Buddying up! (published Summer 2020)
Branding alliances and partnerships ‘Alliance relationships’ are a big part of tech, but they’re not new in law. It’s common for firms to want to combine expertise and collaborate to solve business issues. These kinds of relationships are set to continue at pace throughout the legal market, but how firms brand their alliances and strategic partnerships depends to a large extent on the nature of each relationship and aspirations, together with the philosophy of the partners involved. In most instances, no single brand dominates and both parties aim to leverage brand awareness and the other’s quality reputation for the common good of the client. Hogan Lovells, for example, has formed a series of strategic relationships to offer a variety of services that cater to the needs of clients through New Law businesses. One is Cognia Law in which both brands – Hogan Lovells and Cognia Law – coexist. Adopting hybrid & stand-alone brand structure Some have taken the ‘alliance relationship’ a step further. Norton Rose Fulbright and Syke Legal Engineering’s new strategic alliance is branded NRF | SYKE. This hybrid approach to brand architecture (blended identity) combines the acronym and visual style of NRF Transform (the technology and innovation platform) with the name and logo of Syke. While NRF is more dominant (and the brand only appears on the NRF Transform website), the approach aims to leverage the reputation and awareness of both brands to tap into growth areas. It does so by adopting a low-cost, lower-risk business model than, say, in a traditional merger and acquisition.
Others have gone even further. Bird & Bird and bidding experts ShineX, for example, formed a separate brand, Foothold, for their partnership agreement. Clearly standalone brands such as Foothold require more sales and marketing activities to build awareness than branding structures capable of piggybacking off awareness of the corporate brand. Using brand architecture for clarity There is no right or wrong approach to branding alliances and partnerships, but any approach should be informed by brand architecture. Without a blueprint for how firms brand tech – both at corporate and product levels, and for in-house grown tech, acquired tech and solutions developed in partnership – the end result will be a smorgasbord of names and identities. Inevitably this makes it harder for internal and external audiences to understand; and buy!
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