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FIRM: DecisionQuest
PR AGENCY: Greenfield Belser
BUDGET: $430,000
WEB SITE: www.decisionquest.com
 Sometimes, a false start will end up setting you off in the right direction. About a year ago, the trial consultancy DecisionQuest became of subsidiary of the Bowne Company and re-branded itself Bowne Decisionquest. The name flopped — too confusing — and so the third time became the charm: DecisionQuest, A Bowne Company.
With the name change, PR saw an opportunity to re-brand the company and its offerings. “Many clients didn’t recognize the depth and breadth of our practice,” says Robina Royer, director of marketing, “and we really needed to make people aware of all the things that we can do.”
Specifically, the firm's services include jury research and trial consulting, work that lawyers typically access late in the game to determine how their established plans of attack in the courtroom might play out. Executives at Atlanta-based DecisionQuest wanted to show attorneys the value of bringing in a consultant earlier in the process.
To that end, communications consultancy Greenfield Belser in Washington, D.C., helped formulate an integrated campaign that would revamp the firm’s overall messaging throughout the media landscape.
“We were really trying to shift the behavior of the marketplace, and that’s what led to the overall image campaign,” says Burkey Belser. In this regard, “we believe it is important not to advertise, but rather to contribute to the conversation, to share your expertise.”
The effort included a new layout for the company’s Web page, one that introduces the firm’s services within a single click of the opening page and lays out the value proposition and the process for achieving success. This, in turn, is backed up with a readily accessible online library of educational materials.
A new brochure defined the DecisionQuest process in concise form and in a style that reflected the Web materials. What’s more, a new PowerPoint sales presentation was built from the scratch. “We threw out what [the former owners] had and started over,” Belser says.
A supporting ad campaign was launched in the spring of 2004, with each ad featuring an impending metaphorical disaster: a falling piano, a speeding bus, a dangerous elevator shaft and a ton of tumbling bricks; the last image represented the crushing weight of public opinion.
With these diverse communications, the value of DecisionQuest was clarified through a series of comparisons: the “usual-case” scenario coupled with a “best-case” scenario. In each case, the communications medium outlines measures to be taken to achieve a best-case scenario, and then it pairs those steps with specific DecisionQuestion services, such as Venue Evaluation Research, Damages Analysis and Strategic Communications.
At the center of all these services is a common visual theme, dubbed “Greek key.” It resembles a compact labyrinth, with each leg representing one of six steps toward success in the courtroom.
It’s an amazingly concise metaphor, one that summarizes the firm’s entire value proposition in just a few steps. Belser adds the “key” image also is likely to give prospective clients something they can hang onto as they consider hiring the firm.
“Most people think more successfully in pictures than they do in words. Lawyers may not think so, but it is true even for them,” he says.
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