If you’re a professional services firm, such as a law firm, you should be using a brand consultant – it’s that’s simple.
At first glance, ‘brand consultants’ may seem more akin to politicians or marketers than legal firms – and that’s exactly why they are so important.
However, in the previous two examples there’s an assumption that using brand consultants is for negative or protectionist reasons. Like most assumptions though, it’s very clearly wrong – which is why we need to define the advantages and importance of brand consultancy.
The three aspects of brand consultancy legal firms benefit from
If you speak to most people about lawyers, not many would tend to speak in a positive light would they? Sadly legal firms are often considered boring, money-grabbing and stuffy, right?
See? We’ve already justified the first reason why a law firm should use brand consultants – identity.
Identity
With the right brand consultants, any legal firm can portray the right identity. Whether it be to promote themselves, their specialties, or just to ‘stand out from the rest’, legal firms would benefit from working with brand consultants.
Brand Strategy
In addition to marketing legal firms through identity, brand consultants can also influence strategic growth – financially, industry and through reputation.
Brand consultants work with a legal firm to define values, goals and new opportunities, which can often move the company into new markets.
Small family lawyers can grow, merge, partner and develop through brand consultants.
Corporate lawyers can develop new business, capabilities and even move into different sectors or markets.
Messaging
Perhaps the most subtle but ultimately the most telling of the 3 aspects of brand consultants, messaging and communications are pivotal in the modern digital communications age.
Legal firms need to maintain corporate communications, and be permanently ‘on message’ across all media channels.
How do brand consultants work with legal firms?
Firstly, let’s dispel a myth – that only large multi-national legal firms benefit from working with brand consultants. Any size of legal firm will find a brand consultancy improves then; in fact many small legal firms may directly trace their growth (in business, profits and reputation) to be directly linkable to working with brand consultants.
Brand consultants don’t limit their work with legal firms to one thing though, often involving a variety of approaches :-
- market research
- client testimonials
- positioning
- strategy
- brand values
- business development
- internal and external communications
- messaging and marketing
- client research
- identity
- brand image projection
- reputation management
- press releases
- corporate culture
- mergers and acquisitions
- new markets
- thought leadership
- influencer marketing
- brand ambassadors
Clearly, brand consultants are big business for law firms – because they can help to. Ring business to their door, or transform them into a big business.
