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Feb 2nd, 2010 by Fred Burt

Law firms failing to stand out

Law firms may well be the last bastion of the unbranded. Consider these statements, found on the websites of some of the market leaders:

+ “one of the world’s leading law firms”
+ “a world-class international law firm”
+ “one of the most prestigious law firms in the world”
+ “our people are our difference”
+ “a commitment to delivering high quality service”

Any of the firms we reviewed could claim any of these, and that’s the point. None stand out.

Let’s be clear, there is a sense of tiering that separates Magic Circle law firms from the rest in the UK. Most qualify for this elite club on the basis of being big. But big is a precarious leadership claim. Reed Smith has proven how easy it is to become a top 15 firm from nowhere in 5 years. The merger of UK-based Lovells and Hogan & Hartson, the US law firm, is seen as just the start of industry-wide consolidation. It will be interesting to see whether the new Hogan Lovells brand will be launched with a clear sense of the organisation’s unique points of differentiation. It will be a shame if this incredible opportunity becomes a naming exercise following the path of least resistance.

Marketing has long been seen as beneath many law firms, overly commercial in a business that is about relationships and service. But branding is, of course, much deeper than marketing. The firm’s brand should clearly reflect the philosophy behind the business and the firm’s way of working, both of which should provide means to the end of ‘leadership’, ‘world-class’ and even ‘prestigious.’

This clarity of purpose will deliver real business results. When shortlisted among their peers, they should be winning more often. When recruiting graduates, they should be attracting the best, for whom their culture is distinct and ‘for them.’ When discussing fees, they should be able to maintain a premium because their added value is clear. This has to be a priority of any Managing Partner or CEO, particularly if the leaders in the industry want to emerge from recession and command premium pricing again.

I met this week with a management consultant who specialises in dealing with senior management of US and UK law firms. He wholeheartedly agreed that law firms overlook their brand at their peril.

Goldman Sachs and McKinsey have shown how a single-minded approach to their positioning relative to their peers can set them apart and drive real, long-term business value. So the question seems to be: which of the law firms is going to step up in order to stand out?

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tags: brand

Jan 25th, 2010 by Fred Burt

From Russia, without love

Two years ago, investors were falling over themselves to invest in Russian businesses. Russia’s economy was booming, luxury brands were developing super high end products explicitly for the Russian market, and Moscow boasted more millionaires than any other city in the world, barring New York.

How times have changed. All the talk is now of India and China, and Russia’s businesses, as reported in the FT here , choked of capital, are looking to non-Russian markets for funding.

The problem is what one analyst has described as “the Russian risk factor.” While probably not widespread, much of the word on the street in London last year was that Russian businesses were arrogant and secretive, and that it was commonplace for armed guards to be there as much to intimidate investors as to protect the personal security of the oligarch class.

It would be wrong, of course, to label all Russian businesses as crooked, but they will need to work extra hard to overcome the prejudice that has been formed in recent years. For instance, plenty of them still wear the clothing of Soviet-era enterprise, so presenting a fresh face would help. However, beyond that Russian businesses need to demonstrate both transparency in their operations and a clear sense of sustainability, given that many of the businesses looking to list are mining or chemical groups.

Comparing Alrosa to De Beers, for example, shows just how far Russian heavy industrial businesses have to travel. De Beers’ ‘A diamond is forever’ campaign was brilliant, and showed a keen understanding of how influencing perceptions throughout the supply chain can enhance the value of its business. De Beers also understands how much scrutiny its mining activities are under from international investors concerned about the long-term impact of mining on communities in Africa.

On its website, Alrosa’s historic highlights end in the year 2001 and its photo arhive [sic] is empty, both of which hardly bode well for the company.

This is a classic corporate brand issue. Russian businesses need to consider how they need to be seen the marketplace and what their corporate brands need to stand for to make the most of their fundraising initiatives in the coming months.

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tags: Uncategorized

Jan 2nd, 2010 by Fred Burt

Clarity for competitive advantage: a business opportunity

There was further coverage this weekend in the UK in The Times of the systematic sharp practice shown by the large UK utilities, in this case British Gas (Buyer beware or be fleeced, TimesOnline, January 2, 2010). In essence, the trick goes something like this. Write a polite letter informing customers that there will be some changes to their account, keep the terms vague or obscure, and tell them that everything is OK and that they don’t have to do a thing.

The sting in this tail is that British Gas was, in fact, proposing to hike the customer’s gas rates up by 42%…and then when they were challenged by the customer, they instantaneously reduced the price raise down to a mere 0.4%, calling into question just how ‘necessary’ the price rise was in the first place. Indeed, it raises the wider question of whether British Gas has been getting away with unnecessary 40%plus rises across a wide and unsuspecting swathe of its customer base.

This is, of course, terrible practice and relies on customer ignorance and inertia on the one hand, and a lack of a decent alternative on the other. The journalist concludes that the only way around this is to switch and switch frequently.

However, this situation provides a huge opportunity for British Gas’s competitors. Tell the customer what they currently pay, what they’re going to pay, why the changes are occurring and what they need to do next. As consumers become more and more aware of just how much they are being gouged they will look to a more trustworthy alternative. If one of British Gas’s competitors can be consistently clear, they will be the warm embrace that customers turn to.

In fact, Ofgem, the regulator, could be stepping in here. Require the utility companies to be transparent and let’s see whether they try and get away with raising prices by 40% plus at a time. The Financial Services Authority’s Keyfacts initiative has started the process of requiring financial services providers to be clear and easy to compare. Why not introduce similar requirements for utilities, which surely must be simpler to implement. This has got to be in the interest of the customer.

In the meantime, the opportunity remains clear for the utility providers: clarity for competitive advantage.

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tags: Transparency, clarity, simplicity, simplification

Dec 29th, 2009 by Fred Burt

As good as your word in 2010

Language has become slippery, tricky, legally grey, politically charged, deliberately unclear.

Which is exactly why the word, written and spoken, is a huge opportunity for brands. The world is crying out for clarity in language. No hiding, no wiggle room, no deliberate grey. Black and white, please.

2010 has to be the year when businesses, private and public, big and small, look to re-establish trust. Clarity will be key, and the word will be the means to deliver this clarity.

But being clear is not easy. It requires discipline, hard work and, in case we forget, a proposition that really motivates your audience.

We will be working for many utilities, financial service providers, telecoms and public sector clients this year. Our primary task will be to make their statements, websites, bills, and other information-rich interfaces more effective.

But actually, we’ll be giving them the ultimate proof point that they mean it when they say to their customers they are going to be more open. That they’re as good as their word.

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tags: brand, clarity, information design, simplicity, simplification

Feb 12th, 2009 by Fred Burt

Bargain Hunters Poised To Profit From Baugur’s Closing Down Sale

Marketing Week

Analysts say that the demise of Baugur in the UK should pass by relatively unnoticed by consumers. Fred Burt, managing director of brand consultants Siegel+Gale, adds: “For all Baugur’s financial woes, it has a good sense for retail brands. That is why Baugur’s brands all feel distinct, relevant and deserve their place on the high street.” Nick Bubb, a retail analyst at Pali International, says that the group has “a real hotch-potch of interests, but the iconic status of House of Fraser and Hamleys in particular means there will be a lot of takers for what’s up for grabs - all down to the strength of these well-known brands.”

Click here to read the full article

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tags: media mention

Oct 19th, 2008 by Fred Burt

Wellness Branding, USP Age, India

India has always been known for its holistic approach to health and well-being. From Ayurvedic medicine, yoga and organic foods, India is finding there is a larger untapped global market for wellness brands than ever before. Fred Burt, Managing Director of Siegel+Gale London comments on Wellness Branding both in and outside of India and how Indian companies can position themselves for global growth.

"It’s a holisitc approach to balancing the mind, body and spirit. The Mind — mental balance, clarity of thought, ability to sustain concentration and focus; the Body — preventative actions, particularly in terms of what we eat and physical exercise, to keep the body in as good a form as possible: and, the Spirit — the desire to ‘feel’ better and more at one, connected with the world around you. For some, this has a religious purpose while, for others, it is simply a sense of well–being that transcends the mental and the physical. None of these components of wellness are to do with getting healthy, to fixing a health-related problem. So, I think there is an element of wellness that requires health to be in place. Without health, the consumer doesn’t really have the inclination to worry about wellness."

download pdf

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tags: brand, media mention

Oct 16th, 2008 by Fred Burt

In The Name of Progress, Marketing Week, London

Pizza or pasta? Seems as though Pizza Hut is rebranding itself in the UK market as Pasta Hut? Quick fix to a broader issue? Fred Burt from our London office comments on this story in Marketing Week UK.

"Many believe that Pizza Hut needs to change consumer perception rather than rebrand. Fred Burt, managing director of branding agency Siegel+Gale, says the move “risks squandering years of brand equity”. “This feels like a strategy-by-focus-group. Research should inform the brand strategy, not lead it.”

He adds: “The brand issue with Pizza Hut is not its name but its relevance. The product offer has changed but the experience is much as it has been for 20 years. That’s where the chain should spend its money.”"

Read the entire article

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tags: brand, media mention

Oct 2nd, 2008 by Fred Burt

Brands Must Strive for Simplicity, Marketing Week, London

Earlier this year, Siegel+Gale’s London office examined the UK brand landscape to determine which in-country brands were easiest to do business with vs. those who were not. Study findings clearly uncovered a direct correlation between ease of customer interaction and the ability for an organization to acquire, retain and successfully cross-sell new products and services. Simple really is smart! Marketing Week’s Supplement Study series showcases our findings in their Oct 2nd issue.

"Brand owners need to adopt simplicity as a guiding principle because consumers are turning their backs on retailers and service providers that are perceived to be difficult to do business with

Many brands are perceived as making their customers’ day-to-day lives even more difficult, according to research by strategic branding firm Siegel+Gale."

Read the entire article

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tags: brand, media mention

Sep 29th, 2008 by Fred Burt

Branding in a Climate of Fear

It’s an interesting time to be in retail financial services. Those of you in the US (which I know is most of you) will be aware of the recent big-name casualties, but in the UK we have a mini-version of a banking collapse.

To recap, Lloyds TSB and HBOS, the fourth and second largest mortgage lender respectively, entered into what felt like a shotgun marriage last week. Earlier in the year, Northern Rock went bust and was bailed out by the government. And this weekend, Bradford and Bingley, the eighth largest mortgage lender, is also rumoured to be lined up for part-nationalisation.

What does all this mean for us as brands observers? On the one level, it threatens to introduce an alarming level of commoditization of brands. Bradford and Bingley savings customers, allegedly, are going to be ‘transferred’ to an as-yet-undetermined other.

Will customers protest and leave? Probably not, because the perceived differences between banks and building societies is, sadly, minimal. But banks are complacent at their peril. Our experience of big brand change, whether this is a merger, a re-brand or a takeover, suggests that customers in traditionally low-interest categories, take the moment of change as an opportunity to reassess their provider. And this is probably the greatest ‘moment of change’ for retail financial services in living memory.

This perceptions shift is not just change driven by everyday commercial factors. The fabric of the system itself is at risk and the customer is scared. After all, it’s not just small institutions getting in trouble here. And as politicians around the world know only too well, fear is a potent driver of preference. The brands that can be seen to be tackling this fear head-on will be the winners.

So, with the retail customer is uniquely sensitized and likely to be more open to switching than at any time, what can brands do to capitalize on this?

Smaller bank brands have to reassess their positioning when a customer has had his or her confidence fundamentally undermined. Why should I stick with a small bank when it could be at higher risk of collapse than a bigger, safer bank? Localness, customer service, the backing of a bigger institution are all good start points. In essence, they need to find a relevant point of difference that will counter the potential perception that bigger is safer.

Bigger brands need to ‘get boring’ and remind the customer why they are to be trusted. For the moment, trust and reliability are valuable currency.

Of course, whether the lesson throughout this is learned for the long term and we prevent ourselves from over-stretching into unmanageable levels of debt again remains to be seen. But while there is a climate of fear, bank brands have a unique opportunity to grab market share and set themselves up for when the good times roll around again.

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tags: brand

Aug 11th, 2008 by Fred Burt

An Issue of National Identity

The issue of national identity cropped up again last week at S+G…..which got me thinking about nation brands.

Europe is a patchwork quilt of different cultures, with difference actually being part of the attraction of individual nations, part of their identity. But cultural friction is rife within many individual countries in Europe, even within the United Kingdom. A leading journalist wrote in the The Times recently:

"Across Europe the shift of sovereign power from nations to Brussels has been matched by a move below the national tier towards regions and localities."

Read the Times Online article.

We are European, but our sentiments towards Europe differ dramatically from country to country. And even at a national level, as the article discusses, a sense of unified identity is often compromised.

Despite the fact that regional or national identity is often hard to hold together, but every country has moments when its people feel proud to be XXXXian (or XXXish….or XXXXese).

Putting armed conflict aside (as the tragic events in South Ossetia illustrate only too well) one of the few occasions that national or regional identity coalesces into something powerful is around sporting events. But these can be limited. The Ryder Cup is the only big Team Europe event that captures the public interest in the UK; and on a regional level, even as a "Brit", I find myself supporting England more often than Great Britain.

This itself brings up the interesting issue of competition. Do we need a competing identity to reject in order to throw our own sense of identity into relief? Does an anti-French sentiment make a Brit feel more British? Do the Scots feel more Scottish when beating England on the rugby field? Do we feel a rare moment of European unity only in the context of a Ryder Cup putt?

And what about this week’s Olympics? I watched both the Chinese women’s archery and women’s rowing teams in action over the weekend. They were impressive and I couldn’t help thinking about whether there was something innate in Chinese people that made them concentrate better, hold a steadier hand, push harder through the pain barrier. And, of course, I had to think about why the British teams had not performed as well, particularly in sports we normally dominate. Are we psychologically fragile? Lazy? Not as driven? A nation in decline, even?

Competition seems to be tightly bound up with national identity, whether directly on the sports field or whether shaping, for example, significant B2B decisions regarding investment, outsourcing and overseas development in general.

And it’s not just about people. Products that can play a key role in shaping national identity. France, Spain, Italy are all strongly associated with distinct and delicious local food and drink…all of which drive an economically advantageous consumer behaviour - tourism. But also think of Egyptian cotton, Sri Lankan tea, cut flowers from Holland. These ‘hero products’ really do drive the perception of a country and can be used to great effect. Think of coffee and Colombia, or cigars from Cuba, which have been both genuinely competitive products on the global market place and have also shaped international perception of the country in question. I’m not sure I’m ready to go to Bogota for the perfect cup of coffee yet, but it’s clearly not all about the drugs trade. And that may be enough to get an adventurous traveler to consider Colombia as ‘safe enough’.

This is a complex topic – and one we certainly intend to look into in more depth. Stay tuned…..

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tags: identity