Designed for high-level legal marketing professionals, this track includes four fascinating sessions conducted by leaders in strategic marketing, branding, and consulting.

Morning Break-Out I:
Brand Design for Law Firm Business Advantage
David Miller, STOKE Strategy

Can anyone name a mature, open-market category where the brand leader doesn’t have an advantage on the basis of design distinction?

To find out, STOKE conducted a study of major market segments, and examined the leading brands in high-competition markets both within and outside the legal industry. (By “brand” we mean the calculus of name awareness, perceived quality and distinction, image associations, loyalty and predisposition to purchase.)

We’ll share the findings of our study and explore case studies that begin to see brand design - aesthetic, experiential, and functional – as a genetic marker for the successful companies below and draw parallels to the opportunities facing law firms:

• Target
• Whole Foods
• Starbucks
• Apple

We’ll also conduct a cursory examination of major global corporations to demonstrate that design is increasingly being used as a source of strategic advantage…an advantage that law firms have yet to grasp.

Morning Break-Out II:
Strategic Review and Outlook for the Legal Services Industry 2007: Closing the Client Gap
Michael Rynowecer and Marcie Borgal Shunk, BTI Consulting Group

BTI will present key strategic insights about client relationships, marketing tactics and marketing strategies based on 7 years of continuous client research.This interactive presentation is based on BTI strategic research to accomplish the following:

• Analyze Strategic Competitive Law Firm Performance – with Law Firm Names
• Articulate How Clients Hire, Fire and Spend on Law Firms
• Assess Client Goals, Needs and Priorities – and How They Will Change
• Share How Clients Define Client Service
• Demonstrate 7 Tools to Close the Client Focus Gap

Afternoon Break-Out I:
Value Innovation with Blue Ocean Strategy
Soren Eilertsen, Ph.D., Kollner Group, Inc.

“How smart businesses move beyond the competition…and how your firm can do it too”

The interactive workshop offers participants a new way to look at their firm’s strategy through the lenses of value innovation. The presenter introduces practical strategy tools to help clarify a law firm's current and future market position. The value innovation concepts, popularized by the best selling business book “Blue Ocean Strategy,” focus on creating a leap in value rather than competing within confines of existing industry. The participants are inspired to apply value innovation within their firms and thereby launch new initiatives that break with traditional competition, creating new demand and uncontested market space. Law firms can develop uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. Research has shown that such initiatives create significantly more profit as well as marketplace longevity than traditional competitive approaches.

Topics include:

• Recognize the importance of the strategic mindset
• Find your firm’s place among the fundamental market positions
• Apply the Strategy Canvas to clarify your firm’s market and value position
• Gain insight to the basic principles for reconstructing market boundaries and reaching beyond existing demand
• Use the Four Action Framework to focus your strategic initiatives