Delivering a promise

The rebrand that saw international firm Eversheds take a fresh look at its vision, values and client relationship management; using research, renewed identity and improved internal relationships to deliver on its 'Accountable Relationships' promise. By Zelinda Bennett.

Since 2005, Eversheds has implemented a new brand which truly reflects the needs of ‘Accountable Relationships’.

Launching and implementing our new corporate image was a major operation spanning several years. This was not just a cosmetic exercise, it encompassed our entire business: how we work and the service we offer.

A rebrand based on research
Our rebrand began several years ago when we embarked on a massive exercise to understand what our clients really wanted from their legal advisers. Having become one integrated law firm in 2000 and expanding more overseas, service excellence was increasingly important within the firm. As we were growing, so were our clients, who had changing needs which we had to meet. What we wanted to do was to start selling Eversheds as a whole and demonstrate how we offered more than your average law firm. A need arose to create a brand which reflected what we stood for and what we could deliver.

Since the late 1990s, our brand promise had been ‘straightforward, enterprising and effective’, but we needed to define and develop this further. So, we undertook an extensive research programme. The research could help us determine the elements of our brand which would resonate with our clients and match their needs. Our research uncovered two clear client needs:

Certainty in costs – clients wanted law firms that could provide accurate budgets and project plans – and then stick to them;
Quality relationships – lawyers who genuinely understood their business and provided the right commercial advice in the right context.

Taking these two issues into account we then took a detailed look at Eversheds and how we could change to better meet these needs.

A rebrand of real change
The response we created to the research was encapsulated under the heading ‘Accountable Relationships’ – a law firm that could be trusted, which was open about its fees, which was measurably better, and firmly believed in creating great client care. Given the scope of the internal changes we made to support this, we can only briefly touch upon them, but they included:

The creation of a new set of vision and values to give the firm focus and genuinely influence our behaviours;
Regular surveys to measure the quality of our client relationships. We started to track how we were performing and put in place the measures to ensure we continually improved;
Reorganising ourselves on a sector basis to offer a true understanding of the client, their business and its needs;
Creating a client relationship management programme;
Using business process re-engineering teams to take apart and rebuild ourways of working in order to create an innovative service that provided better results for lower costs;
Scoping jobs in detail so that we could deliver an initial project plan and budget. As part of this project management, we created a realistic timeframe, plan and an accurate budget;
Developing a general process that embraced mainstream transactions, which we call ‘SPEC’ – scoping, planning, executing and completing. The process has shown spectacular results.

Put together, these changes radically changed the way we worked and made our Accountable Relationships promise a reality.

It seemed clear to us that other firms may focus on service or quality of work, but not both of those elements combined. By best leveraging our organisational structure to service clients, we made our ‘one firm’ vision a reality. Our culture has become key to retaining clients, while implementing project management is testament to our commitment to Accountable Relationships in action.

Creating the look
We also refreshed our visual identity. This in itself was a huge project.

We have developed a style where lots of white space is used to emphasise our openness, accountability, and our honesty. Striking imagery and the introduction of bold new corporate colours signify our new direction. Introducing this clean design and fresher colours helps capture the attention to get across the Eversheds difference. The look works internationally and was thoroughly road tested before its launch.

Applying the look and feel across all of our marketing materials has been quite a task. Feedback from clients and staff has been very positive and overall we have created a unity and consistency.

Brandsite
Brandsite – our web-based tool for supporting the brand – provides everything staff need to know about Accountable Relationships. Our redesign has genuinely helped reinforce our new direction.

The brand is evident right through our organisation.

It is reinforced by internal publications, it is reflected in our internal service-level agreements and used in our recruitment process. It’s everywhere and it has changed Eversheds dramatically since its inception.

Reaping the rewards
With the Legal Marketing Awards 2006, Eversheds gained further recognition for its efforts, when we were awarded ‘Best Law Firm Rebranding of the Year’, an accolade of which we are rightly proud.

Elsewhere, our new offering is helping us to win many of the major pitches we’re involved in. Kevin Doolan, head of client services at the firm, is the partner in charge of firm-wide marketing. He oversaw the rebranding and is perhaps best placed to comment on any of the benefits these changes have made, especially with our clients.

“Branding is about making what you stand for clear to clients,” he says. “It’s not about logo or colour, although redesigning those things does signal change. Instead, it is about being clear about what you can offer and then building a brand by living its values every day. For us, that means delivering valuable service to clients, day in, day out. By putting clients in control, being accountable for the work we do, I believe our rebranding has been very successful in flagging to clients that we are here and this is what we are going to deliver on.”

Future foundations
With such success, you may think it would be easy to stop there. But that’s not the Eversheds way. Continuous improvement means nothing stands still at our firm. Not even our brand.

We keep striving to develop innovative ways to deliver on our brand promises. We constantly track reactions to our brand and delivery, so it can continue to improve.

Using the foundations of Accountable Relationships, a longer term market strategy has been created to ensure we continue to grow despite increasingly challenging market conditions. The future is unpredictable and, whatever happens, we need to be ready to continue to evolve to ensure we stay ahead of the game. Of course, the brand only works if we continue to deliver its promises and the future will involve us backing up our bold statements and actions to date with more of the same.

Zelinda Bennett is director of marketing at international firm Eversheds LLP. She can be contacted at zelindabennett@eversheds.com