How Professional Services Firms Are Embracing Values Based Branding
In industries where service offerings often fail to serve as an effective differentiator between competitors, one approach to separate your firm more effectively from the competition is to spotlight your firm’s values, ethics, vision and culture as primary selling points of working with or working for your firm. Consumers want to do business with brands that align with their value sets, and while this trend has been present in other consumer industries for several years, it has significantly expanded into the professional services arena in recent years.
A business’s brand is its most important intangible asset, but how do you know if your firm’s current visual brand is still effective or if a rebrand is needed? A change to your internal marketing department or an individual’s personal preference by itself shouldn’t be the primary driver of a decision of this magnitude. As we head toward 2023, here are five questions to ask to determine whether now is the right time to rebrand your firm.
CASE STUDY: Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds Website Redesign
In today’s rapidly evolving world of intellectual property, projecting sophistication and energy is imperative to attract cutting-edge companies and entrepreneurs. Not only does a law firm need to ensure it is prepared with talent and skill to address the latest developments, but its image must match its high-tech capacity.
CASE STUDY: Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Advertising Campaign
Internationally known as a destination for sailors and history buffs, the Chesapeake Bay region draws more than two million first-time and repeat visitors every year. In 2022, Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County (VAAAC), the nonprofit organization dedicated to marketing the area’s attractions, engaged Herrmann to create a new advertising campaign. The VAAAC’s goal was to inject an energetic vibe into the area's image by showcasing a much wider array of activities in a progressive, exciting manner.
CASE STUDY: Kane Russell Coleman Logan Branding/Website Redesign
On the eve of their 30th anniversary, the leadership of Kane Russell Coleman Logan (KRCL), a mid-sized Texas-based law firm, recognized their website did not effectively capture the firm’s brand. They felt the site lacked sophistication, energy, and messaging that conveyed who they were and what differentiated them from their competitors.
Hooray, life is getting back to normal! People are venturing back to their offices, seeing clients and colleagues, and getting on with business as usual. Uh oh, the marketing team just informed you of a company re-brand – complete with new bio photos. Gasp! When you want to look your best on your website bio, it’s important to keep these tips in mind.
Which attorney bio photography style is best for your firm?
Attorney bios are arguably the most important pages on law firm websites. They serve as that initial handshake. Being the first thing on the page that someone will likely see, the bio photo style on your website has an outsized impact when it comes to forming that initial impression of an attorney in the viewer’s mind.
Case Study: PilieroMazza's new brand stresses a holistic approach
Read how Herrmann’s approach to rebranding a law firm headquartered in the nation’s capital is positioning it to deliver a broader range of legal services to clients.
Five Reasons Why Video Needs to Be in Your Marketing Strategy
The benefits of incorporating video into marketing strategies have long been acknowledged, yet many still vacillate on whether it’s worth the investment. For those still on the fence, recent studies show there’s an increasing appetite among audiences to view — and respond to — video versus more traditional communication channels.
Case Study: Creating a contemporary brand for Post & Schell's new website and logo.
When it was time to freshen up its brand with a new website and updated logo, Post & Schell turned to Herrmann. By applying the latest design and technology trends, conveying more content graphically and taking new attorney photos, the Herrmann team created a site for this Mid-Atlantic legal powerhouse that is visually pleasing, easy to navigate and full of the backend features that make managing content a breeze. Here’s the backstory behind Post & Schell’s new site and brand look.
CASE STUDY: Stroock Website Redesign/Brand Refresh
Stroock has been a fixture in the New York legal scene for more than a century. But today it is much more than simply a “Wall Street firm.” It now has offices across the country, a wide breath of practices and an influx of talented lawyers handling high-profile matters. See how Herrmann helped position Stroock’s brand to match its energetic momentum.
Case Study: Anne Arundel County Department of Health
For many years, Herrmann has partnered with the Anne Arundel County Department of Health to plan and execute a variety of campaigns to inform the public of the resources available to residents. From breast cancer screenings to addiction-related topics, we have tackled each challenge by combining creative strategy, eye-catching design, memorable messaging, and thorough media planning and implementation. The recent 2020 Smoking Cessation campaign aimed at county residents was no exception.
Marketing Tips for Local Annapolis Businesses During COVID-19
COVID-19 was certainly a punch in the gut of the local economy in Annapolis – just as it was in communities all over the country. But rather than go down for the count, businesses in Annapolis took to planning new strategies for survival. Their actions were swift, sustained and designed to adapt to changing local and state guidelines.
Herrmann Advertising’s Chief Business Development Officer John Albert and Historic Annapolis' Senior VP-Membership, Communications and Engagement Carrie Kiewitt conducted a webinar recently to share those marketing tips and success stories with local business owners and community leaders.
Small Business Success Stories in the COVID-19 Era: Historic Annapolis
Like many organizations and businesses in the travel and tourism, entertainment and hospitality spaces, Historic Annapolis, a longtime Herrmann client, was forced to close the doors to its properties, including the magnificent William Paca House and Garden, in mid-March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The HA staff went into proactive mode, creating a strategic plan to navigate the crisis.
Small Business Success Stories in the COVID-19 Era: Severn Bank
At a time when many small businesses desperately sought Payroll Protection Program (PPP) funding due to COVID-19 impacts, Herrmann’s client, Severn Bank, jumped into action. During the first wave of the CARES Act, nearly 100% of the applications Severn Bank processed were approved and funded. This good news story was worth sharing.
Delivering fresh, relevant content to your clients and prospects cannot be considered a “nice to have” in today’s competitive market, but rather a “must have” tactic that dovetails with your strategic plan and growth initiatives. In the legal industry, firms of all sizes – from solo practitioners to the largest in the world – have been embracing content creation for many years, and in turn, reaping the associated rewards. Ensure your brand is out front as websites and online platforms move to the forefront – especially now that in-person presentations and meetings are sidelined.
In the time of COVID-19, lots of us have had to get used to working from home. Even as restrictions ease up around the country, many people will continue to take the safe route by staying home and communicating through one of the many videoconferencing platforms. If you haven’t already set up your home office videoconferencing system, or have encountered some bumps in the road, here are some tips to remedy common issues.
How to Practice Effective Storytelling in Healthcare Marketing
Human beings are storytellers by nature. Our brains are conditioned to form strong emotional connections through stories. All information was once passed through the generations through stories, and to this day effective stories are more memorable than simple lists of facts.
You’ve just made a commitment to refreshing your brand. But along with the visual elements that make up your new identity and the accompanying changes you’ll be making to your website, stationery, signage brochures and other collateral, there’s a critical factor you’ll want to address in the early stages of your initiative: Copy Style Guidelines.
Lightfoot, Franklin & White, an Alabama-based litigation boutique with offices in Birmingham and Houston, is proud to be known for taking on some of the most complex cases in the most difficult venues in the country. Its visual identity, however, didn’t reflect the depth and sophistication normally associated with bet-the-company lawsuits, far-reaching class actions, challenging multidistrict litigation, or its extensive trial and appellate experience. Recognizing the need to refresh its brand, the firm engaged Herrmann to project its brand in a more contemporary, powerful manner.
The holiday season was a flurry of activity for Herrmann and four of our clients as we collaborated to put the finishing touches on their websites and get them launched!
As we begin a New Year, we want to keep the celebrations going by introducing you to these four recently launched sites:
The November launch of Jones Walker’s new brand and website was profiled in an earlier Herrmann blog, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll want to take a look! Based in New Orleans, this national firm’s site is energetic and spirited! See what we mean by visiting www.joneswalker.com.
In 2017, Herrmann embarked on an extensive rebranding project with Jones Walker, a full-service New Orleans-based law firm with offices across the country. The 80-year-old firm’s brand did not reflect its dynamic energy and spirit, forward-thinking approach, nor its ability to handle sophisticated, cutting-edge matters.
The landscape of healthcare marketing and the strategies needed to increase patient acquisition are rapidly evolving, as prospective patients are becoming avid researchers looking to gather as much information on a practice as possible before ever picking up the phone or walking into a facility. With competition continually increasing, its more critical than ever for private practices to invest in their branding and market outreach in order to build trust and credibility with this prospective audience.
Today, the plight of men, women and children from Central American countries making their way to the southern U.S. border in hopes of seeking asylum is often reduced to quick sound bites and social media posts. However, the complexity of this humanitarian situation – and the reasons that drive refugees to flee – has long been documented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Seeking to harness its expanding national reputation as a premier regional law firm known for deep industry experience and superior client service, Jackson Kelly looked to Herrmann to help create a new brand image that would highlight its progressive stance and wealth of talent.
Today, a brand is so much more than a logo. As the definition of a brand has expanded, so too have the demands on your visual identity. It’s more important than ever that you maximize your brand!
If you follow the trends of interactive design—and we do—the one theme that consistently emerges is that change is constant. After all, it was only a few short years ago that responsive design was just a promising theory. Now it is a cornerstone of any redesign strategy. Point is, things change on the web. A lot. That's what makes it so wonderful. It's an evolving platform, and we're still very much witnessing its infancy. But of all the trends in recent years, the shift to visual storytelling is far and away our favorite. What exactly does that mean? Glad you asked.
