Market Radar · Pillar 2 · Perception
What people think
Stratified Charleston-area panel findings on what shapes the lawyer choice. Four poll instruments measure four things — recognition, referral, online presence, TV. No poll grades another; recall does not equal trust.
Read first. Two of the four instruments are live with closed waves; the other two are in field. What people say matters when choosing a lawyer often differs from what their stated preferences reveal. Every numeral on this page traces to a named survey and a stated n.
Billboard
PI marketing recall + selection-criteria ranking. Where recognition comes from, and what people say drives the choice.
Morgan & Morgan leads aided recall in the Charleston PI market at 85%.
Joye Law Firm sits at 84% on the same prompt; the firms at the top of recall are the firms with the heaviest paid presence.
Stratified Charleston panel · n=100 · fielded 2026-04 · Pollfish 395579863
85%
vs 84% for Joye Law Firm
TV or billboard presence ranks #1 of 9 selection criteria; verdict and settlement track record ranks last.
Respondents weighted "TV or billboard presence (suggests an established firm)" at 6.93 on a 1–9 importance scale; "Verdict and settlement track record" came in at 3.39.
Stratified Charleston panel · n=100 · fielded 2026-04 · Pollfish 395579863
6.93 / 9
vs 3.39 for track record
Loud or aggressive TV ads make 51% of respondents less likely to call a firm; promises of huge settlements push 45% away.
Heavy advertising is more often a deterrent than a draw on the dimensions respondents named themselves.
Stratified Charleston panel · n=100 · fielded 2026-04 · Pollfish 395579863
51%
45% on "huge settlement" promises
Heavy advertising registers as "no opinion" for 36% and as a "tune out" for another 18%.
Only 18% read heavy advertising as a success signal — the rest range from indifferent to skeptical.
Stratified Charleston panel · n=100 · fielded 2026-04 · Pollfish 395579863
54%
indifferent or tuned out
Referral
How Charleston respondents say they'd ask first — friends, family, prior counsel — and where that lands relative to TV/billboard recall.
IN FIELD
Findings render here once the wave closes and the data is extracted to a sourced findings record.
Pollfish 395583942 · wave 1 · in field
Online
Review-and-rating preference floor and the gap between what people say and what they do online. Standalone instrument pending field; related findings sit inside the Billboard / Marketing umbrella's Q7 (Online reviews ranked 5.9/9).
IN FIELD
Findings render here once the wave closes and the data is extracted to a sourced findings record.
TV marketing
TV recognition, the recognition-vs-trust gap, and the actual behavioral effect of TV ad exposure.
TV's highest-recall firm is not its most-trusted: George Sink leads recall but converts only 33% to trust; Morgan & Morgan converts 51%.
Recognition does not equal trust. The most-advertised name leads recall but not preference — the same stated-vs-revealed structure the other three marketing instruments produced.
Stratified Charleston DMA panel · n=92 final · Pollfish 395584078
33% → 51%
Sink recall→trust vs Morgan & Morgan recall→trust
78% notice law-firm TV ads but say the ads don't change what they would do; only 9% ever contacted a firm partly because of a TV ad.
The actual contact-driving effect of TV is roughly 6–9%; even the weaker "name came to mind when needed" effect tops out around 18%.
Stratified Charleston DMA panel · n=92 final · Pollfish 395584078
78% / 9%
notice / ever contacted (n=92 final)
Heavy advertising reads as skepticism more than success: 39% skeptical of firms that advertise that much; 16% read heavy advertising as a sign of a successful firm.
Heavy TV spend is more likely to provoke skepticism than to signal quality — skeptical outweighs impressed about 2.5 to 1.
Stratified Charleston DMA panel · n=92 final · Pollfish 395584078
39% / 16%
skeptical / impressed (~2.5:1)