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Bar News - August 12, 2005 Fear-Based Marketing By: Henry Dahut Why Negative Advertising Fails When clients choose to take their business elsewhere, they often make it their mission to tell the world why. This can happen when there is a palpable inconsistency between what a firm says it stands for – for example, what it says in its promotional material – and how it actually runs its business. Sometimes a firm’s promotional material uses an emotional trigger – most often the potential client’s fear, which is usually born from the legal trouble they find themselves in. Other promotional campaigns appeal to a client’s greed and ego, and one can argue that both of those are also rooted in fear. While addressing clients’ emotional components make sense, fear-based campaigns can drive clients away and set the wrong tone for establishing the attorney-client relationship – one that ideally should be based on a sense of trust and respect. (In part 2, to be published in September, the author will discuss solutions-based lawyer marketing.) Campaigns that play on negative emotional triggers such as fear, greed and ego have dominated the legal landscape in recent years. Such campaigns are frequently backed by huge budgets and play to clients’ vulnerabilities. Each type of campaign is problematic in its own way. Campaigns focusing on fear disempower clients; appeals to greed obsess them; and catering to their egos creates in them a false sense of power. Rarely, if ever, are these approaches effective in the long run; they appear to work in the beginning, but quickly lose steam and crash. Recognize Any of These Taglines? Don’t lose your rights! Save your business! You’ve seen such consumer-targeted ads on television and in the yellow pages, but fear-based campaigns are not always the work of small firms, nor is the audience made up solely of consumers. Such campaigns may be used at very large law firms and with very sophisticated clients. One prominent national law firm (now bankrupt) spent tens of millions of dollars on a national television campaign directed at corporate America. The central message was: Retain our firm when the future of your business depends on it. At first glance, this campaign seemed fairly benign, yet the message was intended to generate fear for those in serious business trouble. Implicit in the ad was: If you don’t use our firm, you may not have a future. Not having a “future” implies being rendered nonexistent. That’s advertising talk for saying you’re dead, and no other fear is as powerful, motivating or pervasive – and Madison Avenue advertising firms know it. It’s easy for such messages to backfire and make potential clients feel vulnerable, exploited and powerless. It’s rare that clients are benefited by having their fears and worries reinforced or amplified. Instead, people – and businesses – in legal trouble want to know you have the information and resources that will be useful to them. They want to know: How bad is it? How bad can it get? What do I need to know? What should I expect? What are my options? What does your experience tell you I should do? Ad campaigns that let potential clients know that you have the answers to these questions are more likely to succeed than those that play mostly to fear.
Greed-based Campaigns Don’t settle for less! Get what you deserve! We’re tough! We’re aggressive! It is said that greed is just another form of fear – the fear that there is not enough and will never be enough to feel truly satisfied and complete. In this sense, greed may also be viewed as a type of vulnerability. Fear is a primordial emotion derived from our instinctive ability to perceive and respond to danger. This fight-or-flight instinct has been hardwired into our minds. Greed, on the other hand, is not entirely instinctual. It’s been said that greed is one of those miserable forms of ignorance that keeps us from knowing our highest potential. Some lawyers lure clients with promises of large financial gain to play with the client’s greed. While most lawyers stay within ethical bounds in this regard, some cross the line without even being aware of it. This is especially true in the area of personal injury. While it has been argued that “fighting language” used in advertising demonstrates a lawyer’s zeal and unfettered advocacy style, it appears to the general public as self-serving rhetoric. Small type at the bottom of such lawyers’ ads disclaiming any implicit promise of specific results or recovery does not solve the problem. Most professionals agree that advertising intended to appeal to a client’s greed is manipulative and insulting. It can unwittingly inflate a client’s expectations and erode a lawyer’s credibility. And in the end it does little to advance the image of our profession. Ego-based Campaigns We handle only the very best clients – like you. Traditionally, larger firms have relied on entertaining clients in hopes of getting more business. Unfortunately, lawyers who are more interested in strutting their legal feathers than listening to their clients can squander these valuable opportunities to learn about clients’ specific needs. Breaking bread with a prospective client has been the hallmark of rainmaking, but as any skilled rainmaker will tell you, it must be done masterfully. Here is how one jaded rainmaker described the courting ritual:
All of this, of course, is window dressing. Clients may engage in the courting process, but inside they frequently distrust it. They see it as condescending, manipulative and self-serving. They don’t believe the lawyer’s interest in them is sincere. They are more inclined to believe the lawyer views them as just another stream of billable hours.
Henry Dahut is a member of the executive committee of the State Bar of California Law Practice Management and Technology Section. His business and legal experience spans over 20 years, and he is the author of Marketing the Legal Mind – A Search for Leadership. For more information, visit his Web site at www.HenryDahut.com or write him at Henry@HenryDahut.com. Reprinted by permission from the Oregon State Bar Bulletin, April 2005 issue. |
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