Keeping it legal
THE ACADEMY OF BUSINESS STRATEGY
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS BLOG
Keeping it legal
AUTHOR
Matthew Francis (CBS) MBA LLB MCIPR
Introduction
Adopting an effective Communications Strategy is not necessarily at the top of the To-Do List of most professional services firms. One of the reasons for this is the perception that to take this route will cost a fortune. It is true that sometimes this is the case. For example, attracting the latest celebrity or sports personality of the moment will cost a company a fortune. Take Accenture for instance, paying millions of dollars in order to have Tiger Woods as ‘the face’ of their organisation. This worked perfectly well until his squeaky clean image became tarnished, costing them even more in order to break the relationship and disassociate themselves from him.
Paying millions is all well and good if you can afford it. But what about professional services firms who don’t have a huge marketing and promotional budget to play with? Do they just concede defeat to the big boys and concentrate solely on delivering their services to local businesses, relying simply on word of mouth recommendations? Well they can, and to be honest most of them do. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
This article looks at how a law-firm in Northamptonshire, Temple & Co has broken with tradition and is doing things a bit differently. Not only are they positioning themselves as Business Facilitators and Advisors, as opposed to simple legal problem solvers but they are being creative in the way their marketing communications is being presented. Their effective marketing communications is also not costing them a fortune, meaning that even their accountant is happy. Finally, the icing on the cake is that Euan Temple, their Managing Partner, is not being kept awake at night wondering what adverse media attentions his celebrity sponsor is going to attract in the morning papers!
Accuracy Does Not Mean Sacrificing Creativity
Let’s face it, marketing materials produced by professional services can be pretty bland and at time, mind-numbingly boring. Let’s face it, they all provide the same services really. For example, their clients conduct their business, they need a contract written, they go to their lawyer, the contract is written. Then they continue with their business until they need help again. You get the picture. Same-Old, Same-Old! Now don’t get me wrong, I am the first to admit that the work of lawyers and accountants need to be accurate. Nobody wants their professional advisor to be the epidermisation of creativity at the expense of accuracy. Saying that however, there is a lot of room for creativity in the way that professional services firms get the message across to their prospective and current customers.
Temple & Co were in an interesting position. They had built up a reputation for offering a top drawer legal service to clients and this reputation was one they were rightly proud of. Euan Temple saw however that if Temple & Co were to approach the area of marketing communications in a different way, they could expand their client base considerably. The point was that the right message needed to be communicated. This message was not that Temple & Co were a good law-firm that could deal reactively with client issues, although this was of course one of the things they could do. The real message however, was that Temple & Co were proactive lawyers that worked collaboratively with their clients, helping them build their business. They were more along the lines of ‘Hand in Hand’ advisors as opposed to simply problem solvers.
Something Different
In order to get the message across that he intended, Euan Temple took on the services of Marketing Communications specialists, Fusion-PRo. Fusion-PRo appointed a dedicated PR professional who had also trained as a Lawyer to head up their project. Over the course of 2 weeks, this professional advisor worked directly with Temple & Co, identifying their specific skills and experience as lawyers but also how they worked collaboratively with clients in building and developing their business. This hands on approach and direct interest in the well-being and development of their clients needed to be a key factor, running through their marketing communications.
After the 2 week period, having gathered all the information needed, Fusion-PRo created a ne set of communications materials for Temple & Co, using colour, creative explanations of how they can help develop their clients and including a Call To Action, vitally important to any business looking to attract new clients. The results have been considerable already. Temple & Co is enjoying a surge of interest from larger organisations, who see that they can get the service they need. This service is one that sees them working alongside legal advisors who actually understand their business and are focused not only on solving problems, but adding value to the organisation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew Francis (CBS) MBA LLB MCIPR is an approved Certified Business Specialist (CBS) with the Academy of Business Strategy and his specialist subject is marketing communications. He has achieved an MBA from Cass Business School, an LPC from Exeter University and an LLB from London University. He has also achieved a MCIPR from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. He initially qualified as a Lawyer before being employed as a Management and Operations Consultant for a variety of different companies and has experience within the oil and gas, telecommunications, consulting and financial service industries. A selection of his clients or employers have included Areva Mining, Credit-Suisse, Mars, Ernst and Young and RJ Reynolds. He has geographical working experience in Russia, Kazakhstan, The Ukraine and The US and he speaks English, Russian and French. His service skills incorporate international public relations management, marketing communications, project management and business process transformation.
To contact Matthew Francis, please contact the Academy of Business Strategy by forwarding an email, or alternatively visit Matthew’s CBS Blog.
