Brand Management In Service Industry

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

For businesses that are offering products and services to the public, the trust is considered as one of the most important factors to be attended very carefully, since the service itself is intangible for consumers. Brand credibility, trust and reputation are the cardinal issues in this study which have a strong relation with the retention of customer as a key success factor in today’s business world. These issues are discussed in details to allay concepts of these concerns here

The literature used in this study will draw on a variety of inter-related disciplines, including Branding, brand building, corporate image, organizational communication, management, and integrated marketing communications. The first literature addressed is the what is brand, brand trust and its consequences to customers loyalty and brand credibility. Second, the brand building literature, drawing from both the marketing and communication studies disciplines is critical to understanding how organizations build trust and finally the review will survey the impact of communications on organizational communication and whether it allows the organization to build trust and uphold the firm’s reputation with its external publics.

What is brand

Kotler and Keller (2012) described the brand as the name, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. Similarly, Aaker (1991) states: A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods or service from those competitors. A brand thus signals to the customer the source of the product, and protects both the customer and the producer from competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be identical. Customers and users evaluate identical products and services based on their brands. One way to reach information about brands is past experiences by customers. Customers compare different brands to selected best ones according to their needs and requirements. Kotler and Keller (2012) believed that brands can make people life easier by simplifying their decision making process.

Kotler (2003) argues that brand gives the business the following advantages: 1) The brand name makes it easier for the seller to process orders and track down problems 2) The seller’s brand name and trademark provide legal protection of unique product features 3) Branding gives the seller the opportunity to attract a loyal and profitable set of customers. Brand loyalty gives sellers some protection from competition. 4) Branding helps the seller segment markets. 5) Strong brands help build the corporate image, making it easier to launch new brands and gain acceptance by distributors and consumers.

Rebranding

Rebranding is the process of change and is associated with the alterations and transformation of an already existing brand. The intention of rebranding is to create a new, more desirable brand in the eyes of customers. From a CEO’s perspective, there are just two kinds of rebranding" "have to and want to." (Spaeth, 2005, p. 18). But whether, it seems to be a have to or a want to, a necessity or luxury, real or cosmetic, rebranding has been an increasing phenomenon worldwide (Kaikati and Kaikati, 2003).

Muzellec et al. (2003) stated that "corporate rebranding aims to modify the image (the perceived-self) and/or to reflect a change in the identity (the core-self)" of a company (p. 33). They provided four general drivers of rebranding: a change in ownership structure, a change in corporate strategy, a change in competitive position, and a change in the external environment They also mentioned that the change in ownership structure "appears to be the most frequent cause of rebranding as well as the most compelling reason for it" (p. 34) with mergers and acquisitions at the top.

Brand credibility

Ohanian, 1991 defines Brand credibility as Trustworthiness, Expertise and Attractiveness of the Endorser, Company or Brand and Advertiser on which the consumer believes. Additionally, Ohanian,1991 defines Source credibility as communicator's constructive characteristics that affect the receiver's acceptance of a message. Credibility signifies the scope of the source, perceived of having relevant expertise and knowledge of the subject which can be trusted and who gives an honest and believable opinion on the subject or the product, Brand and Services (Ohanian 1990).

Erdem et al., 2004 defines that the believability of brand is affected by the consistency in the marketing mix of the Brand. Brand cues are used by sellers to pitch their brand to the consumers. Additionally, Erdem and Swait (2004) continued their investigation on brand credibility consequences by exploring the role of brand credibility on brand choice and consideration. Their study emphasized on the strong influences of brand credibility on choosing and considering brands through various categorized products from fruit juices to buying computers devices.

Erdem and Swait (2008) considered loyalty as on important consequences of brand credibility and they considered asymmetry of information as an important reason of churning customers in service industries; in contrary, companies which support their users by perfect and accurate data and information move on an assurance line to keep their customers so as to create a long term relationship with users and reduce the switching cost of users.

Sweeney and Swait (2008) showed that loyalty-brand credibility relationship is affected by satisfaction, and brand credibility influences satisfaction directly. They also found that brand credibility impacts word-of-mouth through creating customer satisfaction. Andreassen and Lindestad (1998) conducted their study, which had followed studies such as Hallowell (1996) to explore relationship among customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty while the effect of company image and brand was considered as a factor which can influence satisfaction and loyalty of customers. Andreassen and Lindestad (1998) employed Oliver (1980) theory to describe customer loyalty as a consequence of customer satisfaction. In terms of satisfaction, they mentioned satisfaction as consequences of customers.’ prior experiences with specific brand. Andreassen and Lindestad (1998) claimed that quality; brand name and image are factors that form customer expectation of a brand. The negative experiences regarding to these factors can reduce customer satisfaction level.

Brand trust

Trust means confidence on exchange partner’s reliability and integrity (Morgan and Hunt 1994). Aaker (1996) and Lasser et al. (1995) defined brand trust as the consumers’ readiness in believing on a particular brand of its capability of promised functionality and its attributes. Doney and Cannon (1997) emphasized that the notion of trust is only applicable in condition of uncertainty.

Aaker (1996) declared that brand trust goes beyond the consumer’s satisfaction by way of functional performance of the product and its attributes. Matzler (2008) emphasized that brand trust is the key variable to maintain a continuing relationships with customers, which sequentially lead to brand loyalty. In addition to that, trust is often conceptualized as encompassing perceptions of honesty/integrity, reliability/dependability responsibility, and positive motives/intentions (Smith 1997).

Many other researchers have followed this idea (Deustch, 1960; Schlenker et al., 1973; Boon and Holmes, 1991). Boon and Holmes (1991) defining trust as a condition linking certain optimistic opportunity about another’s intention with respect to oneself in risky state of affairs. Chaudhuri, and Holbrook, 2001 states that trust plays a vital role for developing and maintaining brand loyalty in both situations, i.e. consumer-to-business and business-to-business buying situation.

Brand management

Brand management is one of the central issues of market driven organizations. Brand-Building (BB) is a key component of developing a market driven product strategy. The pivotal role of brands in markets became increasingly important as CEOs recognize their value and leverage potential of widely respected brand names. Organizations are convinced that strong brands out- perform their weaker counterparts. Consequently, brand management is a strategic necessity that should be seen as comprehensive and interrelated functions and systems. These functions and systems can be employed in the strategic process of building a successful brand that should result in financial and non-financial benefits e.g., increasing sales, ROI, market share or increasing customer loyalty (Cravens et al., 2000).

Brand Management in Service industry

Service businesses have started to comprehend the fact that building a successful corporate brand is one of the crucial paths to tackle the challenges and problems created by the unique characteristics of services (e.g., minimizing intangibility) especially in the customers’ minds (McDonald et al., 2003; Davis, 2002 ). Numerous recent attempts have been made to understand BB process in the service organisations due to the strategic role of BB on service business performance (O’Loughlim and Szmigin, 2005; Brady et al., 2005; Eberl and Schwaiger, 2005; King and Grace, 2005; Cravens, 2006).

Examining the service brand literature has revealed that there is a number of factors that have a critical role to play on BB. A careful examination on service brand literature has found that seven factors have a critical role on BB as follows: Corporate Culture (CC), Internal Marketing (IM), Service Delivery Process (SDP), Atmospherics (ATMO), Distinctive Banking Product (DBP), Marketing Communications (MC) and Cross Functional Teams (CFT).

Brand Building

Boyd et al. (1994) found that the most important criterion upon which customers choose a legal service company is its reputation (Boyd et al., 1994). Denby-Jones (1995) found that building a corporate image needs an organisational commitment and delivering consistent services to customers. The customer focus is the central point of the business culture. He found that branding provides increased market share, greater profitability, and significant boost to a company asset value. However, a significant contribution to the brand management literature has come from the seminal work of Aaker (1996).

Aaker (1996) suggests "brand building involves strategic and tactical imperatives that create significant organizational challenges. As depicted in Figure 2-1: "a brand identity is required to guide the development and coordination of the tactical programs." The brand building organization should ensure that someone is in charge of this and that an identity is created. A clear and rich identity will guide the brand and help distinguish on-target, supportive communications from the inconsistent and non-supportive.

Howcraft and Lavis (1986) found that building a corporate image can be done through corporate identity (external and internal design and facilities), public relations, the design of distribution and delivery systems, and improving the customer service. Berry et al. (1988) argued that strong brand names can accelerate market awareness and acceptance of a high-quality service. Zeithmal et al. (1985) found that building a company reputation can be achieved by stimulating the word-of- mouth communication. Other researchers: Shostack (1977); Berry (1980); Zeithaml et al. (1985) advocated company branding strategy through using distinctive logo or physical facilities that consumers can immediately associate them with specific service providers. Dobree and Page (1990) found that establishing and enhancing a strong service brand would be achieved through distinct service offerings and a superior service delivery process by which a company can meet its promises. Balmer and Wilkinson (1991) argue that a powerful marketing weapon is having a corporate identity.

Online brand building

Taylor et al. (2004) indicated that brand trust appeared to be the most two influential influences on both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. Rowley (2009) performed an exploratory study and had given an idea on an understanding online branding practically. Visual identity has been successfully built across online channels, however the study related to the usage of online medium for building brand trust relationship and communicating brand values is still underdeveloped. Danaher et al. (2003) has indicated that the importance of online branding may be influenced by market share, product category, and web experience.

As presented by Rowley (2004b), the analysis on McDonald’s online branding, stated that branding may have started with creating brand awareness and presence by forming and registering brand marks, logos, and brand strap lines. However, for long term perspective, branding should focus on two elements: brand promise and brand experience.

Cuthbertson and Bridson (2006) stated that online brand communities are vital facets of online brand building. According to Harris and Goode (2004), consumer trust is essential for online loyalty. In relations to this, Ibeh et al. (2005) argued that due to impersonal interaction, consumer trust is as expected value more significant in the virtual world as compared to real world. Branding as an intrinsic challenge among bank retailers, supported by banking consumers who are exceptionally low in price sensitivity and consumer trial rates between banks (Baumann et al., 2004). To this effect, Fournier and Yao (1997) indicated that companies’ marketing plan should focus on the development and maintenance of online branding when encountering highly competitive markets with increasing impulsiveness and declining product differentiation.

Corporate Image

The term corporate image is often used to refer to an organization’s views about external stakeholders’ perceptions with respect to an organization (Davies et al. 2001). Brown et al. (2006) refer to this as the construed image. Construed image encompasses all the associations that internal organizational members have about external stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization. It asks the question "What does the organization believe others think of the organization?" (Brown et al. 2006). Intended image refers to the associations held by organizational leaders that are to be projected to important stakeholders. It asks the question "What does the organization want others to think about the organization?" (Brown et al. 2006).

Corporate image focuses on the "outside world's overall impression of the company including the views of customers, shareholders, the media, the general public" (Hatch & Schultz, 2003). Fombrun and Shanley (1990) suggest that various informational signals from organizations such as: information about firms’ structural positions within organizational fields, market and accounting signals indicating performance, institutional signals indicating agreement to social norms, strategy signals indicating strategic postures all contribute to company image.

Corporate Identity

Corporate identity is the internal stakeholders’ perceptions about an organization (Albert and Whetten 1985). Organizational identity refers to the associations held by the organizational members about an organization. Identity asks the question "Who are we as an organization?" (Brown et al. 2006). Bromley (2001) suggests that corporate identity is that set of attributes that distinguishes one organization from another. Dutton, Dukerich, and Harquail, 1994 defines Corporate identity as "The construed external image of the firm. What a member believes outsiders think about the organization". While Balmer, 2001 describes the corporate identity as "What employees feel and think about their organization. It focuses on questions relating to organizational

Corporate Associations

Brown and Dacin (1997) suggest "corporate associations" as a term that refers to all the underlying information and perceptions one has toward a company. Corporate associations describe the "cognitions, affects (i.e. moods and emotions), evaluations (attaching to specific cognitions or affects), summary evaluation and/or patterns of associations (e.g. schema, scripts) with respect to a particular company" (Brown 1998). Brown and Dacin (1997) divided the corporate associations into two main dimensions: (1) corporate ability associations, which included items such as: leadership in industry, research and development capability andprogressiveness of company; and (2) corporate social responsibility associations, which included items such as: concern for the environment, involvement in local communities, and corporate giving to worthy causes. Later, Berens and Van Riel (2004) proposed a measure for corporate associations which included: social expectations,corporate personality traits and trust toward the company.

Brown and Dacin (1997) postulated that corporate associations are composed of: (1) corporate ability associations which were determined by: (a) leadership in industry, (b) research and development capability, (c) progressiveness of company, and (2) corporate social responsibility associations, which were perceived to be: (a) concern for the environment, (b) involvement in local communities, and (c) corporate giving to worthy causes.

Corporate Communication

Corporate communication is defined as "an instrument by means of which all consciously used forms of internal and external communications are harmonized as effectively and efficiently as possible to create a favorable basis for relationships with the groups upon which the company is dependent" (Van Riel, 1995). It is an important method by which corporate marketers communicate messages about an organization to multiple stakeholder groups.

In addition to its primary role as a means for communicating with multiple stakeholders, corporate communications can help enhance and support a company’s reputation. According to the signaling theory, corporate communications can be used to provide signal information to stakeholders when they are confronted with uncertainty or incomplete information about a firm (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990). Corporate communications helps reduce uncertainty stakeholders have about a company’s actions.

Further, Fombrun and Rindova (1998) note that "communications that make a firm transparent enable shareholders to appreciate the firm’s operations better, and also facilitate ascribing better reputation." Burke (1998) also emphasizes the importance of corporate communication by highlighting its significance in helping to "sustain, foster and develop an organization’s reputation." Several qualitative studies have supported the effect of corporate communication management on reputation building (e.g. Foreman and Argenti, 2005).

Signaling theory

Signaling theory (Turban and Greening, 1997; Spence, 1974) is an important component of corporate communications. This is because perceptions about a strength or weakness in one area of a firm may affect perceptions about other areas in a firm. Signaling theory suggests that a strong or weak performance in an area of reputation could spill over into other areas. This may result in more favorable or unfavorable perceptions across the multiple dimensions of corporate reputation. When individuals are faced with incomplete information, they use the information that they have as signals about the unknown aspect of a firm (Spence, 1974). Signaling theory has been used in marketing to support the view that consumers exposed to new products with a familiar brand name extend the characteristics of the brand to the newly introduced product (Wernerfelt, 1998). In corporate reputation, stakeholders use a firm’s corporate communication message as signals about a company’s reputation.

Integrated marketing communications

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a strategic communication process that uses multiple marketing communications tools to promote awareness of a company’s product or service, informing consumers about features and benefits, while moving targeted customers to make a purchase decision or to utilize a service ("Marketer’s Toolkit," 2006).

The IMC strategy is all about using multiple modes of communications to achieve the desired message to the targeted consumers. "The central tenet of the IMC approach, which distinguishes it from the conventional view, is that each medium enhances the contribution of all other media." (Niak & Raman 2003, p.385)

Brand Reputation

Business literatures define corporate reputation as the stakeholders’ overall impression of an organization over time (Bailey, 2005), and it reflects the organization’s relative standing, internally with its employees, and externally with its other stakeholders (Fombrum et al., 2000).

Competing firms offering similar range of products and services could differentiate themselves from their competitors and could enjoy certain competitive advantage by deploying their valuable resources and capabilities that are superior, scarce, and inimitable (Roberts and Dowling, 2002).

Some sectors in the service industry, especially banks, hotels, hospitals, consulting firms, and educational institutions rely heavily on their corporate reputation to attract and retain their customers (Nguyen and Leblanc, 2001). In fact, this study believes that almost all retailers in the market today regardless of what products they are selling are interested to develop and preserve their respective corporate reputation. The study done by Nguyen and Leblanc (2001) found that the customers are more inclined to purchase the products or services from companies whom they perceived as having favorable reputation among their competitors.

The firms could achieve favorable levels of corporate reputation through acting reliable, credible, trustworthy and responsible in the market in the eyes of their stakeholders. The role of corporate reputation in marketplace is similar to brand equity, particularly when the company’s name is a part of brand identification (Awang and Jusoff, 2009).

Corporate social responsibility

CSR and branding have a number of linkages, specifically through trust, corporate reputation and consumer attribution. Gurhan-Canli and Fries (2009) developed a corporate social responsibility and brand-related outcomes model. Gurhan-Canli and Fries (2009) suggest that both consumer characteristics, such as awareness of CSR programmes and personal judgement and company characteristics such as reputation are factors influencing branding outcomes. The branding outcome would include evaluation of the company, brand and product, in which brand trust would be considered.

The good reputation a company develops from CSR can help counter the bad publicity and shareholder impact from a negative event, which means less impact on the brand. Reputation is affiliated with consumer attributes and has an effect on brand trust. Godfrey et al. (2008) found institutional CSR created goodwill towards stakeholders and had significant impact.

Cause marketing and Trust

Cause-related marketing (CRM), is considered an aspect of CSR (Godfrey & Hatch, 2006; De Los Salmones et al., 2005). Keller (2008) states CRM is connected to building brand awareness and image, including feelings and credibility towards a brand, affecting brand trust. De Los Salmones et al. (2005) identified CSR as an important marketing tool for services marketing and this has an effect on consumer loyalty. In contrast, Nan and Heo (2007) state that CRM can create a positive image of the company itself, but not necessarily the brands they offer. Godfrey and Hatch (2006) state that CRM produces an overall positive response from consumers, while considering the moral obligation to shareholders, however, CRM activities can still be viewed as negative by consumers.

Nan and Heo (2007) suggest the simple practice of CRM provides favourable consumer attitudes compared to when an organisation has no CRM, regardless of whether there is fit between the cause and the organisation. Porter and Kramer (2002) conclude there is number of companies that give small donations to causes, without having a focused strategy or cause to align with, which is a mistake. Social and economic convergence should occur, between the social causes and the overall outcomes to produce competitive advantage (Porter & Kramer, 2002).

Word of mouth

Word of mouth has been frequently addressed in the business literature especially in service literature. Classically, it has been viewed as an element in the framework that constructed from satisfaction-profit relationship. East, Hammond, and Lomax (2008) defined word of mouth as an informal advises that are being transferred among customers. Authors saw word of mouth as an interactive, rapid, and deficient in business-related predisposition.

Alam and Yasin (2010) found a strong relationship among word-of-mouth and trusted brands. Additionally, Brown et al., (2005) speculated satisfaction effects on word-of-mouth. Brown et al. (2005) considered satisfaction as an antecedent on word-of-mouth in a positive direction. Brown et al. (2005) described word-of-mouth as information related to the service, products, firms, and stores, which are spread by satisfied customers.

Alam and Yasin (2010) pointed that customers.’ trust on the brand could play important role for companies in both offline and online environment. Alam and Yasin (2010) followed the definition on trust as the most important tool to make a brand reliable for its users; therefore, customers.’ can trust on this brand and will help to promote brand by word-of-mouth tool.

CONCLUSION

Branding Benefits

There is a consensus within the academic literature on the benefits of sustaining positive publicity towards the corporate brand. Several texts on the subject have been able to argue that reputation is of a value creating advantage for firms. Hence, a good reputation enables firms to charge higher prices, makes it more difficult for competitors to compete and has a motivating effect on the organization. Similarly, there are benefits for those firms that are capable of sustaining and creating a high level of trust for their companies among customers. Companies that can create trust for their corporate brands are able to enjoy marketing benefits and a higher level of customer retention. Based on the literature review I can conclude that both corporate reputation and brand trust is of imperative importance in the pursuit of building a profitable enterprise. Consequently corporate reputation of a firm should be considered as an asset and wealth that gives that firm a competitive advantage because the firm will be regarded as reliable, credible, trustworthy and responsible for employees, customers, shareholders and financial markets.

A considerable amount of branding literature review has revealed that BB is a crucial strategic tool and has a paramount role to play on service firms’ performance and on achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Hence the benefits of BB are: increasing market share, increasing profitability, increasing sales, boosting the company’s value assets and increasing return on investment as well as better reputation, continuous growth, better positioning in the customers’ eyes and building relationships with customers.

Following the literature on brand management and marketing communication - the new synergy between real perspectives and virtual ones in communication. I can conlcude that adopting a new integrated approach in order to manage the complex issues involved in communicating the brand to consumers and other stakeholders in the mature market is important. A good quality communication program might provide a positive evaluation about a company. This is because a good quality communication program provides indication that a company is effective not only in the message it is conveying, but may extend to other features about a corporation as well. An effective corporate communications program can enhance perceptions about the activities that are relevant to specific stakeholders and can also trigger an overall positive evaluation about the company as a whole.

Study limitations

The majority of previous studies on trust and reputation especially in the professional service industry have been carried out in the North American marketplace, and may therefore be difficult to translate to other cultures. Another common problem in the literature seems to be the use of the umbrella term 'professional service' to describe an extraordinarily diverse set of occupations . Whilst certain general characteristics of professional services are probably recognizable, the present writers find themselves in agreement with Morgan (1991) that the unique complexities of individual professions merit separate investigation. Further, most of the literature appears to focus on the advertising of professional services (and. indeed, on the marketing of advertising services themselves (Halinen. 1997) and whilst these fields are relevant to the later part of this study, they offer little insight when examining customer selection processes for legal practices, other than in the consideration of information sources. Thus, the following review will attempt to confine its discussions to earlier work in legal service marketing research, only referring to other professional services marketing literature when relevant (or when no prior work in a legal context appears to exist).

Chapter 3: Research design and methodology

Research goal

The aim of the research is to

Understand current perceptions of FIRM Law Firm and its strength in the market.

Access the latest market insight to help me increase FIRM Law Firm’s pitch success rate in the Armenian market

Improve FIRM Law Firm’s client retention by better understanding clients’ needs, behaviors and FIRM Law Firm’s performance.

Survey Research Method

For understanding current perceptions of FIRM LAw Firm brand and its strength in the market a study have been constructed using two primary sources of empirical evidence. Firstly, initial observations about FIRM law firm have been collected using newspaper articles and other media material to build an empirical foundation and understanding for the Firm’s reputations. These observations have been used to build my knowledge of the publicity surrounding the firm, upon which, supported by knowledge from previous research from the literature review, an interview guide and survey method was constructed.

Intercept survey

The following section discusses the survey method and sampling design and size. Although there are many survey methods that could have been chosen, due to time constraints and the need to access a variety of target groups, an intercept survey was determined the best method. The survey method has both advantages and disadvantages.

Postal or email questionnaire methods can lead to lower response rates and there is no opportunity for participants to ask questions, thus a face-to-face survey is most favorable. While Intercept surveys are more flexible, have a lower cost and gain access to a large number of the population.

Sudman (1980) suggests it provides an unbiased sample by sampling at shopping mall entrances, provided different locations are chosen. The unbiased sample is possible because different stores attracting different socio-economic groups are scattered across a mall (Sudman, 1980). However, Sudman (1980) suggests time intervals and gender must be considered. The ideal time frame for the data collection to occur is between 2-3 weeks (Sudman, 1980).

The data for this study was collected over a two week period and at different time intervals. I adopted the original method to the law firm reality by doing a court intercept survey, since the people in and out of courts were most likely in where having some legal issues, the probability that they know or were using the FIRM law firm were higher.

Every third consumer entering or leaving the main entrances of the court houses, was selected and approached to fill in a questionnaire, following the mall-intercept survey method.

The following issues were being addressed in the survey questionnaires: client evoked sets of local solicitors: reasons for clients actual selection; clients' knowledge of FIRM law firm and the firms specialization; the importance of a range of selection factors for solicitors in general; and respondents' demographic details. A stratified quota sample was used, resulting in a total of 120 usable responses. A general intercpet surbey questions is provided in appendix A

Semi-structured interviews

In-depth interviews were conducted with consumers in a semi- structured manner using the pre-tested interview guide with the provision that unstructured follow-up questions were used to "probe".

Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted on the subject of FIRM law firm credibility, and professionalism among business sector/corporations. The in-depth interview was semi structured and each lasted between 45 minutes and an hour. A general outline of the interview questions is provided in appendices B and C.

In- depth interviews were also selected for their ability to generate "cultural talk" (Moisander & Valtonen, 2010) enabling me to learn about clients’ viewpoints in regards to the FIRM Law Firm, which helped me to further investigate how these concepts are treated and understood by the consumers at hand in the cultural and social environment that consumers live in.

In regards to the respondents for the interviews, that any marketing or branch manager of any corporations would be appropriate for this study as we were interested in the companies’ perceptions of the FIRM corporate brand and brand trust rather than aiming towards generalizability (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). Consequently, it was not necessary that the respondents’ used the brands at hand but rather that they had a perception of the brands. With this said, the fact that they were or not were FIRM Clients’ was considered in the analysis.

To avoid possible bias due to level of involvement, or bias in previous perceptions of the FIRM Law Firm (as the literature review finds to be influencing factors) I used a judgmental convenience sampling. I selected respondents I knew to be or not be clients at FIRM Law Firm.

Furthermore, as Eriksson and Kovalianen (2008) state, through this sampling I was also able to select respondents who were known to either of us on beforehand and thus able to put their responses into a greater context. Respondents were selected and interviews were continuously made until the reach of saturation, the point when new interviews did not add new information. I reached saturation after a number of twenty conducted interviews;

The interviews were digitally recorded (using a digital voice recorder) and later transcribed. After transcription, a thorough analysis was done in search of some common thoughts, themes and constructs.

These interview guides were also updated and modified as the interviews proceeded leading to a ‘mark 1’ (Appendix B) and ‘mark 2’ (Appendix C) interview guide.

STUDY LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

This research is subject to some limitations. First, the sample size was restricted to 140 respectively due to costs and time reasons. Thus, the extent to which the results can be generalized to the whole population is questionable. Second, this study has been conducted in the absence of full competition. Third, although respondents agreed to participate in the survey, the reliability of their responses is still largely questionable. Future research can focus on investigating the overall perception of the legal service providers brand among population of Armenia.

Chapters 4:

Since it’s establishment the FIRM Law Firm has had to deal with a substantial amount of scrutiny from the press throughout its history. Through the 6 months of its existence the company has been accused for a quality doubts, based on revelation that one of the managing partner has close ties with the corrupt government, hence enabling FIRM Law Firm to be a leading company with a low percentage of lost cases due the fear of the justice sector to properly investigate the cases brought up by FIRM Law Firm .

Intercept survey

The sample and interview locations were chosen to address the existing and desired client profile of Firm, meaning that it was important to reflect the entire social spectrum. Over 75 per cent of individuals questioned had used a local solicitor before, 65 per cent of them within the last year and 50 per cent of them were currently in some form of legal litigation.

When asked unprompted to name as many local law firms as possible. 80 per cent of respondents were able to name at least one firm. 50 per cent could name two and less than 25 per cent three or more. The most commonly mentioned firms corresponded closely with top 6 law firms ranking in the country: Firm Firm being the second most cited practice (43 mentions) behind Firm B (46). The next nearest rival, Firm D had 23 mentions. A large number of other firms (over 40) were mentioned.

35 per cent of Consumers’ reasons for choice of particular law firm were the personal recommendations, while 30 per cent of the respondents relied on family’s past experience with firm, only 10 per cent of the respondents considered local reputation as a main factor while choosing a law firm.

What are the first five law firms that come to mind?

Which three firms do you feel the most favorable toward?

Consumers’ reasons for choice of particular law firm were

Personal recommendations

Family’s past experience with firm

Professional/ business recommendations

Local reputation

Office location

Low cost

Which firms are you most likely to consider for major M&A work ?

Which firms are you most likely to consider for bet-the-company litigation 

            matters?

Which firms do you use most for "high value" work?

And for overseas clients: which firms do you use most in the U.S.?

Interviews

Empirical discussion

On the Positive Side

Interviewees say that FIRM lawyers are knowledgeable about the law, and can help clients navigate through difficult situations.

Personal experiences with lawyers substantiate these positive beliefs. The majority of consumers who have hired a lawyer from FIRM are satisfied with the service their lawyer provided and refered other clients to the firm.

Consumers tell stories of FIRM lawyers who apply significant expertise and knowledge to their cases, identify practical solutions, and work hard on behalf of their clients.

On the Negative Side

Interviewees say that reputation of FIRM FIRM Law Firm lawyers are that they are manipulative and corrupt. Personal experiences with lawyers substantiate these beliefs.

Consumers told stories of lawyers who misrepresent their qualifications, overpromise, are not upfront about their fees, charge too much for their services, take too long to resolve matters, and fail to return client phone calls, however they couldnt cite a case that FIRM FIRM Law Firm lawyers were invloved, still they were sure that if media says so there should be a truth behind it.

Interviewees were uncomfortable with the connections that FIRM Law Firm lawyers allegedly have with politics, the judiciary, government, big business, and law enforcement. These connections imbue lawyers with a certain degree of power in society.

Interviewees believe that the central place of FIRM Law Firm lawyers in society enables them not only to play the system, but also to shape that very system.

Interviewees also believe that FIRM lawyers would do a poor job of policing themselves. Bar association was viewed a club to protect lawyers, but not as protectors of the public or the public interest, Faced with these perception, many consumers who might need a lawyer do not hire one from FIRM.

The interviews revealed four major themes regarding to the FIRM Law Firm. The primary themes were: strong associations to cases handled by FIRM Law Firm; strong associations with GM and the govemrnent; positive experiences of FIRM Law Firm the current clients have : and that the current clients had low interest for media’s coverage of FIRM Law Firm. These themes were derived through the interviews.

In the interviews it became evident that all respondents have a clear picture of what FIRM Law Firm is. When asked to describe FIRM Law Firm, a rather negative picture evolved among the respondents. A consistent theme among the respondents was that the overall perception of FIRM’s corporate reputation generally was based on media coverage. Primary associations were that FIRM’s tide connections with the government helps them to be a leader in the legal market. Some said this in a negative connotation indicating that the ethical part of those won cases is arguable.

I could see a pattern take form as the respondents that were negative towards FIRM services either had preferences for other law firms or media coverage was enough for them to build a perceptions. Additionally, what I could see from this quote, and something that developed further in other interviews as well, was that the clients were negative to the brand though they never had experience in FIRM. Associations to FIRM that were not strictly related to its services were primary related to its founder GM. It was evident in all interviews that FIRM Law Firm and GM are strongly interrelated. Even though GM may not be a large part of FIRM’s litigations, he is still considered to be the spokesperson for the company. However, the same respondent also acknowledged that this same leadership and culture was perhaps one of the reasons for why FIRM is so successful.

Although the respondents could understand that the quality of services the FIRM Law Firm offers in the field of civil litigations has low relation to the fact that the founder has tides with the government, they also felt that FIRM could have overcome these problems by now by proving it to the public at large.

Respondents were frustrated with the fact that according to media it’s government related law firm, it also became obvious that part of the respondents had a paradoxical liking towards the company, implying that they want to like them but as things are at the moment they simply cannot. Respondents who have had previous experiences described that they had a positive attitude towards FIRM firm through the excellent services they received in the Firm, satisfied by the quality of services the FIRM Law Firm offers and the lawyers they dealt with. At the same time, large part of the respondents noted that negative perception stands in contrast to different types of surveys where FIRM ranks high among employees and law students.

All respondents agree that the news and media climate towards FIRM is in general negative. When this study was conducted people still had fresh in mind the merger of two rival law firms and revelation that the managing partner and spokesperson of the new law firm is government affiliated person. This was quoted and was seen as the basis for the perception that the reputations climate towards the company was by at large negative. Here it was the founder that stands in focus for the negative reporting.

However, the picture is far from conclusive as respondents could also see positive aspects of the FIRM Law Firm though word of mouth and other media channels.

Nearly 70 per cent in of respondents had some occasion during the past year that might have led them to hire a lawyer. Over half of those who might need a lawyer say that they do plan on hiring one from FIRM since the price and quality of services are very attractive. Nearly 80% of respondents of the remainin 50 per cent respondetns who dont want to deal with FIRM Law Firm feared from later on affiliation of themselves with a corrupt government and or corrupt businesses.

40 per cent of respondetns feel that they have no recourse if FIRM Law Firm’s attorney fails to properly represent them. While they acknowledge that some bad attorneys in general give the rest of the profession a bad name and even though they never hear or read any disciplinary proceedings against the lawyers, they still have biased and mixed feeling toward trusting the FIRM law firm when it come to disciplining lawyers of FIRM Law Firm by the Bar Union, which also might be affiliated with the government.

It was also evident that respondents with positive perception of the corporate reputation based on personal experiences were less influenced by negative publicity or other reputational aspects of the FIRM Law Firm. The consumers’ thus believe that their personal experience is more trustworthy than the information they received from the media. However, they value the information from media and put it into context, and if the reputation in media would be in line with what the consumer already experienced of the product, then those positive perceptions were enhanced.

Technical quality aspects, such as results of a firm's work, expertise in specific areas, and quality of written product, were rated as most important by the current clients, almost equally significant are functional factors which reflect a lawyer's interpersonal relationship with clients.

The quality perceptions was related to executives' feelings of confidence in their lawyers and to the extent to which the client receives individual partner attention. There was a pattern of connecting credibility and competence of FIRM Law Firm to a future reputation of their own companies.

Research Conclusions

Based on the surveys, interviews and analyses I have concluded that

FIRM Law firm never managed to respond in any way to the media allegations

FIRM Law Firm failed to build any communication strategy to enhance its corporate image

FIRM never considered removing the GM as its corporate spokesperson