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But wait. Can a Law Firm actually have a Brand Name like Coca-Cola, BMW, IBM, and Colgate-Palmolive? The answer is yes. Brand Names aren't only for big multinational companies. They're also for small organizations with products and services to sell in a particular market niche.

We all compete with Brand Names, only sometimes we don't recognize them because they don't have billion dollar advertising campaigns. Their customers, in their market niches, know who they are and why they are Brand Names.

The answer is trust. And marketing "trust" to your market niche is the way to become a Brand Name. Those are the only three concepts which are essential to building a Brand Name: trust, marketing, and niche. When you understand the three concepts and how to use them for your business your firm too can become a Brand Name.

What is trust?

From the customer's point of view, trust is safety from vulnerability. When we buy something or take someone into our confidence we take a risk. We're vulnerable to poor performance. When we trust a product, we feel safe and not vulnerable to shoddy performance. Brand names are
trusted.

The way to build trust is to persuade everyone in your market niche that you're both capable and well-intentioned. Either alone isn't enough. This is where marketing comes in.

Marketing builds trust. Marketing can best be defined as "helping other people value your product or service." It is both a science and an art.

Its a science because it works on the scientific principle that persistence wears down opposition. In this case the opposition is the tendency among consumers not to believe yet another promise. You know they hear and see, maybe 2,500 advertising promises everyday.

How do you get your "I'm capable" promises believed? How do you separate yourself from the herd so you're not stereotyped along with the 2,500 other marketers who are "mooing" all day long? You must do everything you can to personify customer satisfaction. Your advertising, if you can afford it, must reek of how important customer satisfaction is, and it must be sincere. Advertise buyer benefits, not features.

It is easier if you sell face to face, especially for lawyers and their administrators. When you see a referral source or prospect you must suspend your self-interest and find out how you can help them fulfill their desires. How you can help them fulfill their goals. How you can help them get what they want. If you make it interesting for your prospects, because they're the center of your interest, you'll stand out from the crowd and be seen as special -- and your service will be seen as "capable".

The goal, by the way, is not a happy client. The goal is a happy client who thinks of you as a brand name and refer you to their friends, relatives, acquaintances, and strangers. -- in effect becoming a walking billboard for you. When people out there, your clients, are pitching for you, you're a brand name.

Becoming perceived as being well intentioned is where the artistry of marketing comes in. You have to think of inventive ways to make people like you. If you're a sole practitioner become friends with your clients, referral sources and their circles. Join their clubs and organizations. Find ways to help them personally, or the people and groups that they help. People buy from friends. Make more friends. Be patient. The sales will come. You'll be a brand name.

Keep in touch in a warm way. Treat your clients as family (family you like). Send them birthday cards. Send them Christmas cards. Give them lollipops. Help them like you. Because if they like you and if your service is capable, they will tell everyone they know. You'll be their brand name. Don't be misled, by the way. None of this is complex or even remotely sophisticated. Some of your brand name competitors are doing it. As it happens, though, few truly make the effort. Those that do become brand names.

What's your niche?

The last of the three brand name building concepts to know about is niche marketing. If you are a small law firm, you ought to have a small market niche if you want to become a brand name. You can't be all things to all people. If you spread yourself too thin, people will see through you. Find a market niche that you can mine deeply, really penetrate, and build a big, profitable market share in. Get a large part of a small market, not a small part of many markets.

Concentrate on becoming a hero to your current clients. They're in your niche. Chances are they hang around other people like themselves. If you're doing a good (read great) job, your name will spread and your business will grow. Have you ever noticed how the really wonderful gardeners have all their customers in a small area, while the mediocre gardeners are traveling all over hell's half acre from client to client.

So that's it. To be a brand name: Make your customers really happy (they will become walking advertisements for you), protect them from being vulnerable (let them down and they'll turn on you), help them like you (send cards, join their organizations), focus on a small market niche (focus, focus, focus).