New lawyers today may not understand how to practice law but they sure understand how to rock an awesome meme. Or build their brand, as they say. The Big Legal Brain Brand-Building and Website Optimization team has been raking in portions of bar-study loans lately to help new lawyers build those brands. After six months of doing so, we’re experts and can now provide solid advice on the essentialities of a good brand-building effort.
Pick a Color
Ever hear of a color wheel? You should. It has lots of colors. I mean lots, maybe 200 or so. The first trick to building a brand is to pick one of those colors and show it to people while saying “that’s my practice, right there.” In other words, be your color. Because when you think of some of the best-branded attorneys on the planet, you think “blue” or “ruffled clam” or “chartreuse,” don’t you? We do. Mention Adrian Dayton or Kevin O’Keefe and the first thing that comes to mind is “electric banana,” and “honey moth,” respectively, of course. Don’t underestimate the efforts to which Dayton and O’Keefe have gone to build their brand colors. If you doubt it, get on Twitter and DM one of these guys, asking “what’s your color, man?”
Buy a Logo
You cannot be a serious court-hovering lawyer without a solid logo. If you have a talented cousin or a little sister in the family, ask one of them to draw up a logo for you. Using your chosen color, of course. Or, if you haven’t spent all of your future income on staples and cloud-based Ninja-like practice management software, splurge a bit and buy a logo from eBay or Etsy, two great places to get hand-crafted professional logos. Once you have one, make sure it gets up on your website, on bumper stickers, and included on legal briefs, where appropriate.
Wear Knit Shirts with Your Logo on Them
Once you have your color and your logo, head down to the t-shirt shop and pick out a good heavy-knit shirt and ask them to airbrush your logo on it. If you have some bucks, get the logo embroidered on the shirt (or even on a baseball cap), as an embroidered logo on a knit shirt exudes two things: 1) class and 2) charity golf events. Wear those knit shirts wherever you can, and think about cufflinks or ties that also contain the logo. A knit shirt with cufflinks and a monogrammed tie is a terrific branding combo.
Hire a Guy Named Chad
We’re not sure why, but employing someone named Chad actually helps build a brand, particularly if you give him a title like “brand evangelist” or “spokesweasel.” Better yet, Chad typically becomes the fallback guy for problems, as in “I’m not sure about that claim, let me get Chad on it.” We employ three Chads here in our office and things could, truth be told, be a bit better. But we like them.
With just a few steps you too could be young again and rocking a brand. Or old and looking more shipshape in a knit logo shirt. Let us know how your brand-building works out.
