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more than just a well known birmingham brand 23/09/2008 Law firms' offices can be serious places on Monday mornings but Monday 23 June was very different at Birmingham and London law firm Martineau.
Managing partner Bill Barker and Marketing and Business Development Director Jon Preston could not fail to notice the atmosphere that morning, in the immediate aftermath of the announcement of the firm's rebranding.
"It was very different to anything I had experienced before" said Mr Preston, who has been at the firm for 23 years. "There was a real feeling of excitement and belonging to a team that was really on the move".
Until that Monday morning, Martineau had plied its trade as Martineau Johnson, born of a merger between two of the oldest firms of solicitors in Birmingham, Ryland Martineau and Johnson & Co.
The firm was at the heart of serving Birmingham business and the wider community, playing a key role in the foundation of a bank which ultimately was to become Lloyds TSB and provided the city with no fewer than six Lord Mayors.
The last decade leading up to the new branding had been a particular period of change as managing partner Bill Barker explains: "We set out on a strategic path to build a national and even international business from our regional base.
"We made major changes such as opening an office in London, moving from two offices to a prestigious open plan office building in Birmingham and we invested heavily in IT.
"But the less tangible changes were probably the most important - our decision to focus on selected areas of legal expertise where we had national markets like education and energy and utilities and our investment in people.
"And we have also invested in building links with China, and in advising companies intending to invest in the UK.
"Over the decade that led up to our rebranding, we felt that we had transformed the business. Branding had evolved in that time but we decided that 2008 was the year to go for the major step to a name and image change."
Any brand change is of no use if the company that owns the brand does not live up to it. This is particularly evident in a service business as Mr Preston explains:
"It was always said to be difficult to differentiate one law firm from another and it was at the heart of our plans to give us that clear difference, most importantly in the eyes of clients and those who may become clients.
"But it's no good just trying to do this by changing the visual images. Investing in image without doing what it takes to deliver the promise made is an expensive mistake.
"We were aiming to build a brand that reflected the kind of approach that clients want. "For us, it was vital that the images, and in our case, our name change, went in tandem with our people's approach and for this, we had to work hard and in a sustained way to gain and keep their support."
There was clearly a need to gain and keep the support of all the people in the firm.
Martineau began a dialogue throughout the partnership and staff nearly 18 months before the rebranding.
Mr Preston was initially surprised at the enthusiasm for the programme. "We started off by asking what people thought and they appreciated that. They also welcomed finding out more about the history of the firm.
"They were positive about the external image of the firm but they thought we had to be even more vocal about our achievements and expertise.
"The feedback we had enabled us to undertake a series of brand workshops, where the spirit of co-operation and support was very evident.
"The whole process of engagement was a complete justification of our decision to manage the process largely internally, through our marketing and business development team but with the full commitment of our management board and partners.
"We ultimately chose a theme for our visual identity which seemed to us to be positive and be right for today's fast changing world, reflecting a 'can do' approach.
It incorporates new images as a development of the past and the kind of words that match our values of integrity, innovation and inspiration.
"The whole campaign has given the firm a feel good factor and a real boost in terms of recruitment and new business activity."
"It was the bringing together of our business strategy, the people development, service delivery and external images that was at the heart of our plans" said Mr Preston.
For further information please contact William Barker on
william.barker@martineau-uk.com
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