Jeff Bezos on Legal Advertising

Well, not really, but Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO, was recently interviewed (registration required) in Business Week Magazine. When asked about Amazon's (lack of) advertising, Bezos replied:

We don't do any television advertising, and we take all of the money that we would put into television advertising, and instead put it into things like free SuperSaver shipping [free shipping on most orders over $25], lower product prices, category expansion, and invention of new features. We take those funds that might otherwise be used to shout about our service, and put those funds instead into improving the service. That's the philosophy we've taken from the beginning. If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.

What if lawyers took their money away from the yellow pages, and instead spent that money improving the service they offer. At my firm, beginning next year, our "advertising" budget will become our "client appreciation" budget. Apart from a single line listing in the yellow pages, we're putting all of our advertising money (for us, nearly $1,000 per month) into improving our client experience. We'll be finding new office space with room for clients to use as kind of a "business center" with free wi-fi, coffee, etc. We are also bringing our client concierge on board to coordinate our client service initiatives and surveying new and existing clients to determine how we can serve them better.