The term counter programming might be a bit old school, but I think it properly reflects how you can succeed well at the practice of law.
Counter programming is a strategy used by movie studios, TV networks, radio stations, cable companies and the like to attract audiences from whom their competitors might not be appealing. Of course we in law call our audience clients and our competitors colleagues, but you get what I am talking about, do you not?
You see it all of the time in the media world. Animal Planet ran the Puppy Bowl during the Super Bowl,
and they are doing a version of the same thing during the Olympics. Likewise, Universal Pictures decided to place Mamma Mia! on the screen right when Batman seemed to be eating up to movie world.
It works in other areas as well. Fast food starts going health conscious and Burger King comes out with the Enormous Omelet Sandwich.
Southwest Airlines is the best outside of media in which it always seems to promote the opposite of what bigger airlines are doing, and making it seem like it is a benefit.
And, it is really a simply idea. Whatever your competitors (sorry, I mean colleagues) are doing, they are leaving out tons of potential clients that just do not think the way your colleagues market or identify with it what the attorney does. These people might be settling for what is offered. You can show them another way or appeal to them more effectively by getting the market to view your practice from a different angle or with a different message.
I recently posted about Virtual Law Partners. This is counter programming at its finest. When Big Law seems to be bulking up with lateral transfers, new multistory leases, overseas offices, every increasing dress codes, and staid image galore, here comes a law firm competing for the same business that proclaims their attorneys will not overworked, and they will not build such edifices to the firm. And, you would think it would work because business has to be getting tired of paying for the excesses of Big Law, especially in our down market.
Other examples might be as other family lawyers want to appeal to the market as being collaborators, and family oriented, and experts in finding compromise, you might promote yourself as being man-centric. The he-man firm. The firm that represents the interest of the long forgotten and abused man in the divorce and child custody process.
Every death attorney I know feels they need to lead off in advertising proclaiming he or she is a will & trust attorney. First, most common people do not necessarily know what that means. Second, unless you are representing primarily high net worth individuals, that is not anyone's interest. Try promoting yourself heavily as a probate attorney and back in to the other related areas like wills and trusts and the like.
Many years ago when I started there were hardly any Chapter 13 cases being filed. All of the bankruptcy attorneys were marketing themselves as bankruptcy attorneys and did mainly Chapter 7 liquidations. A few tried marketing themselves as Chapter 13 attorneys, but few consumers back then understood what that meant. I went on TV and on the back of phone books with "Lower and Consolidate Your Bills!" And, it worked very well indeed.
As it seemed everybody started moving into Chapter 13 work, I moved out and started representing those who have already filed bankruptcy in protecting the rights they have gained in this process. I do it to this day, and I still have nary a competitor.
I am starting to see personal injury attorneys do this now. For decades now they have advertised primarily for "injury" cases. Now the ads and spots are dealing with more specific and limited issues, like being injured by an 18-wheeler, or by a particular drug, or by a particular company, or in the exercise of a particular activity.
Sometimes it is a particular niche. Sometimes it is just a different way of looking at an existing practice area or appealing to a specific group that needs representation. Attorneys that represent only deaf people, who represent people with termite damage, or who represent people with unwarranted fees hidden in their mortgage accounts all into this category. My point is that if you are marketing yourself as just a personal injury attorney, or a consumer law attorney, or a family law attorney, or a bankruptcy attorney you are too scattered. You need to try counter programming.
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