As law firm strategists, we have watched the rising interest in and discussion of “branding” in law firm marketing and management circles. Though we do not provide marketing program implementation services, we are troubled by the noise and misinformation that has emerged around the term brandingin law firm management circles.
If the misunderstandings surrounding branding were limited to consultant speeches, advertising agency bromides, and self-serving Internet listserv discussions, we would not give the topic a second thought. However, we have seen some stark examples of branding efforts leading to outright destructive and wasteful allocations of resources in law firm marketing budgets.
