Why do some firms spring to mind while others languish in the shadows?

Picture the last time a board needed urgent tax advice. Three names surfaced at once; thirty equally able firms never got a sniff. What separates the chosen few from the forgotten many is brand saliency—the likelihood that your firm enters the conversation in that decisive moment.

Can every fee‑earner in your firm recite that idea in one breath? If not, start there.

Brand saliency is best expressed with everyday arithmetic:

Brand saliency = Quality of associations × Quantity of associations

It’s a multiple, not a sum. If either is low or zero, so is the outcome. Genius nobody has heard of? Zero. Wall‑to‑wall visibility but nothing worth saying? Zero again.

From ‘little‑b’ garnish to ‘Big‑B’ substance

Too many partners treat brand as little more than colour palettes and logos—the “little‑b” stuff. I have long argued for the Big‑B Brand instead: one sharp idea that explains, in plain language, why the world should trust you above equally clever rivals. Nail that, and you give the memory something sticky for all your distinctive assets to cling to.

Can every fee‑earner in your firm recite that idea in one breath? If not, start there.

Firms that score high on both quality and quantity earn 2-3x more profit overall

The ‘mass‑niche’: a narrow front that wins a wide war

A common worry is that focusing means being small. Not so. The sweet spot is what I call a mass-niche positioning: a domain that is narrow enough to own but rich enough to fuel massive growth.

Think of Apple’s obsession with the premium end of consumer tech, how McKinsey cornered “the CEO’s hardest problems”, or how Wachtell carved out its reputation for ultra-high‑stakes M&A. By keeping it tight, they ended up everywhere that counts.

Evidence your CFO will love

Our own dive into the AmLaw 100 shows the financial pay‑off. Firms that score high on both quality and quantity earn 2-3x more profit overall than equally capable peers with weaker brands. Brand saliency boosts market share, conversion rates and pricing power.

In markets awash with competence, saliency is the scarce resource

Five moves to boost brand saliency

• Pin down your Big‑B idea – get your promise down on a Post‑it; if it needs two Post‑its, keep going.
• Define your mass‑niche – define the territory that you can own and expand from.
• Focus your efforts – publish, speak, sponsor, and mingle in the centre of your mass-niche territory.
• Over-invest in share of voice – if you hold 5% market share, ensure you achieve 7% share of voice. Growth follows.
• Measure quality and quantity – growth in profits per partner and the number of equity partners; lift both, not one at the expense of the other.

Brand is both

In markets awash with competence, saliency is the scarce resource. Investing leadership time in boosting your brand saliency is a practical way to ensure your firm comes to mind when the stakes—and fees—are high.

Quality without quantity is a hidden gem; quantity without quality is noise. Get both working together, and you move from overlooked to indispensable.

For more on this theme, read my earlier pieces on Big-B versus little-b brand, the power of a mass-niche strategic brand position, and why strong brands are significantly more profitable.