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February 14, 2006
Arnie Herz and Legal Sanity on "Lovemarks".
Last week, in response to a Patrick Lamb post called "Brands, Lovemarks and Tattoos", I made a brief post ("Lovemarks") and invited others to weigh in. Like Pat, I am very interested in client loyalty and what I'll call "stark-raving fandom" and how to keep it (whether Hull McGuire or Butler Rubin tattoos are the end result or not).
Lovemarks. Emotional attachment. Enthusiasm. Stark-Raving Fandom. Brand fervor. You don't need to be selling Jif peanut butter, Harleys or Macintosh computers to win that kind of loyalty. It applies to services--and it is not awarded for merely being good at what you do. Something else is at work here. So just what is it?
Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity sent me some great feedback on lovemarks--and I'm posting it all here:
Because we’re in a service business, law firm branding efforts geared toward creating customer evangelists are bound to fall short unless the firm’s taken time to cultivate a corporate culture and service model that fosters passion and loyalty within its own ranks. I addressed this point before in "Workplace Passion Poll" at Legal Sanity, drawing on the wisdom of Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users in this post, "Reverse-Engineering Passion". According to Sierra, people with a passion “Evangelize, Connect, Learn, Improve, Show Off, Spend Time and Spend Money.” While Sierra’s referring to passionate consumers of goods or services, some of these passion markers also apply to fostering a passionate workforce. A company, such as a law firm, will benefit significantly if it has a culture, vision, products and services that inspire its employees to: become company evangelists; connect with each other around corporate initiatives; learn and re-learn how to improve the company’s offerings or business model; and spend time during and outside regular work hours striving to move the business forward. Without this internal passion core, law firm branding efforts might generate clients, but not the kind of clients who will shout the firm’s praises from the rafters (or permanently ink its name on their bodies).
Arnie also recommends this post from the Church of the Customer Blog, an interesting site on creating customer fervor.
Finally, I just started to read Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands, the book by Saatchi & Saatchi Chief Kevin Roberts which started Pat Lamb talking about this. But I skipped ahead a bit. Roberts emphasizes what obviously has occurred to Arnie, and to Guy Kawasaki, Harry Beckwith and increasingly others. Regardless of their level of sophistication and anything they may tell themselves or us, clients and customers are "emotional" and "irrational" creatures. They stick or don't stick to us based on "an experience"--not just logic or reason. The question: just how does this happen? And how do we create that experience?
Thank you, Arnie. Anyone else with some wisdom on "lovemarks"? Or maybe just a good customer tattoo story? I'll settle for either.
Posted by JD Hull at February 14, 2006 12:25 PM
Comments
I had to really think about this one and after following all the appropriate links my take on lawyers and law firms in regards to branding and customer service hasn't changed. This is of course based on my experience as a customer experience architect and customer service consultant.
Branding and customer service is an accumulation of various customer experiences and the result of their direct interaction with or on those experiences.
Law firms or individuals are not customer sensitive and this comes out of the arrogance born of the aristocratic methods and attitudes of teaching in various law schools and the focus of personal achievement in attaining milestones or case awards. Rarely is the focus on the customer as a customer and in the development of experience management.
I know you and the 100 or so attorneys that I know are going to yell and scream over this. The Law industry is product focused, not customer or client focused and in this lies the issue. The Law student very simply and powerfully underlined this in her statement and when law professionals work with the client it is also demonstrated in the relationship that is formed.
If you want to take it a step further perhaps the lawyer jokes could be used as another broad market indicator. These exist because of the self centric view and function of those who are members of the bar.
Branding is then built around this perception of self and takes a somewhat arrogant position in relationship to the client or potential client. This is often based on the lack of knowledge about law as demonstrated by the client.
Branding is only a part of the equation. However, it is the visible part. The other and stronger part of the equation is centered in the perception and relationship to the client and those experiences that either directly or indirectly influential in the clients interaction with the firm.
For law firms or individual Lawyers to really move to effective branding and customer centered experience management they need to change their perspective and perceptions perpetuated by the general society in which they function.
There is a great misperception about the power of the brand and loyalty as well. Although somewhat associated the brand only delivers the perceived promise (effective, efficient, reliable, low cost etc) the resulting performance of the firm or individual will determine the fulfillment of that promise and the extent to which a trust bridge is drawn between the lawyer and the client. It is this trust bridge that determines customer loyalty and the return of the client. If the promise of the brand, and subsequent marketing meets the need of the client and is fulfilled then trust is extended.
The problem is that most branding in this area either offers no promise (law student observation) or its perceived promises are often misleading and unfulfilled i.e. customer expectations and customer need.
Posted by: Tim Whelan at February 17, 2006 04:24 PM