Legal Marketing & PR

Lawyer branded!

By Edward Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC

When a product or service is well-branded, the summit of success is achieved. For example, the one product with the highest brand equity is reputed to be Coca-Cola. Can a lawyer ever achieve that kind of name recognition?

I suspect it would be hard to do, at least on a national level, because most lawyers work in localized geographic areas. There were some, however, that successfully leaped over city and State lines. One such lawyer was Johnny Cochran; there are others.

There is a new twist in branding efforts that I find intriguing. One California lawyer, Laura Wasser, recently had a tequila drink named after her. The beverage promoter said "... the drink captures Wasser's spirit ..."  The drink is rather highly priced as are the fees of Wasser, a divorce attorney.

A New York lawyer, who did battle with the State Bar for the way she posed her rather favorable features, promoted her services as a lawyer by appearing on top of a large motorcycle.

These are ways to be memorable and differentiate yourself from other lawyers. If it works to reach your target clientele, one might ask why not? How are we different from others who do the same type of promotion? Why should this not be permitted?  In the former case, it was a news item; in the latter case, it was seen as unseemly advertising.

Full post as published by Law Biz Blog on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).