Leaving the green wellies behind

An award-winning rebrand, which enabled Anderson Strathern to shed its ‘old school’, rural private-client reputation and make its mark on the commercial mainstream, without alienating existing clients. By Steve Jackson

At the end of 2003, Anderson Strathern was a top-ten Scottish law firm. We had been around for more than 200 years and were well respected and regarded by our clients as ‘a safe pair of hands’. However, we knew that this heritage alone was not enough to maintain a secure market positioning.

The foundations of Anderson Strathern and, indeed, our perceived strengths, lay with wealthy private clients and rural landowners, rather than in the corporate business sector. Over the years, we had built up a strong, well established and primarily east-coast-based client stable. In many circumstances, our clients were individuals whose families had been using our services for generations.

Perceptions of the firm within the marketplace mirrored those of our clients in that we were still seen very much as a private-client specialist. This was despite retaining teams of lawyers in just about every legal practice area. External research that we conducted at the end of 2003 confirmed this, as highlighted by the examples shown below:

“They are a rural and private-client firm, they do not do anything else.” Existing private client;
“Not cutting edge; stuffy. They need to let their hair down a bit.” Corporate client;
“I did not even consider applying to them. They are a bit old school and green wellies – definitely not dealmakers.” Legal trainee, top-ten firm.

Despite this, private clients were clearly happy with the services that they were receiving. They associated strong values, such as ‘reliable’, ‘traditional’ and ‘professional’ with the firm. The significantly larger corporate market, however, perceived that we lacked a commercial approach to business, citing us as being ‘more reactive than proactive’ and ‘not hungry for business’.

The seeds of change
In reality, we had begun the process of internal re-engineering to become more commercially focused. Despite these changes, the right message was still not getting out though, and aggressive middle-market competition was all around. Unless a more positive picture of our strengths and expertise could be projected, we were in danger of losing both our market position and, potentially, some of our existing clients.

Rather than abandon our traditional client base, as many firms had done previously, we set ourselves a more difficult task. We wanted to retain and improve our services to the traditional client base, while also expanding our commercial offering.

We recognised that something had to be done and with an office relocation looming, the time was right for a complete review of our brand identity.

The brief outlined the following objectives:

Challenge existing perceptions of Anderson Strathern as an old-fashioned, traditional firm of generalists, by projecting a more modern, commercially focused and forward-thinking image of the firm;
Communicate the individual services offered by our 12 specialist divisions, without undermining the parent brand;
To grow business by cross- selling a wider range of services to the existing client base and expand that client base by raising awareness of the commercial services we offered.

The challenge
The brief was clear. We could easily have raced to create a new identity and positioning campaign, but we recognised that a vital link was missing. Without it, the brand would have no meaning and our communications would never add up. The missing link was the firm’s staff.

For years, law firms have poured money into building their external brand, while perhaps neglecting to consult with the employees about what that brand actually is or the critical role that they are expected to play in delivering it.

We did not just want to slap a shiny veneer on the surface of Anderson Strathern. We had invested a huge amount of time and resources in our staff. If they were the key to the firm’s reputation, our money would be wasted if we failed to get them on board. We needed to build the brand from the inside, out. If we could do this, we believed the firm’s brand values and identity would be communicated in a much more powerful way.

People own what they create
The theory behind our strategy was simple – people own what they create.

If the brand was to have meaning for our staff, and in turn for our clients, then our staff needed to be active participants in its definition. We wanted the firm’s people to discover the brand for themselves.

If we got this right, the development of external branding would be more powerful and, critically, the new image would be much closer to reality.

The communications process started when we invited staff and partners to a series of six workshops. These included discussion on how staff felt about the firm – what it was like to be a part of, what they liked and disliked, and, most importantly, what direction they believed the brand should take. The sessions were made lively and visually attractive with lots of imagery and thought processes to work through. This meant that at least 50 per cent of staff would be directly involved in the brand-development process.

The workshops were a huge success. Our staff and partners were positive about their inclusion and the outcomes were consistent. There was a common vision: for the firm to get the recognition that it deserved; to be seen as offering diverse and specialist services; and to be known as one team, not merely as individual specialists. We all wanted to be regarded as more than the sum of our individual parts and, indeed, as the best full-service law firm in Scotland.

In support of this vision, values were agreed, all using existing key attributes as foundations:

Specialist;
Forward thinking;
Business minded;
Client focused;
Professional;
Solution driven;
High quality;
Bespoke advice
Investor in people;
Approachable and accessible.

But we did not just want our well-articulated vision and values to be immaculately framed and displayed. We wanted our staff to translate them into real everyday experiences. With this in mind, a set of practical service initiatives were proposed for each value. They included small things, such as the correct use of voicemail and acceptable response times to e-mail or other forms of correspondence, right through to practical tips for understanding client objectives, so we would be able to tailor the most appropriate solution. These values would ensure that the brand was brought to life.

The initiatives were presented to all our staff, who discussed each one and set them in motion. Staff are now annually appraised on their performance against these values; key-client programmes also include them, so that we can evaluate our firm-wide performance.

Driving the change
The physical manifestation of the brand internally took many forms: brand identity guidelines, the internet, signage, corporate stationery and other support materials. We reviewed every possible piece of communication. Everything had to reflect the values of the new brand and be delivered in a consistent language and tone.

The launch and turning point
Our staff would be the most important channel to deliver the brand message to the world. But, we also concluded that an external campaign, with a public unveiling of the new identity, would really make the business world sit up and take notice.

It did. Our advertising launched into the Scottish business press at the same time as the new brand was unveiled. This was a fully integrated piece of communication: adverts, corporate literature, digital marketing, newsletters, signage and members of staff were communicating the same brand message, at the same time.

What effect has our communication had?
First, it is important to state that clients generally welcomed the brand-development process. They wanted their advisers to be recognised as being at the cutting edge of legal advice. Although the risk was small, there was a chance that the more traditional private clients might be alienated by the change. In the competitive legal world, the fact that this did not happen has to be seen as a success factor for us.

Moreover, there has been a positive and unprompted response from clients in the form of commending letters. These demonstrate that the positive effects of the branding are taking place. Some excerpts are listed below:

“The firm has moved from a traditional law firm to one which is more forward-thinking and proactive, while retaining its professionalism.” Finance manager, existing client;
“The firm has changed from the traditional image of a solicitor in offices full of paperwork to one of a modern firm with IT systems – not only more up to date but more efficient. The new look Anderson Strathern can be described in exactly the same terms as the service I receive from the firm – professional, modern and effective.” Chief executive, corporate client;
“There is definitely something going on at Anderson Strathern, they’ve always been there – big and quiet – now they’re poaching our best people.” Partner, competitor firm;
“The firm is capable of going head to head with anyone now.” Competitor firm.

Clients and competitors alike are sitting up and taking notice. If traffic to our website is any indication of this fact, then things are looking good. Our website usage statistics were up 47 per cent in the 12 weeks following the launch, compared to the same period in the previous year.

Measuring success
We know that the branding campaign was well received within the firm. We also now know that the staff now better understand what the firm stands for and are more optimistic about its future. We undertook research to test this and were delighted with the results (see figures 1 and 2).

But success is not only calculated in terms of financial gain. “It is difficult to put the value of this exercise into financial terms,” says Robin Stimpson, managing partner at Anderson Strathern. “Our staff are key to the firm’s reputation, and the brand reflects the values they have established over many years. Going forward, we are confident that they will manage that reputation well. I think that is worth a lot.”

Cross-selling is a major issue for most firms but with our full-service offering it is absolutely critical. A significant factor towards our competitive advantage is the scope of service that we are able to offer. Providing a simple shape to our brand, which highlighted the specialist areas of practice in which we work, was key to demonstrating the range of our expertise to clients and prospects. It has, naturally, presented us with numerous opportunities to introduce new services to clients who had previously used three or four firms at once, rather than one full-service firm.

We are attracting a new calibre of corporate client, which is reflective of the modern, commercially focused firm that we now are. We are also retaining and improving our service to our long-standing clients – to whom we owe our continued reputation.

In 2005, the Anderson Strathern rebrand won the Chairman’s Award at the Scottish IPA Effectiveness Awards. It has recently been shortlisted for the Internal Communication category at the Marketing Society’s Marketing Excellence Awards.

Steve Jackson is marketing manager at Anderson Strathern. He can be contacted at: steve. jackson@andersonstrathern.co.uk.