Law Firm Marketing Plan Must Include Intangible Assets

Michael D. Moberly    June 16, 2014    ‘A long form blog where attention span really matters’.

So why shouldn’t every law firm’s strategic plan encourage achieving operational familiarity with business clients’ intangible assets…?

Frankly, in 2014, and for the foreseeable future, I would be very hard pressed to devise a rationale why every law firm should not achieve a fully operational familiarity with their business clients’ intangible assets, and incorporate same in their strategic planning as tools to…

  • expand and enhance firm brand and become a leader in intangible asset stewardship, oversight, and management, which in turn will produce more engagements, and
  • enhance firm competitiveness by providing legitimate grounds to re-engage existing clients, and engage new/prospective clients.

Law firm’s that continue to be dismissive of strategic planning that includes a full array of intangible assets but do not adjust their client services accordingly should expect to experience stagnation on various levels internally and externally, e.g., sustainability of client relationships, client satisfaction, and service deliverables. So, it’s not a case of when, rather how law firms can build the necessary receptivity and ultimately consensus, initiated by managing partners, to actually achieve a level of profession expertise to comfortably and professionally engage clients’ about their intangible assets.

More specifically, while most firms’ tactical speed, i.e., the efficiencies of delivering its services, etc., remain important, continuing to be dismissive of strategic speed for developing new and proactively relevant client services that directly reflect globally universal changes in economics and competitive advantage drivers. So, law firm strategic planning should be designed and executed, as the adage goes, to ‘avoid continuing to skate where the puck is now, rather skate to where the puck will be’. Law firms strategically guided by assuring their practice areas are effectively aligned to address clients’ intangible assets are far better positioned to elevate their long term sustainability and bring greater consistency in revenue.

Too, a firms’ strategic plan can be further developed to incorporate internal and external client sensors which then can unambiguously constitute a ‘heads up’ to the normative. Of course, strategic planning initiatives must not be shy about challenging convention. One way is for the plan to be sufficiently malleable to absorb and effectively act on the full array of clients’ intangible assets and the various and nuanced forms they take.

Intangible assets are characterized in two primary forms…

  1. Legal intangibles, i.e., those which once issued by a government agency confer certain legal property rights which provide standing to defend in a court of law, e.g., issued patents, copyrights, and trademarks, etc., and
  2. Competitive(advantage) intangibles which are often characterized as being non-ownable, but they directly impact – contribute to a company’s financial well being, create efficiencies, increase productivity, and market value, etc. Often competitive advantage intangibles evolve collectively from various combinations of intellectual, structural, and relationship capital. (Adapted by Michael D. Moberly the work of Mary Adams_

A perspective on whether intangible assets are non-ownable…

Intangible assets are assumed to be non-ownable, but for the creator – developer of intangibles particularly those which measurably produce contributory value and competitive advantages, it is certainly in their interest to sustain control and use of the intellectual, structural, and relationship capital embedded in – underlie those assets and consistently monitor their value, materiality, and risk. If not, risks are all but sure to materialized, the effects of which rapidly erode, diminish asset value, sources of revenue, and competitive advantages. So, in companies and/or circumstances where such actions are taken to safeguard and preserve the content and value of intangibles would wisely convey a sense of ownership, as well it should!

Examples of intangible assets…

The following are examples of intangible assets. They have been adapted by Mr. Moberly from two respected comprehensive and current sources, i.e., (a.) ‘The Intangible Asset Handbook: Maximizing Value From Intangible Assets’. Weston Anson. 2007. American Bar Association, and (b.) ‘Untangling Intangibles’ Tamara Plakalo   February, 2006. Managing Information Strategies. Australia.

  • Technology – software: Internally developed (proprietary) software and software copyrights, automated databases, source code, enterprise solutions and custom applications…
  • Marketing: Lyrics, jingles (music), promotional characters and devices, photographs andvideo, newsletters, advertising/marketing concepts, results of focus groups…
  • Engineering: Industrial (new plant, equipment) designs, engineering drawings (blueprints) and technical knowhow
  • Customers – clients: Communication-mailing lists, relationships, customer data bases and retrievalsystems, special distribution channels, 1-800 numbers, relationships
  • Competitor research:  Actionable business intelligence, i.e., plans, intentions, capabilities…
  • Real estate:  Zoning – construction permits, air, water, and mineral drilling-exploitation rights, right-of-way, easements, and building (expansion) plans/rights, location visual scenery – proximity to
  • Personnel training:  Proprietary manuals, operations processes and/or procedure
  • Domain names, website design, B2B and e-commerce capabilities, web links, customer/client accessibility and use
  • Corporate identity:  Names, trademarks, logos
  • Products and services:Warranties, trade dress, i.e., product shapes, color schemes, and packaging design/graphics, open purchase orders, order and/or product back log,
  • Contracts – agreements:  Any contract that has a definable life and some form of exclusivity, e.g., supply, media, performance and pricing agreements, license and/or royalty agreements, advertising, construction, management, and/or service contracts, leases, operating and broadcast rights and licenses, route utilization, franchise agreements, subscription rights, futures contracts, co-branding agreements, endorsements, spokesperson contracts, venue naming rights…
  • Intellectual property: Patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, trade dress, trade name, service marks, mastheads, application, logo design, prior art search, flanker patents; patent applications, foreign patents, reprints, use/performance rights
  •  R&D: Product research studies, formulas, process and assembly data, regulatory agency approval process-status
  •  Communication:  Cable rights and/or transmission rights, FCC licenses and/or certification, bandwidth
  • HR:  Wage rates, union contracts, non-compete and non-disclosure agreements (if transferable)…
  • Structural capital:  The structures and processes employees develop and deploy to increase productivity and performance (business process/method patents)
  • Human capital:  Sum total of employees’ specialties, skills, attitudes, abilities, competencies, and technical ‘know how’ documentation, i.e., lab notebooks, manuals, formulas, processes, and recipes (food, chemical formulas)

Incorporating client intangibles assets in law firms’ strategic planning…

It’s fair to suggest that many law firm managing partners have various, but seldom specified responsibilities, aside from sustaining or expand the firms’ profile and brand, extinguishing the inevitable fires and ‘mending fences’. For some firms, managing partners’ responsibilities can also include garnering and fostering firm wide consensus to develop and execute a strategic plan, as advocated here, inclusive of intangible assets which is best commenced by advocating attorney operational familiarity with intangible assets, i.e., their stewardship, oversight, and management and the assets’ relevance to a firm’s specific practice areas. A law firms’ strategic plan, particularly one that incorporates client’s intangible assets, is a dynamic and on-going exercise. The reasons are that client’s intangible assets are often nuanced, business/company centric, seldom remain static, and frequently fluctuate relative to the materialization of risks, threats, and the nature and type of transactions engaged in which clients’ intangible assets will inevitably be in play.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Int

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