Best brand in practice

For the firm that can demonstrate that its brand values are distinct, relevant to clients and are being delivered consistently to clients.

2002 WINNER

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Martin Keeling of Fennemores with Clifford Ferguson of the Pace Partnership

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The Best Brand in Practice…There is an increasing realisation that brand = behaviour which most firms have difficulty in getting to grips with being complex multi-disciplinary approach and one of the most difficult aspects of management as well as marketing management. Our entrants all acknowledged this in their entries.

And the winner is Fennemores a Milton Keynes law firm with a strong focus on that region. The rigour with which the firm has approached its branding, heavily partner driven and executed in a no-nonsense manner, with a serious investment and a good degree of humour in its marketing communications. The development of a CV of an imaginary partner of the firm is not only a good brand brainstorming technique to develop a brief for consultants but made the firm human.

It would be difficult to work for the firm without subscribing to its values and any organisation whose car park signage boasts that it is twinned with Milton Keynes deserves to win a prize.

RUNNER UP

Runner up is London law firm Collyer Bristow. While its strategy is limited and traditional for midsize commercial and private client law firm, it is refreshingly clearly expressed. There has been a successful attempt to define what the firm stands for and to reflect that in its organisation in dealings with clients and between its partners and staff.

3RD PLACE

In third place is recently merged law firm Taylor Wessing which showed a thorough approach to defining its brand values on both sides of the channel. This was against a tight timetable and in involved a consultative process between firms, which is often challenging. Taylor Wessing joins the small band of firms with a hybrid Anglo/German name - a European professional services brand which actually sounds European!