Defining purpose and delivering change at a global law firm
Summary
The opportunity
Reed Smith had grown rapidly through a very successful merger and acquisition strategy to achieve a global footprint of 27 offices.
Such rapid inorganic growth and the accompanying mix of individual firms with their own identities, brands and cultures meant that there was
No cohesive identity for the Reed Smith brand around the world.
Very little shared culture or values.
At the same time, the legal market had become crowded with startups and the arrival of sexy new technology led offerings to tempt clients away from more traditional firms.
The timing could not have been better for Reed Smith to establish themselves as a powerful global brand with a real point of difference.
The initial approach
An in-depth discovery period lasting 2 months followed by initial findings and recommendations
Internal and external perceptions of Reed Smith
What clients say they are looking for in a law firm
Threat analysis both to Reed Smith and the legal sector in general
Language and behavioural conventions within the legal sector
Competitor positioning
Best practice from other professional services
Defining key elements of a unifying, differentiating and engaging Reed Smith global positioning and brand story
A compelling new purpose statement
A brand line to define Reed Smith internally and externally; delivering ambition, enabling focus and bringing the whole organisation together under one message.
The response
Building a strong brand...
Delivering on a vision to change how people perceive law firms; that the law should be seen as a springboard to greater things rather than a necessity to overcome a hurdle.
An inspiring purpose statement to unify the whole organisation;
‘Everything we do is with the purpose of driving progress for our clients, ourselves and our communities.’
And a new brand line;
Reed Smith. Driving progress through law
A flexible positioning which provides the opportunity to talk about every aspect of the firm’s activity with consistency of purpose, giving the whole organisation a single point of focus.
A ‘north star’ by which to navigate everything they do.
...hardwired for success
Supercharging the culture and defining a shared set of values
Brand days were held across the network’s 27 offices
Introducing the new brand positioning and explaining its strategic and business importance
Emphasising the role that everyone, from reception to boardroom had to play in delivering a positive future for the firm
Inviting ideas from employees on how best to live and breathe the new positioning
Ambitions and expectations were set not just for each individual, but of what they should expect of each other in order to deliver ‘Driving Progress’.
Developing a common language
Brand writing workshops were held for all Marketing, Business Development and Regional Marketers to help them deliver the key brand tone of voice and messaging.
Biography rewrites of key staff were undertaken to include brand and purpose messaging.
Online, staff were able to access content and literature re-writes and recommendation examples.
Awaiting development, a fully scoped out E-Learning Platform which incorporates live, real time peer to peer mentoring. Designed to ‘train the trainers’, the platform will help to grow a culture of knowledge and expertise sharing, not information hoarding
Delivering consistency around the globe
Establishing a shared approach to process and project management meant that anyone in the network could collaborate with anyone in the network across the full range of services and tasks.
To enable a consistent brand presence whilst allowing for individual market flexibility and multiple stakeholder needs we delivered
Full design development guidelines and templates
Global and market specific brand films
Physical brand toolkit and app design
Helping a great brand attract great people
For an organisation to be high performing, it needs to be full of high performers.
In Germany this was a particular problem for Reed Smith, the brand was a new arrival to the German market andlacked the pull of more established firms when it came to attracting top talent.
UNIT_ delivered recruitment campaigns in 2017 and 2018 which led to a 30% lift in high value applicants.
Driving progress and innovation internally
CMO Sadie Baron asked us to help deliver a bold and game changing innovation.
A brand new department, designed to be a training and testing ground for new marketers that would deliver fast turnaround, high churn, mission critical support; RFPs, client alerts, web updates etc.
By ensuring full attention was paid to these tasks, the move freed up more experienced marketers to concentrate on high level issues.
Working between the London, New York and Pittsburgh offices, UNIT_ structured, recruited and trained the new team to drive progress inside and out.