Bingham McHale

Law Firm Branding Capitalizes on Its Strengths

Problem

Bingham McHale was formed by the merger of two old-line Indianapolis law firms combining with two additional firms. It is the fourth largest firm in Indiana with a diverse group of more than 140 lawyers who concentrate their practices in wide-ranging areas of the law with a focus on the representation of businesses and their executives. In looking to brand the combined Bingham McHale firm and successfully compete against the state's larger and more influential law firms, Bingham McHale asked MillerWhite for assistance in achieving its goal of becoming the “premier business law firm in Indiana.”

Solution

MillerWhite performed its proprietary MW Fusion® exercise for Bingham McHale and proposed an integrated marketing plan, which centered on external branding, internal culture building, public relations, advertising and web site development strategies.

MillerWhite preformed analyses of Bingham McHale's major competitors' advertising and web sites, which revealed that none of the firm's competitors were focusing their marketing efforts on their attorneys as being their brand, which Bingham McHale felt was its real strength. In formulating the marketing plan, MillerWhite also performed research that included attorney and staff surveys, client interviews and industry research.

Because a consistent culture and brand management have been determined to be the top two factors in achieving high levels of integration and improving financial performance, MillerWhite recommended a branding strategy that included:

• a distinctive new logo,
• a tagline (“Perceptive. Responsive. Effective.”) that reflected the firm's value proposition and strong reliance on its associates,
• a flexible company color scheme that was unique in the market and could be adapted to cover all its practice areas,
• a culture building component that included Message and Action Guidelines (MAG) for the firm overall, as well as a MAG for each of the firm's practice areas. and
• collateral materials utilizing the new brand and color scheme.

To assist in building and sustaining the brand, proactive public relations and advertising strategies were developed and implemented that coordinated practice area-focused news stories and advertisements with the editorial calendar of the Indianapolis Business Journal. Press releases and ads reinforced the message that the “attorneys are the brand” and are directly responsible for the firm's perceptive, responsive and effective reputation.

MillerWhite made extensive functional improvements to the firm's web site, the element of the strategy that would push the brand to potential clients, incorporating the new brand and color scheme and structuring it to bring the experience and strengths of the Bingham McHale's associates to the forefront.

Results

As it has been implemented, Bingham McHale's marketing plan has increased brand awareness with a consistent look, feel and message, and has resulted in an improved perception of the firm among business leaders. The effort focused attention on Bingham McHale's major point of difference or unique selling proposition, helped to manage the reputation of the firm and its individual attorneys, and promoted the firm's areas of expertise. It also helped to build relations with the local media and position the attorneys as experts to the business community.