With the recognition that a brand name or trade name is important for business, there is a trend among large prestigious law firms and even some smaller law firms to rebrand their law firm name to one that is good for branding.

What’s good for branding? A simple one-word tradename, preferably one that stands out. Hence, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy is now just “Milbank”.

 

I believed for years that prohibiting law firms from using a trade name is unconstitutional. There is no rational basis to require law firms to use the name of a partner, especially when the names of partners deceased for many decades are permitted.

Now, big law firms are ignoring ethical prohibitions or pretending to comply and rebranding with trade names.

Today’s partners may think an argument could be made that Milbank is not a trade name but simply the name of the original deceased partner. However, there is no question that Milbank is a trade name.

According to the New York Law Journal, Milbank Chairman Scott Edelman said there is no longer any connection between the lawyers at the law firm today and the original named partners of days gone by.

Christine Simmons wrote in her New York Law Journal article, “While the firm is proud of its history and the partners’ contributions, Edelman said, ‘it’s been so long that they’ve been associated with the firm,’ and there’s ‘no connection with the lawyers here today and those names.’ ”

Milbank is the latest law firm to rebrand. Recently, the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo rebranded to “Mintz”.

The American Lawyer wrote, “What does the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo have in common with Dunkin’ Donuts?” In the same week, both the law firm and Dunkin’ Donuts shortened their names to one word.

It’s time for law firms to choose trade names to promote competition.

The top Super Bowl commercials are rated by the public for entertainment but which commercial is the best to sell the product? It’s the Michael Bublé Bubly™ commercial by Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

Why is the Michael Bublé Bubly™ Super Bowl TV commercial my winner? It’s not analytics.

SPARK Neuro is an interesting company offering neuro analytics to optimize advertising. Using a headset, they measure the amount of emotion and attention of the viewer while a TV commercial is playing.

CEO Spencer Gerrol said, in a CBS TV interview about Super Bowl commercials, “…when we look at the ad, we look for where are the peaks, where are the times that you were incredibly excited, incredibly attentive and where are the times when we may have lost you?”

 

Many TV commercials attempt to get the viewer’s attention and create excitement. But that’s of secondary importance. While interesting and an effective part of designing a TV commercial, the attention SPARK Neuro got on TV news overlooks the most important part of advertising.

SPARK Neuro will likely make this aspect even more successful but what happens as excitement is increased is that the viewer is focused on the exciting feature and can’t remember what the commercial was advertising.

I see advertisements on TV all the time which has a feature designed to get my attention and create excitement or be funny, such as a puppy, baby, or crazy scene but I barely notice the brand or what’s being advertised. Seconds after the commercial finishes airing, I can’t even remember what was being advertised, let alone the brand. In fact, I have seen TV commercials 30 or 40 times before I realized what was being advertised.

One of the best TV commercials I have ever seen gets my attention and creates some excitement but nowhere near as much as other TV spots with exciting features. So why is the Michael Bublé Bubly advertisement so effective? It’s memorable but not at the expense of the brand. It makes the brand memorable.

The Michael Bublé Bubly Blackberry Sparkling Water Super Bowl TV commercial is funny but the amusement is all about the brand, Bubly™, and is continually about the brand throughout the 30-second TV spot.

For some reason, advertising agencies think that there has to be something funny at the end of the commercial and it’s usually not about the product. In this spot even the funny part at the end is about the product when Michael Bublé uses a magic marker to change the name Bubly to Bublé on a can of Bubly.

Not very exciting and nothing shocking to get your attention but the Michael Bublé Bubly commercial is one of the best I’ve seen

As a side note, not only is their TV commercial brilliant but PepsiCo’s brand Bubly is brilliant for many reasons including that the domain name is short, matches the brand, and was likely easy to get. Bubly’s website is also well designed, prominently making the brand desirable. Bubly™ is not soda but is sparkling water.

A Super Bowl commercial for a similar product got attention featuring Naomi Campbell and lizards. SPARK Neuro’s headset will register high attention but viewers won’t remember what the commercial was advertising because the TV spot was “artistically” done showing the product without the product name for only a few seconds at the beginning of the spot and for only 5 seconds at the end. But viewers will remember Naomi Campbell dancing with lizards.

A similar Super Bowl Ad gets attention but viewers won’t remember what it was advertising. They will remember Naomi Campbell and the lizards!

TV commercials for lawyers usually lack all of these features. While lawyer advertising usually doesn’t grab attention or create excitement, they usually advertise only the lawyer’s name and rarely promote a brand. Lawyers should think about creating a brand to make their advertising more effective.

Does your law office advertise a slogan or vanity phone number on your website or advertising? If you haven’t trademarked it, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

I once put “No Fee Guarantee” on my law firm website. Sometime later, I received a letter advising that it was trademarked and that I would have to remove it. Since it was only on my website and not on billboards and TV advertising, it was easy to remove.

Someone who isn’t a lawyer contacted me about a vanity phone number for lawyers he has. He filed a trademark registration, put up a website directory for lawyers and received a letter from a lawyer threatening to sue him. The lawyer has the 800 version of the vanity phone number but the lawyer never trademarked it and never even claimed a common law trademark by displaying ™ on his website.

I filed a trademark registration for my vanity phone number 1-800-HURT-911 many years ago soon after I got it. I was able to trademark HURT-911® which is much more powerful than trademarking the entire phone number with the area code.

I was able to trademark my vanity number without the area code because HURT-911 is not generic but if your vanity phone number is generic you can trademark it together with the area code such as 1-800-ATTORNEYS. Trademarking a vanity phone number in one area code will protect your vanity phone number if someone tries to use it with another area code.

Fortunately, I trademarked my vanity phone number as soon as I did because recently someone with another similar phone number, widely advertised for lawyers, sued one of my licensees claiming trademark infringement. My trademark predated the competitor’s trademark and his lawsuit was dismissed.

A Reason to Trademark Your Slogan or Vanity Phone Number You May Not Have Thought of

People and companies usually register a trademark to stop others from using the mark. More importantly, even if you’re not concerned about someone else using a similar vanity phone number, slogan or design, a trademark will protect your right to continue using your mark when someone else tries to stop you.

Several years ago, I created a cause marketing campaign for motorcycle accident cases and needed a slogan. Every slogan I could think of was  already trademarked. It took a while but I finally came up with “BE AWARE MOTORCYCLES ARE EVERYWHERE®”.

I wasn’t so much concerned about stopping other people from using it but I didn’t want anyone to stop me from using it. I immediately trademarked it in the three classes in which I needed to protect it.

Once you register a trademark, you can choose either to stop other people from using it or simply give them a license to use the mark.

 

Now for the second time, after allegedly abandoning their first claim, Chick-fil-A sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bo Muller-Moore who makes screen printed “Eat More Kale” T-shirts by hand.  Apparently, Chick-fil-A believes that use of the slogan “Eat More Kale” on T-shirts is confusingly similar to their slogan “Eat Mor Chikin” for their restaurants.

Although I think this is legally ridiculous, I don’t think I like to try Chick-fil-A if it tastes like a T-shirt.

In another equally interesting and legally ridiculous claim, the porn company Vivid Entertainment accused Taiwan-based phonemaker, HTC of violating their trademark by marketing their new phone called Vivid.

I guess Vivid Entertainment could consider this to be confusingly similar if they believe the only thing anyone uses a phone for is to look at pornography and call escort services.

I just heard from someone who sold two phone numbers with different area codes using the word lawyers as 1-XXX-LAWYERS.  Now that’s confusingly similar to 1-800-LAWYERS.

Just don’t ask me to eat a T-shirt and I’m going to stick to my Motorola E815 cell phone which isn’t good for watching porn but it never misses a call.

Once you decide on on the direction of your brand, never forget it and never deviate from it. I noticed two recent examples of brand deviation or destruction by major corporations.

Recently, Domino’s announced that (after 40 years) they discovered their pizza wasn’t good! Can you imagine that? So they reinvented their pizza and recent advertising has focused on nothing but how proud they are of their new taste.

Domino’s became a $1.4 billion company with bad pizza because they hit on a great niche with a great brand slogan “30 minutes or it’s free”. Apparently, their customers liked bad pizza, never cared and/or just wanted fast delivery. Now, they abandoned their brand and have to compete on taste. But after trying it yesterday, I don’t think that’s going to be successful.

Even more egregious, I just received an astonishing email from FedEx. What do you think of when you think of FedEx? Probably, the same thing I do. Reliability.

Now, FedEx is offering an alternative to reliable delivery. Cheap and unreliable! The e-mail which you can see below asks “Do you want reliable or economical?” Which one do you want?