UK high street firms face a battle of the brands

By Pearse McCabe, Strategy & Planning Director, Rufus Leonard

Law firms are increasingly faced with the challenge of how to brand their businesses in a highly unpredictable and increasingly competitive market.

Traditionally, law firms have relied more on their reputation, perceived expertise and, crucially, relationships for business development. However, with alternative business structures on the horizon in the UK, firms are increasingly looking for marketing to play a strategic role in retaining key clients and driving business forward.

The scale of preparation has been varied to date. Some firms have gone '¨to extreme lengths to put themselves '¨in pole position for when ABS licences '¨are issued. Others have kept their cards close to their chests.

A number of high street brands have been vociferous about their intentions to diversify into the legal services market. QualitySolicitors, the network of local solicitors, has perhaps been the most interesting from a branding perspective. All member firms have adopted the name and iconic black and pink colour scheme, and the simple, standard website design. The overall messaging embodies a high-quality service that is easy to understand, with friendly points of contact.

The umbrella tactic for QualitySolicitors seems to be to distinguish itself from the more traditional image of a law firm. This ‘superbrand’ has a distinctive personality which has been implemented across several consumer touchpoints.

Its communications focus on experience rather than function-based expertise, which it has no doubt learned from best practice in higher-end retailing.

The Co-operative is another interesting example from a branding perspective. Its move into legal services is perhaps unsurprising for two reasons. First, it has a strong heritage in providing a diverse range of services and has proven that its brand can stretch into retail, financial services, funeral care and pharmacy to name a few.

Second, it is a values-based brand, underpinned by the slogan ‘good for everyone’ and by the very nature of its business structure. It isn’t driven primarily by profits, so clients will assume its legal services are not profit-driven either.

Executed well, The Co-operative’s plan could add to its current brand equity. However, an active approach to brand management will be critical to its success.

'¨Educate the client

Even companies that have made pre-emptive moves and announcements could sink or swim, depending upon how well they understand the market as it grows and evolves. For this reason, The Co-operative’s two-week trial of legal services in Bristol last year was commendable. It gave the company a chance to educate people on its intentions and services, and to see how they responded to different branding techniques and ideas.

Firms that cannot sample the market in this way need to watch and listen to clients carefully and be prepared to be agile in their approach to branding – perhaps on an ongoing basis, at least for the first couple of years.

Firms with smaller budgets stand to benefit from the bigger players who ‘own’ this category, as they will educate clients in the language, function and benefits of this new way of providing legal services.

This will also have other positive ramifications for the market as a whole. With increased competition comes greater awareness of legal services, as well as more competitive pricing.

'¨Identify core values

A clear vision and a distinctive personality are necessary to stand out from the crowd and to leave a lasting impression on potential clients. There will still be adjustments that need to be made, but understanding the firm’s niche and how to sell it effectively will be critical to enticing new clients to the brand.

Firms need to decide what commercial success looks like to them. Below the big brands and the magic circle, an increasing number of sub-levels are starting to emerge as firms try to identify a gap in the market or an area where they can legitimately claim to be leaders. Managing partners and marketing need to work more closely together to create a single vision for the firm that is communicated externally.

There is a lot that remains to be seen, including who the major and minor players will be and the campaigns that they will deliver into the market to get traction. The ramifications of this will make for a very exciting marketing challenge.

Having the right structure in place to fight this branding battle – and being agile enough to establish a foothold in the market – will take time. Brand positioning, market understanding and the ability to respond and listen to clients as the market goes through initial growing pains will be critical to law firms’ success.

pearse.mccabe@rufusleonard.com