Question

Topic: Branding

Should We Split The Brand?

Posted by Anonymous on 5/18/2010 at 3:18 PM ET 125 Points
I work for a large bar organization with nearly 20k members. Lawyers in our state must belong because our organization is responsible for ethics and discipline investigations. We have a sort of split personality. We are a non profit consumer protection organization, and we're also an association which works on behalf of our members.

I would say that one third of our members like us, a third dislike us, and a third don't care. The most common complaint I hear is "What do you do with the dues I pay?" As for the public, they don't know we exist. Like consumers in most state, they assume no one polices lawyers.

Here's my quandry. We have a monthly magazine which is very well regarded and has won lots of awards. Members like it. My sales director wants to use it to brand many of the events and services we provide. His theory is that people like it, so it's easier to pitch events and services associated with it. On the other hand, he says it's hard to sell the organization. Some people think we're a state agency (which we're not), others just think we're heavy handed with discipline.

The problem is that we need to improve our profile. We need consumers to know where to turn. We need lawmakers to know that we do a good job and don't need to be absorbed by government. We need members to think we don't just take their money and run.
So should we focus our events and services around the magazine, or should we focus on the name of our organization?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 5/18/2010 at 3:56 PM Accepted
    With all due respect, this is a very serious positioning issue that does not lend itself to sound-bites from the sidelines. You have at least three important target audiences, each with different needs ... and that's a challenge for even the best marketers.

    I would suggest you address the matter with professional assistance from someone who has experience with positioning issues like yours.

    There are a number of us on this forum who might be interested, so here are a couple ways you might proceed:

    1. Post a project in the "Hire an Expert" section of this website (see link in the column at the right of this page); or

    2. Browse through the profiles of the top experts in the MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange and see if you find anyone who seems to be right for your project. If you do, you can send them an off-line email message and see if they are interested/available.

    This would be a paid project, of course, because no qualified consultant is going to devote the kind of focused attention you need for this project without getting paid for their expertise and involvement.

    You'll get some opinions here, but you won't have any good way to separate the good ones from the not-so-good ones. And this is important enough for the organization that you don't want quantity as much as quality.
  • Posted on 5/18/2010 at 4:05 PM Author
    I have a marketing company contracted, I was just looking for a few outside thoughts. Never hurts to bring a few extra minds to a problem.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/18/2010 at 5:46 PM Accepted
    If you don't use the magazine, what's your communication plan?
    Do the people you want to sway read the magazine?
  • Posted on 5/18/2010 at 6:44 PM Accepted
    There's an old adage in the advertising business: "Why buy a dog and then bark yourself?"

    It sounds like you've already bought a dog, and now you're wanting us to bark too. What if we come up with better answers than the dog you've paid for already? What if we "bark louder?" Will you take your dog to the pound and give him away?

    And how will you know which dog to keep and which to ignore?

    I'm a little confused.
  • Posted on 5/18/2010 at 6:48 PM Author
    The magazine is designed to look more at large legal issues that affect lawyers. It's almost a legal journal as opposed to a news piece. We have a bi-weekly e-mail that we send to members for that purpose.

    The magazine goes to all members. That is one of the groups we need to sway. In member surveys it routinely comes up as something the members like. It is not something that the public or other groups would generally care about.
  • Posted on 5/18/2010 at 6:51 PM Author
    As for the barking dog...

    I've learned over time that it never hurts to have an extra mind or two weigh in. Sometimes they point out the obvious or not so obvious points that everyone else has missed.
  • Posted by MarketingNinja on 5/19/2010 at 12:42 AM Accepted
    "Lawyers in our state must belong because our organization is responsible for ethics and discipline investigations."

    Eeeek!!!

    Sounds like the fox is guarding the henhouse.
  • Posted on 5/19/2010 at 11:34 AM Author
    Actually, our sales director doesn't want to use the magazine to reach the public, only to reach advertisers who want to go after our member base. Needless to say, nearly 20,000 member lawyers have value in the marketing world. His argument is that it's easier to brand our marketing under the magazine name because members already like it. He would like to expand into more events which he feels members would be more likely to attend if it were not bannered under the organization name. In a perfect world he'd like to host an event under the magazine's name and not mention the organization.

    We are planning public outreach. That will not be under the magazine name because it's not targeted at the public and so the general population doesn't like or dislike that brand. We are in the middle of redesigning our web site (in conjunction with the marketing company) to make it more appealing to both members and the public.
  • Posted on 5/19/2010 at 11:38 AM Author
    As for the fox guarding the henhouse, that is the focus of my marketing campaign with the public. I think I can actually make the case that in our state, the bar is a more effective regulatory agency that nearly all other state agencies. While state agencies have seen their budgets gutted, we're still solvent. Our client protection fund wasn't swept up by state government. When you look at the numbers of lawyers disciplined, I think we easily outperform state agencies that regulate everything from real estate agents to doctors. The problem is that traditionally, we didn't tell the public. Lawyers were afraid it would hurt their reputation. I've argued that if we don't tell the public what we do, the public won't think we do anything.
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