{"id":4283,"date":"2004-03-03T13:12:12","date_gmt":"2004-03-03T17:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/03\/03\/is-legal-marketing-nonspoofab"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:58:58","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:58:58","slug":"is-legal-marketing-nonspoofable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/03\/03\/is-legal-marketing-nonspoofable\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Legal Marketing [non]Spoofable?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a955'><\/a><\/p>\n<p><DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">A recent <A href=\"http:\/\/thenonbillablehour.typepad.com\/nonbillable_hour\/2004\/02\/what_is_your_st.html\">posting by Matt Homman<\/A>&nbsp; at <EM>the [non]billable hour<\/EM> got me thinking that it&#8217;s very difficult to distinguish a spoof on marketing from the real thing.&nbsp;&nbsp;Applying techniques that evolved to sell beer, cars, toothpaste and snake oil to legal services seems &#8212; in my eyes &#8212; to turn almost all lawyer marketing into a parody of marketing.&nbsp;&nbsp; Here are a few examples:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/SmallSuaveDudeneg001.jpg\" alt=\"suave dude neg flip\" \/>&nbsp; The <A href=\"http:\/\/www.huhcorp.com\/index.htm\"><EM>huhCorp<\/EM><\/A> marketing <STRONG>spoof site<\/STRONG> <A href=\"http:\/\/www.huhcorp.com\/index.htm\">says<\/A>&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n<LI><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">the firm provides &#8220;distinct clients with groundbreaking business strategies to aggressively and creatively compete in a changing economy.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<LI><br \/>\n<DIV>&#8220;Our ideas will entice and excite you. Our professional solutions will give you the confidence to succeed.&#8221;<\/DIV><br \/>\n<LI><br \/>\n<DIV><A href=\"http:\/\/www.cafeshops.com\/huhcorp\">and<\/A>, &#8220;Express your uniquely synergistic self!&nbsp; Let the world know that you are an aggressively dynamic, solution providing e-person.&#8221;<BR><\/DIV><\/LI><\/UL><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><A href=\"http:\/\/thenonbillablehour.typepad.com\/nonbillable_hour\/2004\/03\/yoga_and_the_la.html\">Yesterday<\/A>, in a real posting on&nbsp;lawyer-marketing, Matt Homann stated<\/FONT> that a &#8220;Good question&#8221; for a law firm to ask&nbsp;itself is how it serves the needs of yoga-esque women &#8220;looking inward for balance, strength, and focus.&#8221;&nbsp; Meanwhile, lawyer marketeer&nbsp;<A href=\"http:\/\/airblogger.com\/archives\/000147.html\">Airblogger<\/A>&nbsp;explains <\/P><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\" style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\">&#8221; the visual symbols of a firm&#8217;s brand &#8211; it&#8217;s name, logo, colors, style, look\/feel, etc. &#8211; are becoming <I>more<\/I> rather than less important&#8221; and &#8220;Ultimately, the brand will instantly signal &#8211; within the confusion and chaos of the marketplace &#8211; a clear experience to potential clients.&#8221; <\/P><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\">[Airblogger David seems to think this is a good thing for the legal profession and its clients.]<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Elsewhere, in a post called <STRONG><FONT face=\"Arial\" color=\"black\" size=\"2\"><A href=\"http:\/\/thenonbillablehour.typepad.com\/nonbillable_hour\/2004\/02\/customercentric.html\">Customer-centricity for Law Firms<\/A><\/FONT><\/STRONG>, Matt favorably quotes real marketer <A href=\"http:\/\/chrislawer.blogs.com\/chris_lawer\/\">Chris Lawer<\/A>: <\/FONT><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><EM>Individual-centric customer innovating businesses understand this and aim to overcome these challenges. They focus on creating a more positive brand, marketing and customer context; one that reconfigures mostly intangible (and hitherto unrecognised) aspects of people&#x2019;s needs and problems into new forms of social, relational and brand capital. These intangible value dimensions include new drivers such as time, attention, knowledge, uncertainty, trust, privacy, personal productivity and simplicity.<\/EM><\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Then, Matt declares:&nbsp; &#8220;Chris&#8217; ideas dovetail with my thoughts on value billing that I&#8217;ve been trying to articulate in this weblog. By focusing on those &#8220;intangible value dimensions&#8221; important to my customers (trust, certainty, security), I am hoping to build a lasting legal relationship with them that isn&#8217;t tied to the time I spend working on their individual matters, but rather the value they get from me.&#8221;<\/FONT>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/clownflip.jpg\" alt=\"clown flip\" \/>&nbsp; Either quote would have done quite well on the Spoof Site, don&#8217;t you think?<\/FONT>&nbsp; <\/P><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><EM><STRONG>Snazzy Covers<\/STRONG>:&nbsp; The spoof site has&nbsp;on strategy: When we deliver your new business strategies to you, they&#8217;ll be in <STRONG>really snazzy binders<\/STRONG> that look nice sitting on big, round meeting tables, so you&#8217;ll know you got your money&#8217;s worth. <\/EM><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">In a <EM>serious<\/EM> article in Law Practice Magazine<EM>, while describing ways of &#8220;adding value to your service&#8221; (in order to justify a fee increase). <STRONG>Edward Poll<\/STRONG> actually states:<\/EM><\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><EM>Sometimes, showing that you provide better-than-excellent service is all you need to justify a fee increase. For example, <STRONG>consider packaging final documents in an attractive folder<\/STRONG> and hand delivering them to the client. This improved presentation adds only pennies to your costs, but it will be perceived as an example of your caring for and nurturing the client.&nbsp;&nbsp; [from <\/EM><A href=\"http:\/\/www.abanet.org\/buslaw\/billable\/toolkit\/lpmapr02.pdf\"><EM>LPM<\/EM><\/A><EM>, April 2002, at 36)<\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV dir=\"ltr\"><EM>And, the&nbsp;latest Lawyer Marketing Alert from <\/EM><A href=\"http:\/\/www.treyryder.com\/\"><EM>Trey Ryder<\/EM><\/A><EM>&nbsp;(March 3, 2004, via <A href=\"Elsewhere, in a post called Customer-centricity for Law Firms, Matt favorably quotes real marketer Chris Lawer: \">ESQLawTech<\/A>) is totally devoted to the wonders of using <STRONG>first-class letters <\/STRONG>because<\/EM><\/DIV><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><EM>First class letters from lawyers are effective for many reasons:<BR><BR>1. Since many people use e-mail for quick communication, when you take <BR>time to write and mail a letter, you make a powerful, personal impression.<BR><BR>2. An envelope with a lawyer or law firm as its return address always <BR>commands attention.<BR><BR>3. Upscale law firm stationery can and should reflect your confidence, <BR>integrity and success.<\/EM><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/FONT><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\" style=\"FONT-FAMILY: Arial, 'MS Reference Sans Serif', Verdana, sans-serif\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><STRONG>Setting Expectations<\/STRONG>:&nbsp; Matt Homann also recently focused on a&nbsp; <\/FONT><A href=\"http:\/\/ripples.typepad.com\/ripples\/2004\/01\/setting_expecta.html\"><STRONG><FONT face=\"Arial\" color=\"#003366\" size=\"2\">post<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;from the&nbsp;<\/FONT><A href=\"http:\/\/ripples.typepad.com\/ripples\/\"><STRONG><FONT face=\"Arial\" color=\"#003366\" size=\"2\">Ripples<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> weblog, by David St. Lawrence: <\/FONT><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><EM><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Hindsight is so humbling. It took me 45 years of professional life to arrive at the following conclusion: Setting expectations correctly is far more important than the actual work that you do.<\/FONT><\/EM><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV dir=\"ltr\" style=\"FONT-FAMILY: Arial, 'MS Reference Sans Serif', Verdana, sans-serif\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/stopwatch.jpg\" alt=\"stopwatch\" \/>&nbsp; What&#8217;s Matt&#8217;s marketing-type solution?&nbsp; He says<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV dir=\"ltr\" style=\"FONT-FAMILY: Arial, 'MS Reference Sans Serif', Verdana, sans-serif\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><EM>I have heard of a consultant who has voicemail that says, &#8220;Leave a message and I&#8217;ll return your call in 90 minutes.&#8221; He always returns the call in sixty minutes or less &#8212; or has an assistant do it. He sets a client&#8217;s expectations and then exceeds them. If we lawyers were able to consistenly do the same thing, we wouldn&#8217;t be the butt of so many jokes. <\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\" style=\"FONT-FAMILY: Arial, 'MS Reference Sans Serif', Verdana, sans-serif\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P dir=\"ltr\" style=\"FONT-FAMILY: Arial, 'MS Reference Sans Serif', Verdana, sans-serif\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Thankfully, David St. Lawrence left a <A href=\"http:\/\/thenonbillablehour.typepad.com\/nonbillable_hour\/2004\/01\/setting_expecta.html#comments\">Comment<\/A> that sees a lawyer&#8217;s setting expectations as far more than a gimmick:<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&#8220;Setting expectations as a lawyer is probably more important than in any other profession because you are taking responsibility for the person&#8217;s life when you take the case.&nbsp; <\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">The expectation need not be that you are going to win the case. The client might feel satisfied if he had certainty that you were going to do everything possible to get him a fair deal.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/SmallSuaveDudeneg001.jpg\" alt=\"suave dude neg flip\" \/>&nbsp; Until convinced otherwise, <EM>skepticalEsq <\/EM>will approach legal marketing as if its purpose were primarily to <A href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Manufacturing_Consent\">manufacture the consent<\/A> of the unwary to the purchase of unneeded extra services at extra-competitive prices.&nbsp; The fact that there are clients who are susceptible to appeals to emotions, &#8220;intangibles&#8221; and marketing hype, does <EM>not<\/EM> make it okay for the lawyer-ficuciary to exploit those weaknesses.&nbsp; Would&nbsp; <A href=\"http:\/\/www.sevillepublishing.com\/seville\/pages\/atticus.html \">Atticus Finch<\/A>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<A href=\"http:\/\/www.sevillepublishing.com\/html\/clarence_darrow.html\">Clarence Darrow <\/A>&nbsp;be amused or outraged?<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">I&#8217;ve got quite a few more examples &#8212; coming soon.&nbsp; First, a yogi-like nap.<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/DIV><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/tinycheck.gif\" alt=\"tiny check\" \/>&nbsp; For related discussion, see<FONT color=\"black\"> <\/FONT><A href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/02\/17#a821\"><FONT color=\"black\">Value Billing or Venal Bilking?<\/FONT><\/A><FONT color=\"black\">, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" color=\"black\" size=\"2\"><A href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/04\/11#a1196\">Another Lap Around Law Firm Branding<\/A>, <A href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/03\/04#a981\"><FONT color=\"black\">Brand LEX<\/FONT><\/A><FONT color=\"black\">, and<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><A href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/04\/06#a3622\"><FONT color=\"black\">LexThink about higher fees (er, value billing)<\/FONT><\/A>.<\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" color=\"black\" size=\"2\"><A href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/04\/11#a1196\"><\/A><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent posting by Matt Homman&nbsp; at the [non]billable hour got me thinking that it&#8217;s very difficult to distinguish a spoof on marketing from the real thing.&nbsp;&nbsp;Applying techniques that evolved to sell beer, cars, toothpaste and snake oil to legal services seems &#8212; in my eyes &#8212; to turn almost all lawyer marketing into a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-175","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13941,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions\/13941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}