Lawyers tend to be wary of the notion of branding, perhaps as they are trained to be distrustful of anything which is emotional, superficial and unquantifiable. But they would do well to pay more attention to brand management, as brands are the encapsulation of ‘a promise of what to expect’ and the mismanagement of them can lead to a loss of control over what is being promised. How might we identify the relative strengths of law brands and what are the parallels to be drawn with brands in the confectionary market - especially those of chocolate bar brands? Law firm brands and chocolate brands are, in essence, not as different as we might imagine. They are, however, worlds apart in terms of management.
Intangible business conducted a competition and focus group to explore how law firms are perceived. They spoke to graduates, students and business executives from within and beyond the legal industry to explore the parallels between chocolate bar brands and law firm brands. The results were illuminating and highlight the challenges facing the legal industry in the light of increased competition from ABSs (alternative business structures). Branding is no longer something that law firms can ignore in the marketplace, and law firms need to step up to the challenge and think of their brands more like a chocolate bar.
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