A question of image

Law firms have been criticised for not making the most of their substantial marketing budgets.

So what is the best way to promote the right image? Asks Mark Smulian

Henry Ford famously remarked that half of his advertising spending was wasted, but he could never tell which half.

Are law firms suffering the same wastage from their marketing budgets - if they have them in the first place?

The survey of firms' marketing spending by public relations consultancy Marketforce Communications (see [2002] Gazette, 12 September, 5), said that lawyers are lagging behind other professions when it comes to marketing, despite innovations ranging from sponsoring rugby matches to putting up posters in hospital accident and emergency departments.

Marketforce's managing director David Saunders thinks that lawyers can no longer hide behind the excuse that they do little marketing and promotion because they have only recently been allowed to do either.

After all, he argues, 17 years ought to be long enough.

Mr Saunders says: 'I think it is a cultural issue.

They employ more people in marketing than do other professions, but they seem to do fewer things.

The culture has grown up that they analyse their marketing a lot but do not do much.'

Mark Martin, marketing manager at Manchester firm Rowlands, says a marketing culture will help the profession adapt to the competitive personal injury market.

He says the idea for the firm's recent radio advertising campaign featuring Radio Five Live DJ Alan Green stemmed from the need to take on claims management companies on their own ground (see [2002] Gazette, 19 September, 5).

'The radio is a good medium for personal injury advertising - especially in the morning rush hour when people are driving to work.'

But at the same time firm had to consider maintaining a good personal image.

'We used a niche external advertising group in Manchester, the AND partnership, and they recommended Alan Green as a sporting voice that chimed with the Commonwealth Games spirit in the town.'

Large commercial law firms operate in a competitive market, and although clients always need to go to them, 'the question is, go to which one,' says Mr Saunders.

He says much of solicitors' public relations efforts are concentrated on announcing appointments and contract awards to other firms, and not directed to media that their clients are likely to see.

'They should talk about the subject that is of interest to their clients,' says Mr Saunders.

'If it is banking, for example, talk about banking issues, not legal ones, and use the banking media.'

Press coverage has a considerable advantage over paid advertising in that it gives a third-party endorsement of a firm's claims about its expertise.

A published article which gives expert comment on an issue will be worth more than an advert saying, 'use Scroggins solicitors', in which the firm can only assert its own claims.

The exception is the locally based general law practice, which knows that it can reach most of those likely to use its services through advisements and stories in its local media.

But even then, there has to be a strategy.

It is little use plastering advertisements around on public hoardings, or showering journalists with press releases, and then hoping for the best from this scatter-shot approach, says Nick Jarrett-Kerr, who is chairman of the Law Society's practice management section.

He now works as a management consultant, among other things advising solicitors' firms on marketing.

'Law firms have got to learn that if they are going to advertise or go for public relations, they have got to have a strategy for it.

It is not a case of one advertisement, one event or one press release,' he says.

'It needs to be repeated and that means a deep pocket.

Often, there is not a considered strategy as to what the target is, what result is wanted.'

Mr Jarrett-Kerr agrees with Marketforce's conclusion that law firms have a lot of catching up to do in the way they promote themselves compared with other professions.

'My advice to firms is that the best marketing is close up and personal, but it is extremely helpful if the firm also has a profile and has been heard of,' he says.

As the Marketforce survey found, law firms tell people what they do, but rarely what they think.

Other professions produce a profusion of surveys, policy papers and comment on topical issues, and this is largely missing from law.

Addleshaw Booth & Co took a healthy share of advertising through its sponsorship of this year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

City-based Norton Rose last year decided to sponsor rugby's Heineken Cup, at 500,000 a year for two years (see [2001] Gazette, 20 September, 3).

The firm says this won it up to 2 million worth of television coverage from billboards at the grounds, and allowed it to entertain existing and potential clients.

Not perhaps the sort of money every firm is in a position to pay, and some prefer to rely on much lower profile and personal efforts.

John Haresnape, head of business development at fellow City firm Herbert Smith, says he 'would not disagree in general' with Marketforce's findings.

But he emphasises the need to find out what the market wants first, and then work out the best way to deliver that, rather than plunging into a promotional campaign.

'The important thing is asking clients what communications they need from us.

I don't think that happens to the degree it should.

Take big-ticket events.

I'm not sure that clients are interested, but they are interested in tailored services.'

Herbert Smith, despite its size, is 'not big on advertising', Mr Haresnape says.

It might advertise for a specific new initiative, or if it had a particular story to tell, but 'it has to be tightly focused and targeted'.

London-based Masons, a specialist firm with almost 500 lawyers, works in the construction, engineering, energy, infrastructure and information technology markets.

Its public relations manager Samantha Beams says it focuses marketing on getting its expertise over to these industries.

It holds an annual construction law conference, which now attracts more than 1,000 delegates, and features not only its staff, but also leading industry figures who talk about construction topics that need not be tied directly to any legal issue

It is an accredited data protection course provider for its information technology clients, and it exhibits at major energy industry events.

Ms Beams says: 'We do not do any general newsletter, though there are specialist newsletters for clients.

The Web site carries general news about the firm if people want to see that, and we send news flashes to clients by e-mail.'

Masons staff write in the construction, energy and information technology specialist media, and attend some exhibitions.

'The feedback from exhibitions is that they are useful to do so long as it is the right event and the people we want to meet will be there,' she says.

Malcolm Horner, partner and head of personal injury, says Rowlands has had a marketing manager for three years, though he admits this is 'unusual in a firm that serves Joe Public across Greater Manchester'.

It decided to make an in-house appointment, rather than employ a consultant, because it took the view that the person concerned would have greater commitment as a staff member, and that the firm could more easily monitor what it got for its money.

Rowlands' radio advertising reflects a growing flexibility in firms' use of marketing.

So can the first solicitor's advertisement on the side of an airship, or projected onto the side of a building, be far away?

Mark Smulian is a freelance journalist