The Branding Bandwagon is Losing Its Wheels

First of all, let's understand the context of the situation. In the late 1990s, several of the larger law firms in the U.S. embarked upon “branding” campaigns. One of those, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, spent a total of $6.2 million on a television advertising campaign that was criticized for failing to make a discernible impact on profitability. Brobeck is, of course, now defunct. Other national firms had followed the advice of their marketing directors and outside consultants, implementing extensive (and very expensive!) branding campaigns, and subsequently found that the devotion of financial and human resources was over-weighted. Many of these firms have now begun to allocate more money to marketing programs that generate near-term work, going away from extensive image-building activities.