Italy embraces advertising?

The Bersani Decree, which will enable Italian law firms to advertise their services, has been met with mixed reactions from Italian lawyers - some of whom have taken to the streets in protest. And with firms in the UK and US making the most of advertising opportunities, it is clear that Italy would be wise to follow suit. But, as Silvia Hodges reports, advertising is not the be all and end all of effective marketing.

“Call 1-800 Dan Moss if you’re injured. I’ll fight for your rights!”, “Need aggressive defence? You won’t be disappointed!” A few years ago, during one of my first marketing seminars for lawyers in Italy, I showed the participants some advertisements that I had torn out of the American Yellow Pages. The Italian lawyers looked wide-eyed at the bold letters and strong colours, asking me: “What is this? It looks like an ad for a used-car dealership, no?” It was, of course, nothing special for most on the other side of the pond, just the advertisement of a local law firm specialising in personal-injury lawsuits. In Italy, however, it was revolutionary.

It might not stay revolutionary for much longer. As one of its first official acts, Italy’s new government under Prime Minister Prodi has ‘liberated’ the professions with the recent announcement of the Bersani Decree, which has been named after one of its authors, Pier Luigi Bersani, the Italian minister for industry. However, it appears that many lawyers do not want to be liberated, and so went on strike in mid July last year, bringing the Italian legal system (already not known for its speed and efficiency) to a halt for a few days. The decree will effect not just the liberalisation of the advertising rules but also a myriad of other points, such as the use of a minimum-fee system. Many have already protested in the streets against the ‘end of the (dignified) profession’. This includes the possibility of Anglo-Saxon ‘wild west’ advertising and offers like “1-800 – LETS SUE” on billboards, “Two divorces for the price of one” leaflets on windshields and city taxis covered in law-firm branding, as found in London in the UK.

It is true that the Bersani Decree will give lawyers and other professionals the right to advertise and undoubtedly, this liberalisation of professional-services communication through advertising is a strong signal. The birth of law-firm marketing in the US coincided with the 1977 Supreme Court decision in the case of Arizona State Bar v Bates Law Firm, enabling lawyers to advertise. And in the UK, legal marketing can be traced back to 1986, when the Law Society first permitted solicitors to advertise. Similarly, since the 1990’s, other continental European jurisdictions have progressively opened the way for advertising: the Spanish abogado, the French avocat and the German Rechtsanwalt are among those relatively able to freely use instruments of external communication. Up until now though, only Italian avvocati and their Greek colleagues remained, theatrically speaking, mute.

Advertising is not marketing
Italian lawyers have been talking about marketing for some years for a very simple reason: marketing is not synonymous with advertising.

Honestly, this is not the first bloom for legal marketing in Italy. Italian lawyers have been toying with the idea to promote their services, although reluctantly, since 2002-2003, and not just since the arrival of Bersani. In fact, today, according to legal marketing italia, the national network of legal marketing, law firms in Milan and Rome employ approximately 40 full-time marketers.

So why the big uproar now? Without a marketing background and no established marketing culture yet, it seems that many lawyers still equate marketing with advertising, and deem it below their professional dignity. In fact, Maurizio Bernardi, managing partner of Agnoli Bernardi e Associati, has suggested that for many of his colleagues, Bersani signifies a huge step from not being able to do anything to having a carte blanche to do whatever. However, this is wrong. “The last modification of the Ethical Code already permitted some forms of communications,” he says. His firm has been applying marketing principles and strategy for some time. The best form of publicity or communication, he believes, is to know how to explain to clients the competence and matters which the firm excels in. “We will continue to do what we have been doing up until now because the liberalisation is not the abolition of the Ethical Code,” he adds.

Similarly, Marta Panizza, business development and communications manager for the Italian office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, will not change the firm’s activities. Keeping in mind the sensibility of the client, she believes ‘progressive ideas’ in advertisements would not be appreciated. The only advertising that her firm wants to do will, “… better assist our clients, demonstrating to them our high-quality standard of operations.”

There are no concerns among Italy’s leading firms. Gabriele Zucchini, general director of Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, believes that the impact of the new regulations (on his firm) will be almost null. Similarly, Barbara Olivieri, director of marketing for Gianni, Origoni, Grippo & Partners in Rome, does not expect any big changes as she is convinced that advertising is not a terribly effective marketing instrument for law firms. Franco Toffoletto, president of the European Employment Lawyers Association and senior partner at Toffoletto e Soci, does not anticipate an impact on the ability of his firm, which is a part of the international employment-law alliance ius laboris, to work with international companies. “The companies already know us and I do not believe that advertising can change our position in the market,” he says.

Giovanni Lega, president of the Italian lawyers’ association ASLA and managing partner of ipa di Meana LC e Associati in Milan, does not think that there will be any revolutionary changes in the legal world caused by the new decree. He hopes that lawyers will apply sufficient common sense in the application of the regulations. “Aggressive ‘wild west’ advertisements would have adverse effects in a professional sector like ours, in particular for those who used it in such a manner,” he says. Bernardi agrees. “The key to determining what will happen in the market depends on the interpretation that every local bar association will give the decree,” he adds.

Christoph Jenny, managing partner of Milanese mergers and acquisitions boutique Jenny & Partners, says that successful smaller firms, like his, “need to have a marketing strategy” and should therefore be aware that “advertising does not equal marketing.” He believes that an advertisement can make sense under certain circumstances even for a firm like his, trying to gain a profile in some market niches. Toffoletto, however, is convinced that the majority of Italian firms “do not have money for advertising” and fears that there could be “disastrous long-term effects.” Bersani could prime a process similar to what happened in the UK – for example, lawyers will no longer be ‘free professionals’ but employees of large organisations. “The decree will permit big investments in advertising,” he says. “In the end, the losers will be the citizens who will have to bear the higher costs.”

Similarly, Jenny believes that advertising will create a major divide between the few large firms and the majority of small and medium-sized ones. “Maybe there should be a limit on the amounts that can be spent on advertising. A ceiling, like they do for political campaigns, to regulate advertising expenses,” he suggests.

Positive effects of Bersani
Is Bersani expected to have any positive effects? Panizza thinks that the principle inspiration for the decree is absolutely correct: it recognises clients’ right for more information, with a more transparent market enabling “legal shopping”. This way it compels firms to operate more effectively, which is always a good thing – at least long-term.

Lega hopes “… that the provision will have the effect of eliminating once and for all the archaic taboo and make the legal world more efficient and effective,” a necessary evolution, he believes, which will make firms operate more closely with the businesses they serve.

In the end, most likely, the majority of firms that have in the past started to ‘do’ marketing, will now have one more card to play. However, it is not certain if this card will make a substantial difference for certain reasons. First, advertisements are not cheap and must be done professionally in order to have positive effects. Second, the more law firms advertise, the more difficult it becomes to obtain a nice return on investment. According to UK research, the average person sees about one-million promotional messages every year, which translates into 3,000 a day. It is not surprising that, according to a Nielsen Media Research study in 2000, only 12 per cent of us are able to remember an advertisement seen within the past 24 hours.

“Need a lawyer? First consultation free!”
On the other hand, there are also many examples of successful, effective advertising, even at a relatively small cost. They are pretty much always campaigns promoting niche firms highlighting their areas of expertise. For example, a firm in Wales specialising in family law advertised the image of a woman with the accompanying slogan “All men are bastards” and “It was never intended for eternity”. There was also a photo of a man with the tagline “Ditch the bitch”. This radical approach undoubtedly captured the attracted attention of the public, and also that of the media, and helped the firm to increase activity for its divorce lawyers.

Another winning example was the ‘lettuce lawyers’, professionals from a Californian law firm that ran a coordinated advertising campaign, comprising the website, seminars and so on, highlighting that they were lawyers specialising in the agricultural sector of the region. The campaign underlined the fact that they shared the ‘vegetable world’ with their clients. Of course, there is a question of individual taste, but for the agricultural community in that region, the advertisement was a real hit and today the firm is number one in its sector.

In any case, Italian lawyers now have the possibility to utilise one more marketing instrument, but it must be clear that advertising will be neither be the cure of all pains, nor the end of the profession. One must also consider the examples of other continental European colleagues. We have not yet seen French lawyers on television selling their services like second-hand car salesmen or German lawyers ‘selling themselves like a warm beer’ (a German expression implying one who sells a product that no one wants). Francesco Bassini, marketing director of Allen & Overy in Milan, can not imagine Italian lawyers promoting their services with TV spots and advertising billboards. At most, there might be sponsorship and other “institutional branding” in his opinion. Of course, no one knows what will happen in the future. It is up to the lawyers to decide what to do with their profession should they worry about a drop in public esteem.

Yes, it would be a great mistake to become polemic and reduce marketing to just advertising. Marketing is, first of all, a reflection on how a firm will differentiate itself in the market and, in this way, conquer new clients while gaining the trust of those already acquired. ?

Silvia Hodges is founder of legal marketing italia, a network for marketing professionals in Italy, and a consultant. She can be contacted at s.hodges@marketude.it