Why brand guardianship matters more than ever
(By: Richard Silberman, Creative Director, Brand Remedy)
As the challenges and complexities of business grow, your brand must work harder. One way to assure this is brand guardianship.
What is brand guardianship?
Brand guardianship is a key component of brand management, a combination of discipline and creativity that keeps your brand strong and healthy.
The discipline of brand guardianship is ensuring that your visual brand is consistently applied, everywhere.
Considering the financial investment organisations make in brand, we see numerous examples of ill-considered brand application – both online and offline. If you’ve invested in the development of your brand, why erode its value through inappropriate use?
Creatively, the challenge is to design appropriate and innovative ways to deploy the brand that will work within brand guidelines and communicate effectively. It is important to understand that branding a webcast will require a different approach to branding a brochure.
What it isn’t
If lack of consistency can damage a brand, so does a ‘one size fits all’ approach – especially in a world where new (digital) spaces proliferate. Don’t simply stick to your brand rules without thought or consideration – there’s a real danger that a rigid approach will have a negative effect – hindering development and stifling creativity.
In new environments, you have to be able to apply the brand in a creative, sensitive and considered way. Your guidelines can’t always anticipate new challenges – they are there to guide, not dictate – so allow your brand to grow and evolve and keep it relevant – just like your business offering..
Why it matters
Reinforce brand value & trust: Successful brands require consistency. Consistency means people see your brand positioned as strongly as possible, every time. Your organisation looks professional, you communicate your brand values, you engage with your audience, and this builds trust.
Save time & money: When you have clear rules for your brand, you’re not starting from scratch each time and there is less risk of damaging the brand by misapplication. Investing in brand guardianship saves time and money and protects your investment in the brand.
Proliferation of applications: Gone are the days when a brand might simply appear on a business card or a brochure. The growth of places and digital spaces means effective brand guardianship is more important than ever, ensuring your brand is applied consistently and appropriately wherever it appears.
Make the brand work harder: In difficult economic times, the appetite for a rebrand is never strong, so you may have to make the best of what you have. Yet you’re competing harder than ever to impress clients and win business. Pitches have to be more impressive, your presentational skills sharper.
Good brand management takes what you have and make sure it works better. The brand works harder and is applied sensitively and effectively. Put simply:
- A stronger brand will help you compete better.
- The more you put into protecting your brand, the better it will serve your organisation.
Click Here To Download The Full Article by Brand Remedy
About the Author:
Richard Silbermann is Creative Director at Brand Remedy (www.brandremedy.com), and has been developing and nurturing brands for professional services for 25 years.
For more information visit: www.brandremedy.com or call Richard Silberman on 020 8940 6050
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Promoting Chambers – How to take the risk out of Chambers marketing.
(By: Catherine Bailey, Managing Director, Bar Marketing Limited)
Spending money on marketing for many Chambers is often seen as a massive punt, a huge risk, a pure gamble. But it needn’t be that way.
The 4 Ps of Chambers Marketing
When looking at doing any marketing for chambers, it’s all about the 4 Ps:
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
For the vast majority, the most infamous of the marketing 4 Ps is promotion because it’s often viewed as the only function of chambers’ marketing.
For many chambers ‘events’ are crucial. True, getting in front of clients is a great way to get your message across. You just need to make sure that they audience is right and the message is clearly received and understood. Otherwise an awful lot of hard work (usually by the senior clerk) is wasted.
But what of true promotion?
Within the promotion mix of chambers there are five primary methods; direct marketing, advertising, sales promotions, personal selling and public relations.
A true promotion strategy should encompass all five to some degree of other depending on the desired outcomes. Promotion needn’t be costly but it does need to be well planned and executed. It must also be used in conjunction the other 3Ps otherwise it is less effective.
Click Here To Download The White Paper ‘Promoting Chambers’ 2011 by Bar Marketing Ltd
About the Author:
Catherine Bailey, former Head of Marketing for IRIS Legal Solutions – the foremost supplier of software solutions for the Bar and law firms.
With over 10 years of experience in the UK legal sector, in particular the Bar and widely known for her proactive stance on ProcureCo and alternate business structures, Catherine has the depth of knowledge of the Bar coupled with 20 years of strategic and operational marketing experience which truly sets her and Bar Marketing apart from other marketing consultancies.
For more information visit: www.barmarketing.co.uk or call Catherine Bailey on 0771 434 5072
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Revolutionary use of document construction software to enable law firms to cut costs and develop incremental new business.
- Law firms can acquire new business and grow market share without adding to headcount or other overheads.
- Law firms can optimize document production processes driving cost-savings, improving productivity and competitiveness.
- Quality assured and cost effective online document construction alternative to outsourcing firms’ typing and transcription requirements overseas.
- Repeat work from existing clients
- Introductions
- ‘Keep in Touch’ campaign
- Strategic Alliances
- Collateral
February 1st 2011 – Cleardocs UK Ltd, specialist I.T company, announce the revolutionary use of its legal document construction software.
With the legal sector projected to see an increase in competition that further endangers fees and partners drawings, Cleardocs, one of the UK’s leading online providers of legal documents, today announced its plans to make its state of the art document construction software available to law firms as a cost-cutting and business development tool.
The new use of Cleardocs software has been developed in direct response to demand from law firms suffering from ongoing overhead restrictions. Having made staff and even some partners redundant, firms now have to find new ways to keep their operating costs down whilst rising to the challenges of developing new and profitable business.
The software from Cleardocs will enable law firms to optimse their document creation processes, cutting costs by removing redundancies within processes. The software userability is founded on the principles of plain language, meaning that the online form that is used to capture the client’s details, situation and status is clear and easy to use; the client is able to do the data entry and complete this part of process ‘hands-free’ from the firms’ perspective. Cleardocs have yet to publish cost saving percentages but they are expected to be significant.
Cleardocs software constructs the customised document according to the information given by the client online, providing the firm with a complete first draft of the particulars. In opposition to the recent trend to outsource a firms’ typing and transcription requirements overseas, the client centric data entry model keeps the process short and highly efficient. And, unlike other online document construction services, law firms can develop their own documents protecting the firms writing style and reputation.
Another benefit the software delivers is the law firm’s ability to grow its market share by allowing clients access to the online form from anywhere within the country. Cleardocs UK Ltd business development director, Frances Critchlow said “Many law firms are unaware of the existence of specialist internet based document construction software like ours, and as such simply do not understand its business development potential. The internet means that firms can now think in broader terms about their market and with the addition of specialist software like ours, firms can market innovative services, attracting new clients at a fraction of the traditional expense.”
Critchlow goes on to add “The internet also provides law firms with the opportunity of asking clients to pay upfront for their services via a credit or debit card. Online payments mean the firm’s bank balance looks healthier; quicker. Also, savings are made in administrative functions like credit control, and bad debt is reduced. The legal sector is entering a really exciting phase, and we believe our software can create a winning formula for firms who want to cut costs, develop business and increase profits.”
For more information visit www.cleardocs.co.uk/solicitors or call Chris Crossley on 0845 474 0376
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Sustainable Business Development………………………………………… 
In a tough economic climate, all firms should be focusing on getting more work from existing clients and contacts. This means a strong and clear focus on the firm’s strengths, cross-selling and up-selling, referrals from satisfied clients, and introductions from allies. However, the first stage in a sustainable business development programme is to set the standards and to establish the vision – to ensure that the firm’s client base is developing in line with the business plan.Sustainable Business Development
Setting the Standards
Solicitors are professional people, and they respond well to being treated as such. Imposing ‘targets’ to which they should aspire is unlikely to elicit a sustainable positive response. Setting ‘standards’ together with the team concerned, to which they all agree they will conform, generates engagement and means that underperformers cannot claim unfair treatment.
The approach should be one of ‘what gets measured gets better’. If we measure number of chargeable hours, this is what people will focus on. If we also focus attention on the other factors that really impact on the top and bottom lines – new client take-on; new instructions; referrals; realisation rates; billing; collections – then we will see commensurate improvements in these areas of the business development pipeline.
Establishing the Niche
Service professionals can develop a more prominent reputation, and usually charge rates accordingly, when they operate in a ‘niche’ area. Developing a niche takes time, but the rewards will be worthwhile. Therefore, all key fee earners should be asked to identify their own potential niche, clearly in line with the firm’s and the team’s reputation and strategic direction.
In this way, the key people throughout the firm develop a clear vision as to what they plan their client base will look like, and this can form the basis for a ‘gap analysis’, comparing the vision with the current situation – and identifying what resources and training are required to enable achievement of the vision.
Sustainable Sources of Business
Closing the gap between where the firm is, and where it wants to be, involves a systematic programme of training and development in five key areas:
You will note that these areas all require a significant time investment, but relatively little financial investment up front (as compared with, say, advertising or PR).
In our Profitable Partnerships Programme, we help fee earners to address each of these sources and establish how they can have the greatest impact on your revenues, in both the short and longer terms.
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