Bruce W. Marcus

This is, in a manner of speaking, the first day of my life as a blogger. It is not, literally, the first day — or even first decade — of my dealing with lawyers and accountants as a consultant or pundit. In 1951, fresh out of college, I joined the then-Big Eight accounting firm, Peat, Marwick Mitchell, as the firm librarian. I quickly saw that despite the Canons of Ethics against frank marketing, there were legitimate outreach programs possible in at least seminars and articles, if you were careful about how you promoted them. Before Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977), which is to professional services marketing what the Declaration of Independence is to the founding of America, I was devising marketing programs for law and accounting firms. After Bates, lawyers and accountants, as well as professional marketers — had a lot to learn about such arcane concepts as marketing, and competing. We had to discover the hard way that what works in product marketing doesn’t always work in professional services marketing. We had to develop a whole new body of skills and techniques. We had a lot to learn as professional marketers, and the lawyers and accountants had a lot to learn about us. The traditions of professional services marketing go back a mere three decades. The traditions of professional firms — and professionalism — go back to the middle ages, or so. Unless you’ve lived through it, it’s hard to realize that change in traditions to accept marketing has come more through evolution than intelligent design.

Why then this blog? It means to be an accelerator. To help evolution along. It’s objectives are to advance the art of professional services marketing. To debloviate the jargon. And ultimately, to and contradict the perceived wisdom that becomes the jargon and fad.

There is still The Marcus Letter, which for more than two decades has been my contribution to that evolution. It’s the longer articles on techniques, read internationally by more than 22,000 lawyers, accountants, and the marketers who serve them. It will still keep running. This blog, on the other hand, will be a running commentary on those things and people that help keep the law and accounting firms relevant to the changing needs of the marketplace for legal and accounting services.

Which, by the way, is what all marketing is about. Keeping firms and companies relevant to the changing needs of the marketplace.

Oh…one more thing. While I like to stay ahead of the curve, I don’t think I know everything. Which is why your comments are always welcome, especially if your perspective is different from mine. Keep in touch.

Bruce W. Marcus

P.S. Let me acknowledge the roles played by friends and luminaries, such as Rick Telberg — my estimable partner in the Bay Street Group — who encouraged me and helped shape this blog. People like Bruce MacEwen (Adam Smith, Esq.), Janet Stanton, Gerry Riskin, Patrick McKenna, and the blawgers of the legal profession, especially Monica Bay (Common Scold, indeed), and the others of her blawgers band.