I enjoyed the article on marketing's wasted millions in law (see [2005] Gazette, 26 May, 1) and follow-up correspondence.

Some of your readers might not be aware of PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2004 study on law firm management that estimates that the top 25 law firms spend on average £3.4 million each year on marketing, with the top 100 law firms spending on average £1.8 million. The largest areas of expenditure were on salaries, corporate entertaining, public relations and sponsorships.


The challenge - as so rightly identified - is to ensure that it is money well spent. In some firms, the reality is that marketing money is frittered away on supporting unprofitable or marginal pockets of special interest or on whoever shouts the loudest. Firms need to be much more focused on identifying what they want to be known and respected for in the market and investing marketing money accordingly to build profile and develop quality client relationships.


Firms also need to invest significantly more in the skills required to build effective marketing programmes - both among their lawyers and their marketing professionals. This is one of the reasons why the Professional Services Marketing Group (PSMG) recently launched a specialist marketing qualification for professional services - to help keep raising the standards of quality. The PSMG also has a research project under way with accountants Grant Thornton on measuring the effectiveness of business development - and we hope to report on that later this year.


Chris Hinze, joint-chairman, PSMG, Saffron Walden, Essex