Feature

posted 1 Sep 2004 in Volume 7 Issue 4

Lawfort: A Belgian rebranding story

On 26 November 2003, Bogaert & Vandemeulebroeke became Lawfort, the culmination of a rebranding effort that paralleled rapid changes in the legal marketplace. Marketing director Erna Van Hoof and managing partner Mark Vandemeulebroeke, describe the process and strategy behind the creation of a new brand identity.

The older a brand, the more popular it is, so a law firm may be understandably reluctant to throw away a valuable and durable brand, just like that. Strong brands set their owners apart from the competition; they increase return and create a platform for expansion or enlargement. Clearly, rebuilding a brand and revitalising a brand image is a challenge and one fraught with danger.

In Belgium, Bogaert & Vandemeulebroeke rebranded itself as Lawfort in November 2003. This article explains how the challenge was tackled.

The need for rebranding

As a result of world scandals, such as Enron, drastic regulatory changes in the summer of 2002, mostly in the US, began to impact on the way (law) firms were doing business.

Our firm, well known at that time as Bogaert & Vandemeulebroeke, found itself faced with major developments, not to mention radical changes. Among the first in its sector, our firm redefined its collaboration with Landwell, the worldwide network of law firms of which Bogaert & Vandemeulebroeke was at that time the Belgian correspondent. On our way to independence from Landwell, our founder partner ‘Bogaert’ left the firm.

The need to rename, and the simultaneous need to reposition, set the platform for serious discussions as to our strategy and vision. The rebranding exercise was launched…

Analysis of the existing brand

Rebranding is more than just renaming. It also involves a change in brand concept and the strategic implications evolving from it.

A business audit gave us an external view and thorough analysis of the core values of our firm and its corporate culture. It made us reflect on our main objectives and the appropriate strategies that should be put in place to realise our priorities.

The business audit increased our insight, not only into our own organisation, but also into the Belgian legal environment: our share of market and voice, and the ambitions we wanted to set against them. A benchmarking study resulted in a competition hit parade for our firm. Moreover, the business audit gave us a forecast of trends in the legal market and future legal consumption.

A client survey among a representative sample of companies gave a clear indication of the perception of our firm, including the quantity and quality of the services offered, fees, image (ethics) and brand recognition.

An internal survey among the partners of our firm, performed by the same external auditor, revealed unspoken criticisms and invited suggestions on enhanced internal and external communication.

This analytical exercise, which we started in early 2003, was concluded by the summer of that year, which was perfect timing for us. We were armed with the foreknowledge to respond to evolutions in the legal market effectively.

Business is communication: Putting a rebranding team in place

The easiest solution is often to place all responsibility with the marketing department, or to get a third-party agency to define or renew the brand promise.

We recognised that everybody had a role to play and voice to be heard in promoting our brand, and we wanted to enable our people to become our brand ambassadors.

From the outset, as good modern-day communicators, we engaged with our partners, lawyers and staff, to get a good level of internal brand acceptance and recognition.

We wanted to win their hearts and minds, so we actively sought their buy-in.

We deliberately chose to adopt a holistic approach, with the managing partner heading up the rebranding communication. The assistance of an external communication agency was sought for selecting an appropriate brand name and for advice on the implementation of both the new name and the strategy and vision behind it. To be frank, this was not a very fruitful co-operation.

Furthermore, the marketing people played an important role in getting the various channels of communication moving, such as the press, direct mailings to clients and contacts, advertising, development of the visual cues of the brand, writing guidelines for brand compliance, the creation of new marketing brochures, and so on. The web manager created a new platform for our website and intranet.

Future brand skills: Defining the marketing strategy and positioning

Brands are powerful instruments of strategic marketing and important vehicles on the road to long-term profitability. But, what is a good brand? What is a suitable brand strategy? And what is the value added by virtue of the brand, the so-called brand equity?

Before elaborating on the creative part of our rebranding exercise (the tangible part of the brand), of paramount importance was agreeing the positioning of the firm. We considered the following questions:

What are our USPs (unique-selling propositions)? In other words: how do we differentiate ourselves from the competition?
What are our ESPs (emotional-selling propositions)? What is our culture and our brand personality? This is about emotional/hedonic values: fundamental personality characteristics that build relationships with clients;
How do we want to be known?
What is our short/long-term ambition?

We had a look at the strengths we already had – and still have – on the eve of the rebranding:

Our firm is well known as a large, top-three Belgian law firm, with over 130 lawyers in four cities;
Since 1997, when we started with nine lawyers, we have experienced great success and have been growing stronger all the way;
We deliver top quality;
We have top clients. For instance, we were involved in the IPO of the Belgian national-telecom operator;
We have a level of income allowing us to continue to invest in people;
We are perceived as innovators and have given strong evidence of that. For example:

We approach business issues with solutions, rather than service offerings;
We adopt the MDP mindset: multi-disciplined and working with other professionals has proved to be one of the pillars of our success.

It was clear that we should leverage these strengths.

On top of our traditional strengths, we decided to go for stand-alone status, creating a number of new assets:

We have become independent as a response to legal and economic changes;
We still have strong international connections and are actively seeking new complementary networks;
As a result of being an independent Belgian law firm, we can offer top quality services at competitive rates;
We are recruiting and evolving to become a full-practice law firm, with dedicated expert teams for consulting and litigation in all areas of business law;
Since we all have specialisms in house, we can work on a project basis and benefit from the mutual dynamics of our various types of expertise;
We focus on our clients: their background, industry and business.

The creative idea

A brand is a set of verbal and visual cues that consists of a brand name (the spoken element) and a brand mark (the unspoken element). These are laid down in a unique logotype.

For the selection of our brand name, we decided that it should:

Appeal, creating a ‘chemical’ reaction;
Have a catalytic and supportive function, making our profession and its benefits immediately clear;
Have a strong impact on the market;
Enable favourable alphabetical listing;
Be easy to say, spell and recall;
Be language and culture neutral;
Be timeless;
Be shorter than the existing one;
Evoke positive associations;
Bear an innovative look and feel that grabs the attention;
Be available for registration and easy to register;
Not include family names.

As we involved both the communication agency and the entire workforce, over 80 names were suggested, which were tested one by one against the above criteria.

In the end, ‘Lawfort’ stood out: the new brand name refers to our core business (law) and stands for vigour (fort).

The Lawfort logo

With respect to the brand mark, we chose a light and open logo with a unique typeface.

The Lawfort name is marked by a strong colour code: the burgundy is a rich, noble and deep colour, reflecting respect for core values. The vivid, contemporary, warm colour breathes an agreeable identity.

The logo’s triangles symbolise our various different capacities. They grow progressively thicker, which is used as a metaphor for our vision: we are going further, growing stronger and looking ahead.

The baseline that we add beneath our logo in marketing materials reads: “Your partner for your business,” and reflects our positioning and values. For example, for each area of business law, Lawfort has dedicated expert teams working together around business projects. The multi-disciplinary and project-oriented approach, the mutual dynamics among the various specialisms, and our focus on the client determine the strength of Lawfort and its ability to offer global and integrated solutions to complex business issues.

Special brand imagery has been developed using triangle images with full rights of use for above and below-the-line communications. In our communication campaigns, we dedicate a triangle image to each theme we communicate on.

The communication idea

The launch of our new name went hand in hand with strong rebranding communication, built around the message: “Our name may have changed, but not our priorities.” It is a slogan that consolidates our response to changing market needs in a new name and corporate image and through which we reinforce our position as a strong, independent, full-practice, leading law firm that is resolutely client-oriented and focuses on priorities – the business concerns of our clients.

Implementation

After three months of intensive preparation, our new brand was launched on 26 November 2003, on which day, the Belgian business press was invited to a press lunch.

From the following day, for two to three weeks, advertising campaigns ran in the Belgian written media. In addition, on 27 November 2003, all our clients and contacts received a direct mailing with an announcement card revealing the new name and logo, together with a word of thanks for their many years of confidence and fruitful partnership, and a brief explanation of our business vision.

In mid-December 2003, we took the opportunity of sending the yearly season’s greetings to repeat our message. At the same time, our competitors were sent a card with an identical message, including a list of the new partners that had either been promoted internally or attracted externally, to reinforce our ‘full practice’ ambitions.

Successful brands are not built overnight

Brands cannot become stories without long-term, consistent communications support. Since the launch of Lawfort in November 2003, we have not ceased to work on the realisation of our brand’s promise.

Only advocacy leads to more business. Therefore, we work hard at giving the best, most proactive and innovative solutions possible to our existing clients. Loyalty suggests monogamy, commitment, one choice above all the others. Over the past few months we have done our best to put forward our new brand and to use this opportunity for communication to entice and lock in high-value clients, and develop programmes for special treatment and attention.

Our firm has evolved into a stand-alone firm that is locally very strong and is being courted by renowned international firms. This would not have been possible if we had not made the right choice about our brand.

Marc Vandemeulebroeke is managing partner and Erna Van Hoof is marketing director at Lawfort. For more information, e-mail erna.van.hoof@lawfort.be