but that doesn’t mean your firm doesn’t, or can’t, have a great brand in your market. You don’t need to be one of the largest law firms (or one with the largest marketing budget) to have a great brand. But it does take thoughtfulness, authenticity and patience – and maybe someone to take you through the process.
Let’s start with looking at some of the most common brand messaging we see in the legal market today, be they on a website, in advertising or in the pitches made by lawyers on a daily basis.
Now no one will deny that these are all attributes that you would want your firm to possess but they are seen everywhere and, as such, don’t bring much significant differentiation for your brand. To put it in most simple terms, these attributes are pretty much pre-requisites that a client assumes you have for them to hire you. However, these are the key messages that (too) many law firm brands depend on today. In the world where General Counsel’s are under pressure to cut external counsel fees and there are more firms being formed every day, more is required to connect with your target audience and stay top of mind when the time comes to retaining counsel.
There are obviously nuances between brands but there are also key elements that are common to every great brand no matter what market or industry they play in. These are essentials that may sound like common sense but they are often difficult to achieve in a meaningful way.
If your brand has all of the above elements, you are way ahead of the majority of your competitors and peers. So here’s just one last tip to ensure you’ve created a great law firm brand. Steer clear of the usual legal clichés – both in your images and words. That means no images of scales of justice, gavels, court buildings, people shaking hands, or posed groups of lawyers. Please stay away from the copy lines pointed out above as well.
In summary, in this overcrowded Canadian legal market, authentic brand differentiation will put your firm on the road to success – you can drive revenue from there.
(For those of you who need details on the methodology, Acritas disclose that the research was compiled from the unprompted responses of 191 senior general counsel in Canadian organizations with revenues over $50M who were asked about six factors – their awareness of and favorability towards law firms; their consideration of firms for top-level litigation and major M&A; and their use of firms for high value and inbound work. A further 77 senior in-house counsel outside Canada were asked which firms they used for their Canadian legal needs. Interviews were conducted in Ontario, Alberta, Québec and British Columbia across all industry sectors including Finance, Energy and Corporate and Public entities, and among approximately half mid-market ($50M-$1bn revenue) and half elite ($1bn+ revenue) organizations.)
