Live your brand values
By Kim Tasso
This year's PM Forum conference, held in London on 21 September, looked
at how firms can use their brands to enhance the client experience.
Maybe it was my imagination,
but the conference hall at the
Congress Centre in London
seemed fuller than last year –
there were nearly 200 eager delegates. Was
this finally a sign of modest recovery in the
professions or an indicator that the situation
was now so severe that everyone was
desperate for new ideas to improve the
bottom line? The positive mood suggested
the former.
On the table, I was delighted to see a pack
of traditional sweeties from Clever
Publications and a funky bit of electronic
voting kit from IML incorporating a text
facility to the chair and a microphone.
Marketers love gifts and gadgets. Full marks.
PWC SETS THE SCENE
In a departure from previous years where
either Richard Chaplin or Hamish Munro
kicked off proceedings, we were welcomed
by Linda Stevens of PwC – who originally
trained as an auditor and tax adviser but
switched from the dark side to work on
business development and strategic projects.
After some anecdotes about changing from
PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Linda talked us
through their 2x2 brand development
approach: identity (outward expression),
experience (what's it like to work for us),
capabilities (what we're good at) and
culture (how we behave) to identify what
they want to be known for. Interesting that
client value and differentiation were not
explicit.
DELEGATE DEMOGRAPHICS
The voting gadgets were put straight to
work to reveal an interesting mix of people
with diverse needs and interests:
- 44% law, 17% accountancy and 10% marketing/PR services,
- 65% UK, 30% global and 5% Europe (surprisingly it was 0% USA),
- 53% headcount up to 250 and 24% over 1,000
- 38% directors and 29% managers with 12% managing partners.
INNOVATIVE DRAGONS' DEN
An innovative (and brave) slot came next.
Some 'dragons' (from Barclays, Lyceum
Capital and Espirito Santo) were pitched to
by three leaders in the field. Andy Raynor
of RSM Tenon outlined a £10m fund for
entrepreneurs – which would double every
five years – and requested £125,000 to
finance it; Gareth Pearce of Smith &
Williamson requested £3m to launch funds
in Ireland with a 37% IRR; and Sir Nigel
Knowles of DLA Piper outlined a plan to
use £50m to buy 25 High Street law firms
to take advantage of the ABS rules in the
legal market.
After each pitch, delegates were asked to
score them on credibility, business case,
support material, empathy, financial analysis
and brand investment. There were also
questions from the panel and the floor –
who seemed most interested in the
commodity legal market. The delegates and
two of the dragons chose Nigel (one
dragon chose Gareth). Personally, I would
have backed the RSM Tenon concept – an
entrepreneurs fund for entrepreneurs –
effectively a new service in their established
market.
Sir Nigel Knowles pitches to the Dragons
FIRST BREAKOUT
After the coffee break – sponsored by
Concep – delegates then had a choice. The
overview options covered case studies on
building a strong brand from Allen & Overy
and Smith & Williamson, and taking a strong
brand to market from Accenture and
Mishcon de Reya. Marketing Leaders' Group
options had Dr Paul Fifield of Southampton
University and David Haigh of BrandFinance
on commercial context or advanced
branding techniques with Erika Uffindell and
Geoff Dodds. Workshop topics ranged from
media profile (Spada and Hogan Lovells)
and corporate image (Mytton Williams –
with an interesting colour analysis of
accountants – and DirectLaw/Epoq) to
people (JMW Solicitors and Orion
Partners).
BRAND BUILDING AROUND ON-LINE PRESENCE
I chose a workshop led by a former Baker
Tilly marketer who now worked for
UNICEF Ireland and focused on digital
fundraising. He was meant to present with
someone from LSL Property Services plc
(e.surv digital home surveys) although she
was unfortunately unable to attend.
Raphael cantered through the steps in
creating a digital marketing plan and
peppered his talk with videos of the
incredible work of UNICEF in saving children
and improving their lives after natural
disasters. Emotional stuff. Influencer theory,
differences in Internet use between
Generation X and Y and the move from
'flat' content to 'alive' stories (with purely
video microsites) were discussed.
Most of us were impressed with his efforts
to create the web presence of a fictitious
professional firm and we laughed at the
viral campaign which could be tailored to
feature the person whose lack of a one
Euro donation meant the campaign missed
its target with screen appearances by
Roger Moore, Jedward and other Irish
celebrities.
He summarised with the following advice:
get found, convert and analyse. There was
some animated discussion about how to
make law and accountancy practice
content more interesting and engaging. The
biggest hurdle seemed to be the reluctance
of the partners to be seen to be
doing anything new and different.
LESSONS FROM STRONG CONSUMER BRANDS
After a delightful lunch chatting to delegates
and visiting the exhibitors (Mytton
Williams, Chartered Development, Kelso
Consulting, STL Technologies, Clever
Publications, Acritas and IML) the plenary
session on consumer brands was led by
Tim Wragg of Millward Brown.
He made a compelling case for brands
with some impressive financial charts
arguing that brands propel growth, support
fatter margins and provide resilience to
downturns as well as creating meaningful
differentiation. Only Accenture from the
professions appeared amongst the top
brands which achieved over 50% growth
and it was interesting to see both Louis
Vuitton and LIDL in the same company.
Starbucks, Moet & Chandon and Marks &
Spencers were featured case studies.
BRAND BUILDING AROUND CLIENT SERVICE
This was my second choice of workshop
and frankly the most productive session
from my perspective. Emma Price of Bond
Pearce (rated No 1 for client service by
Legal Week) and Elizabeth Duffy from
Acritas led a small group through a highly
interactive and engaging session on the
client satisfaction spectrum and service
excellence.
We were asked to define what we meant
by 'excellent client service' and then classify
our responses into one of the four categories
that they had obtained from
research with 2,000 companies: closeness
to client, quality, speed and value. We were
then asked to identify the three most critical
ideas in each category and to consider
the stakeholders and obstacles.
They closed the session with some interesting
insights into scorecards and scoping
skills and a long list of coaching questions
based on the GROW model. It was such a
good session that we didn’t mind that it
over ran by 15 minutes which meant we
missed our tea break – again sponsored by
Concep – but most of us managed to get
our hands on one of the ice creams on
offer.
PANEL SESSION – IMPACT OF A FIRM'S BRAND ON ITS CLIENTS
Usually, my favourite session at the end of
the conference is the client panel where
we hear from the horse's mouth how to
support our fee-earners to engage more
effectively. There was a bit of a departure
this year as there were experts (Stephen
Cheliotis from Superbrands, Chrissie
Lightfoot from EntrepreneurLawyer and
Professor Vincent-Wayne Mitchell from the
Centre for Professional Firms at Cass
Business School) as well as two clients: Dr
Isabel Hacker from Styron (major spin off
from Dow Chemicals) and David Steeds
(private equity and Non Executive
Director of two AIM listed companies).
Hamish Munro acted as moderator.
The panel session kept the room packed even at the end of a busy day
The most interesting thing to arise from the
discussion was Isabel's denial that brand,
web sites or marketing had an impact on
her choice of lawyer – for commercial services
it was based purely on the individual.
However, it transpired that when it came to
critical transactions she relied on Magic
Circle brands (mainly, she argued, because
they had more professional indemnity
cover).
Stephen fought a valiant case for brands but
Isobel was insistent that recommendation
and personal choice of who she preferred
to work with were the main criteria. There
was animated debate about whether brand
was more important on first purchase, the
value of brands in attracting the best calibre
candidates and the role of 'faceless' procurement
people. Isabel explained that she
received many pitches describing firm's
values and thoughts but preferred face-toface
interaction.
David took the line that the firm must be
matched to the client and that the largest
firms were not always appropriate for
smaller or declining clients whilst Chrissie
picked up on the individual professional as a
brand. The high cost of Big Four and 'aspirational'
brands was mentioned and the
impact of the recession and on-line presence
formed the closing remarks.
As always, the conference provided an ideal
opportunity to catch up with old friends
and make new ones – especially over afterconference
drinks sponsored by Hubbard
One – and to hear from the academics and
leading practitioners both in-house and
consultancy side. However, I detected that
brand wasn't the topic that was foremost in
the minds of most delegates – but making
an impact and sustainable profit growth in
markets that are beset with challenges from
the recession, deregulation and increasing
client sophistication. Maybe adaption and
reinvention as a theme for next year – what
do you think?
© Kim Tasso 2011
Kim Tasso is an independent strategic
marketing consultant specialising in the professions
and also an author, journalist and
psychologist. www.kimtasso.com
