How Small Firm Brands Can Loom Large

7/31/2009

If you think strong brands demand big budgets found only in large law firms, think again. Some of the most powerful brands we’ve built are for firms of modest size and means (50 or fewer lawyers). Below are three award-winning case studies, all featuring small firms who think big.

Marger Johnson

TURNING INVENTION INTO ADVANTAGE

Size doesn’t matter as much as courage and vision. Marger Johnson & McCollom is just 20 lawyers in Portland, Oregon. But their vision is highly focused—even in the highly focused world of intellectual property.

Their primary specialty is electrical patents. Very often the inventions they patent don’t show up as familiar products. Instead, they power other products, much like “Intel inside.” But the products are cutting-edge. So we created a takeoff of the Sharper Image catalogue for the firm’s brochure, Web site and ads.

The identity was, ironically, inspired by old technology: Hollerith punch cards. However, the graphic message seems somehow very contemporary.

For more, view the complete Marger Johnson case study.

Morgan Miller Blair

SAME/DIFFERENT

Morgan Miller Blair, a small firm in Walnut Creek, California, suffered from a lack of name recognition and had modest resources to compete with larger, more expensive firms in the San Francisco Bay area. We created an identity that positioned them as “Your Home Base” for matters in the East Bay (note the shape of the logo’s mark). We also streamlined the name of the firm by dropping the “&.” To communicate that their lawyers in the East Bay have the same skills as their former colleagues in San Francisco, we adopted a comparative “same/different” theme, which was applied to an ad campaign and firm announcement. The “same/different” campaign reinforces Morgan Miller Blair’s value-based pricing model and client service philosophy.

Morgan Miller Blair’s location is a key fact about who they are, and that is made abundantly clear on their home page (mmblaw.com): Your homebase for legal advisors in California. Search for attorneys and you’ll be greeted warmly by a row of full-body images that each launch a business card on rollover.

Weintraub

LITIGATION ECONOMICS

Weintraub is a small firm on the West Coast—47 lawyers in Sacramento. They recognize the value of style matching substance.

When they sent us their existing materials to review, we loved what we saw. This time our job was not to give the firm style but to tease out a message and match it to a strong concept. We developed an annual review, dubbed “Business Plan,” using existing images of their lawyers. Add shadows and voila, an efficient, cost-effective annual review. While we provided the design template, the firm’s very talented graphic designer, Brandee Cahir, and marketing director, Carol Nicknig, worked closely with us to create the final brochure and send it to press. The collaboration made the project affordable for the firm.

In an effort to promote their fixed fee and alternative billing structures for litigation work, we created an integrated ad campaign targeted at corporate counsel, buyers of litigation work. The message was clear: Systems produce what they reward; if you reward hours, you get hours but if you reward success, you get success! We used peppers, pears and dogs (red, black and white—the firm’s colors) to demonstrate the concept of “Litigation Economics.” Creative use of alliteration helped carry the copy and pull the concept together.

Like what you see? Posternak Blankstein & Lund is a 50+ lawyer firm based in Boston with a similar success story.