Investor, entrepreneur, and best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki said, “If you are not a brand, you are a commodity.” But can a lawyer be a brand?
Probably not in the sense that “Clorox” or “McDonalds” are brands. Most lawyer’s names will never be household words. But within our various market niches, and certainly among our colleagues, we can indeed establish a successful brand.
You are an estate planning attorney who targets physicians in your local market. If a survey is done of those physicians and a preponderance of them mention you when asked if they could name an estate planning attorney, I think we can agree that you qualify as a brand.
And that’s a good thing.
Being a brand gives you pre-eminence. You get more clients, more easily. You can charge premium fees. Clients tend to be more loyal. You’ll be thinner, better looking, and have whiter teeth.
Okay, but what about the opposite end of the spectrum: being a commodity. If we define that as being “average” is that necessarily a bad thing? No. Earning what the average attorney earns is nothing to be ashamed of. But why settle for less than you can achieve?
Developing a brand is not easy to do on a national scale. It’s much easier for a lawyer targeting a niche market.
How do you do it? By crafting the right marketing message for your target market and focusing all of your time and creative energy delivering that message, and no other. No mixed messages. No ambiguity.
But you don’t sell a product, you sell yourself. And so more than merely delivering a marketing message, you must “become” that message.
Your identity must be fully aligned with your message and market. You can’t merely be a lawyer who happens to handle a certain type of client or case. You must be perceived as the top expert in your market, completely dedicated to that market and the people in it.
Donald Trump is a brand because everything he does, and everything he is, is consistent and aligned with the image he has crafted. When you think of real estate and business, you think of The Donald. And when you think about The Donald, you think about real estate and business.
Donald Trump is the brand. You must become your own brand.
Fortunately, you don’t have to spend as much money as Trump, or engage in the pompous rhetoric that has become his trademark. And yes, you can have normal hair.
