Rebranding: Behind the mask

Has branding got any real relevance for professional partnerships?
Any doubt reflects the fact that so few accountancy or legal firms have managed to create distinctive and differentiating brand propositions offering real value to the end user. Even if they have, many fail to communicate them or make them ‘stick’. Frankly, they probably should not have bothered in the first place.
In the not too distant past, firms would dismiss the concept of brand identification as mere puff – neither relevant nor business critical. But times have changed. I would suggest that branding is most definitely relevant in today’s legal market for several reasons:

Increased competition across all sectors, specialities and sizes of firm creates even more choice for companies;
A large mid-market, which will probably continue to consolidate, creating winners and losers;
A growing need to stand out from the crowd;
The need to be known for something other than an ‘alphabetical’ menu of legal services;
A brand proposition that offers a tangible benefit (in addition to quality legal advice) to the end user will be better received and accepted than one that is internally focused and self indulgent;
A clear and distinctive brand means partners and staff can confidently articulate what the firm stands for – no more vague splutterings about ‘full service’, ‘partnering with clients’, and so on. It should help unite a firm;
Recruitment and retention – a strong brand will create a sense of pride and wanting to belong;
It means your reputation is ‘out there’ so you are not starting from scratch every time you talk to a prospect. A strong brand opens doors. Prospects may even approach you;
It’s a warranty, a promise of consistency in approach, a promise your firm will live up to its reputation and perform to the standards it sets.

A strong brand gives you all of these benefits, and in the modern legal market it is inconceivable and uncompetitive not to try to ‘stand out’. In a cluttered marketplace so many firms promise the same or similar so called ‘benefits’ and ‘advantages’, which are too often based on features, not actual benefits.

The Nabarro rebranding process
The starting point for us was to conduct research with clients, intermediaries, prospects, the media and staff/partners to assess current (and past) perceptions.
We then distilled the positives and negatives. Perceptions typically fit into three categories:

Basically sound with no real problems – a reasonable foundation to build upon;
Little or no tangible awareness of the brand – a need to ‘create’ a persona from scratch;
‘Problem child’ or negative vibes – a need to ‘correct’ the market’s perception or change behaviour.

As we had a workable foundation, we then considered how to build on it by adding a level of aspiration – future promise of higher-level service delivery. However, it needed to be within the realms of credibility. We knew that unfounded claims of world domination would not be credible to all our target audiences and would probably lead to a pasting in the press.
We conducted qualitative research with twelve clients. This was captured on videotape for closer analysis. In addition we gathered many views, drawn from the ongoing client satisfaction review process (conducted by an independent consultant), and face-to-face interviews carried out for our Client Talk publication. The common theme from all of this research was that we were seen as: solid and dependable; nice people; easy to work with; and, when given a challenging legal problem we were extremely imaginitive and capable.
Despite these positives we were also regarded as being very understated. At the time we received some comment from a legal journalist which echoed this thought:
“Nabarro (Nathanson) is an undiscovered gem. A perenially undervalued stock, it’s no longer too heavy on property. It has crisp management, a balanced business and a cohesive partnership”.
So, maybe it was time to remove our ‘invisibility cloak’ and shout about ourselves a bit more. Taking the positives of being regarded as ‘solid and dependable’, the trick was how to articulate this and add the all-important aspirational element. We toyed with concepts like ‘let us surprise you’ but this was too apologetic in nature. We considered themes where we tried to make a brand promise out of ‘pragmatism’, ‘commitment with challenge’, ‘problem solving and perseverance’.

Hitting a conceptual brick wall
Time to bring in the experts, the brand agency, Identica. We downloaded all our research and thoughts to them; they conducted their own ‘perception status’ research (with similar results) and came up with the solution. They recommended that we adopt the propositon of ‘user friendly law’ expressed as ‘Clarity Matters’.
We loved it. It encapsulated what we are – a down to earth, pragmatic law firm. It also had the all-important end-user benefit – buyers of outsourced legal advice (not always in-house counsel) want advice delivered in a straightforward way, in plain English, which can be readily applied to their businesses – simple but not simplistic, with no compromise on quality.
The implication is that, historically, some lawyers might have delivered their legal advice in an over-complex manner, which is difficult to understand and even harder to apply to a business. In contrast, the Nabarro promise should make it easier for clients to apply our legal advice to their business needs. It is, at the same time, relevant, distinctive and differentiating – when delivered consistently.

Name change
De rigueur for most rebrands; we were no exception – we dropped the ‘Nathanson’. From now on we would be known as Nabarro, plain and simple.

Internal communication
During this period we kept all partners in the loop by deploying the agency and senior management in full-scale presentations to them. We knew that without their enthusiastic acceptance and buy-in the whole brand development bandwagon would grind to a halt. The partners loved it. There was a standing ovation at the final unveiling of the brand proposition. Truly, a unique experience.

‘Plumbing’
This phase of the programme involved changing all the stationery, building a new website and intranet, changing the name on the buildings, and starting to rewrite all our literature (and precedents) to conform with the ‘Clarity’ message.In the eight months between appointing Identica and the launch in February 2007, nothing was leaked to the press.

The launch
The date was 28 February 2007. We synchronised communications to clients and contacts across the US, Europe and the UK with staff briefings in Sheffield and London and an advertising campaign in selected national and trade press. Having previously trained 30 partners as brand champions, we spent the next two days in 30 or more break-out groups informing, educating and discussing how each and every employee could contribute to delivering the brand promise, internally and externally.
Since then we have developed a wider campaign of activities to embed brand values and behaviour internally. Only in this way can we expect to be capable of delivering them externally. Staff training in plain English and clarity-themed competitions will form part of this ongoing campaign.

Alpha and Omega Research
Our rebrand started with research. In addition to our own qualitative work with clients and staff, we signed up to a timely syndicated research programme, which was conducted with over 800 buyers of legal services, due to be completed just before our rebrand launch. This awareness and perception research gave us a solid benchmark from which we will measure shifts in awareness, penetration and acceptance of our brand promise amongst a matched sample of those who participated in the original benchmark research. So although the rebrand won’t ‘end’ with research, it will be used over the next few years to track its success.

Lessons learnt
While manufacturers make products to a tight specification, ‘service’ brands, by their very nature, rely on those offering the service to deliver the brand promise. When there are 500 lawyers involved, consistency can become a rare commodity. For that reason alone, few professional partnerships have managed to create meaningful brand propositions that both offer real benefits to the end user and are actually delivered consistently, on a daily basis.
Developing the proposition itself is another key element – it must not only be in keeping with the nature of the firm, but also relevant and of real value to the client. It is unlikely to be based on features, such as numbers of partners, offices, the range of services offered, and so on. Clients buy benefits not features.

Hierarchy of needs

Discovering the most relevant benefit to go with – requires honesty, self-analysis and understanding gleaned from external market research;
Finding the succinct expression of your firm’s brand – requires the above plus creativity;
Getting internal buy-in – requires early involvement and great persuasion;
Launching and promoting the new brand – requires creativity, quality media buying and cash;
Consistent delivery to clients – requires years of establishing the brand promise with everyone in the firm through education, demonstration, incentivisation (carrot and perhaps stick!)
Measuring success as expressed by the clients we serve – requires ‘tracking’ research.

Finally, bear in mind that success on all of these fronts will reap real dividends, but failure to deliver against your brand promise could be more damaging than not attempting it in the first place.

Branding: Top 10 ‘dos’ and ‘don’t’s

1. Clients buy benefits not features so promise them something useful;
2. Brand promise must be both credible and include an element of aspiration;
3. Aim high with your ‘claim’ but not too high – non-delivery is a sin;
4. Service brands are about ‘push’ not just ‘pull’ strategies (embed the brand promise internally – only then can you hope to deliver it externally);
5. Get internal buy-in (real buy-in verging on enthusiasm!);
6. Don’t start what you are not prepared to see through to the bitter end;
7. Tell clients (and the wider marketplace) what you are going to do, do it and then tell them you’ve done it, ie. communicate. Keep it alive;
8. Research before a rebrand (benchmark) and track/measure progress forever;
9. A brand is a lot more than a logo, name change or font;
10. Take out a loan!

Guy Bigland is director of business development and marketing at Nabarro. He can be contacted at g.bigland@nabarro.com