Agency Life Archives - Page 5 of 8 - McLellan Marketing Group

RFP’s — what did we do to deserve them?

September 23, 2007

If you want to make an agency person or consultant cringe, just whisper "RFP"

I have to wonder what level of mistrust or what horrific deed was done years ago that forced someone on the client side to create the first RFP. They are torture for the applicants and I can't imagine much fun on the client side.

We're having a lively discussion about RFPs over at Marketing Prof's Daily Fix. Come join us.

Don’t play hide and seek with an unhappy client

September 20, 2007

Sooner or later it happens. Something goes horribly wrong. You want to crawl in a hole. Or slam your office door.

But the one thing you do not want to do to face the client.

Too bad. How you handle this disaster will say more about your brand than any marketing tactic or campaign. Zane Safrit tells a story of how he dealt with a client's event that went down the tubes in a hurry.

All too often, companies dodge the problems. Or they recite company policy when a sincere "I'm sorry" would actually heal the situation. There's no empathy. Just rhetoric. And that just won't cut it.

Do your employees understand how you want them to deal with the situation when a client is angry or disappointed? Have you not only told them but modeled the behavior?

How have you handled this in the past?

Write for real people

September 5, 2007

Whether you are writing a brochure, a radio spot or a blog post – you are writing to a specific audience. And in reality, in most cases, multiple audiences. The more clear you can be on who you're talking to, the more clear you can be in your language, examples and tone.

Here's one of my favorite "tricks of the trade" when it comes to writing. I create my audience from a composite from bits and pieces of the real people who engage with the product or service. From those seemingly random facts, I concoct a 3-D, multi-faceted person.

I literally can picture them in my head. I know enough about their job and their lives to be able to relate to them.

Think of this as the poor man's persona.

Here's how you do it. Let's take this blog as the example. When I sit down to write every day, who am I writing for?

I know that I have several sub audiences here and have detailed personas (too long for this post) for each. But, let me introduce you to them.

CMO/Director of Marketing at a medium sized company: Ian is either on his own or has a small staff. He's inside a B-to-B company and is pretty savvy in terms of basic marketing. But he needs help creating solid strategy, staying on course and executing the marketing plan.

Odds are, branding is less familiar territory for him. He gets it but has no idea how to create it in a meaningful way that has depth, meaning and sticking power with his internal and external audiences. He needs a partner here who can walk them through the process and execution.

He also needs to be inspired some days. He has to champion everything inside his company and sometimes the CFO can be a real prig. Because Ian is so immersed in the day-to-day world of his job, he also looks to me to keep him current on trends and fresh creative.

Blogging is a some day for Ian. He knows he needs to get his company there but he doesn't feel as though he can sell it yet. It's too fringe still. He checks out my feed a couple times a week and then reads what's of interest to him. His typical comment is a question or clarification, which I love.

Small Business Owner: Poor Erin has to do it all. Her business is successful but she views marketing and advertising as a necessary evil. She's pretty savvy but still gets "sold" by a slick media sales person now and then. Everything sounds like a good idea, so how does she choose the best ones? It's not that she resents investing the time or money, but she wants to do it wisely.

She's the one that branding could actually make the most difference to, if she got it. With her limited budget and knowledge, differentiating herself from her competitors in a real, user (both internal and external) experience sort of way would generate incredible word of mouth, which will not only stretch her budget but also deepen the love Erin's customers have for her entity.

She is stretched so thin she could scream. She doesn't have time to read all the magazines, business books and keep up on the trends. So she's looking for quick reads that will teach her all the nuances she doesn't know and remind her of the ones she does.

She also needs to be reminded now and then that despite the long hours and frustrations, she worked hard to be able to have this life and there's a lot right with it.

She isn't quite brave enough to comment yet. But she shows up almost every day.

Branding/marketing Pros: Blogging or not, Patrick either works in an agency, consultancy, or at a high-level client side job. He loves marketing and branding. Loves to talk about it, loves to create it, loves to read about it and loves to surround himself with other people who share his passion.

He comes to my blog not so much to learn something new but instead, to share common experiences, poke and pull on fresh ideas and to tell war stories. He views us as kindred spirits and nods his head a fair amount as he reads what I've written. He's a frequent commenter and always adds value to the conversation.

What he hopes to find when he shows up at the blog is a topic to discuss or share ideas around. Patrick likes to talk about the industry and where it's going. He finds the blogosphere a way he can keep very current, so he can guide his clients better.

So now that I know who I am writing for – how does that influence my prose?

Whenever I have an idea for a post, I think about Ian, Erin and Patrick. I wonder if it will interest them. And I keep a mental tally. If I've written a couple pieces that week that I know are more up Patrick's alley, then I go out of my way to make sure I offer up something that Ian and Erin will particularly value.

I try to position my questions to entice them all to comment, even though I know Erin's a long shot. I figure even if she doesn't answer me on the blog, hopefully she's answering the question in her own head and that's helping her clarify her thoughts around the topic. I use my experiences with MMG clients to explore what might really be a hot button for Ian.

When I want to write something but it doesn't seem to really be something any of them would care that much about, I re-think writing it.

Understanding my audience helps me keep this blog (or a brochure, website, ad etc.) on the straight and narrow. It forces me to justify any detour that I'm thinking about taking. And, I think in the end it means I deliver my message in a way that keeps Ian, Erin and Patrick coming back for more.

Which is sort of the point.

Related posts:

Ease into the conversation – be a drip

No one is a demographic

Effective or stupid?

A new model = a real brand

August 14, 2007

The phrase "a different perspective" is synonymous with Marcus Brown. He's one of the boldest, most daring marketing bloggers I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know. So it came as no surprise to me that he has crafted a completely new model for serving up ideas to clients.

The Ides of March works like this. In his own words…

All you have to do is get in touch and tell me what the problem is. It could be anything from developing a new kind of pizza, changing a process, launching or developing a new product, improving something, telling a story, repositioning something, finding staff, or getting your existing staff to smile. It could also be an idea for winning a piece of new business or finding the missing link in a brand thingy you’re trying to do for a client. It could be anything.

So you send me your problem and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours with any questions and tell you how long you have to wait for my idea. When I’ve come up with something I’ll send it through per email and you can have a look and a think and if you think you can use it then you pay me.

And you pay me what you think the idea is worth. It’s completely up to you. The absolute minimum per idea is 10 Euros. Once you’ve bought the idea it’s yours. You own it.

If you choose not to buy the idea it remains my property and I will post it on this blog.

I think anyone in the business has pondering this pricing model but we've got too much overhead and too little courage to try it. I can't wait to watch it take off and be ridiculously successful.

And I get a front row seat. One of the mechanics Marcus has added to his company is the creation of his Senate. A world-wide smattering of professionals that Marcus can call on as he needs them. I'm proud to be among the list. Here are my fellow Senators:

Victor Houghton, Jason V. Lonsdale , Grant McCracken, Christian Baujard, Todd Foutz, Angus Whines, Sean Howard, Tim Keil, Age Conte, Rob Campbell, Mark McGuinness, Rob Mortimer, Luc Debaisieux, Faris Yakob, Dan Germain, Nina Zimmermann, Paul H. Colman, Mark Earls, Fredrik Sarnblad, Andy Boucher, Richard Huntington, Henry Lambert, John Grant, Andrew Hovells, Gavin Heaton, Sebastian Oehme, Rory Sutherland, Russell Davies, David Brabbins, Charles Frith, Beeker Northam, William Humphrey, Mark Goren, Giles Rhys Jones, Gareth Kay, David Bausola, Philip Hubertus, John Dodds, Graeme Douglas, Amelia Torode, Drew McLellan, Dan Shute, Niku Banaie, Paul McEnany.

Marcus is boldly going to a completely new space within an age-old industry. Do you think he'll have any trouble differentiating his business from the pack? This is about actually doing something different, rather than just talking different about the same old thing.

That's branding at its core. You start by doing something different. What are you doing that's different?

Do you market to your own employees?

August 1, 2007

John Moore over at Brand Autopsy talks about the incredible marketing value that Apple generated when they gave every one of their employees a new iPhone. No argument from me there.

But what do you do when you're not Apple and you can't pop for a $600 phone for every team member? Most companies don't do anything. Big mistake.

Read about how one marketer made sure his employees felt appreciated in a way that any business can afford and do.

And yes, the photo is a hint.

Bad customers, branding, chasing cool and babies

July 25, 2007

If you're looking for me today, you're going to have to look all over. It's a little like "where in the world is Carmen San Diego" but with a twist. Check out my posts on these blogs:

Marketing Profs Daily Fix: No one believes in branding more than I do. But have we gone a little too far when we hire professionals to help us brand our baby?

IowaBiz: Everyone wants to be the iPod of their industry. What gets in the way of being a company capable of creating that kind of cool?

Small Business Branding: Everyone's had a bad customer. Guess what? That's our own fault. Branding done right can help us avoid those potential customers who in the end, just aren't for us.

Come catch me if you can!

No one has ever asked us that

July 12, 2007

That's one of the sentences I love to hear in a new business conversation.

And we hear it pretty often. Why? Do we know some secret about their business? No. Are we experts in their category? Maybe, but that's not where the questions come from.

The questions come from not worrying about the sale. And not already having the next sentence lying in wait in our brains, to drive home a point about us.

They come from listening like a detective, trying to solve a case. Following leads in the conversation and tugging at every loose end, until we unravel whole story. It comes from wanting to understand and help them grow their business, not win the account.

We ask a lot of why questions. "Why are you in a hurry to build sales all of a sudden?"

We ask a lot of what if questions. "What if we increase inquiries by 25%? How will you handle that volume increase?"

We ask a lot of questions which frankly are none of a marketing agency's business. But we do believe they are our business. We believe agencies who stop at creating solid marketing tools are missing the boat. We have to help the client anticipate what's coming next. And often that comes from understanding what has come before.

We probably don't always ask them as delicately as we should. Instead, we ask with intense curiosity and enthusiasm. It's a way we demonstrate how we're different. It's a way we add more value.

I've always believed that one characteristic early adopters have is curiosity. Most people reading blogs today are early adopters. So…how do you use your curiosity to help grow your clients business? What are one or two questions you could ask that would inspire a prospect to say "no one's ever asked us that before."

Want to get a job in marketing?

July 5, 2007

We're looking for a few good men/women at MMG and as I endure the misery that is looking for the diamond in the rough, I decided to create a cheat sheet for our applicants. it occurred to me that if you swap out MMG for the marketing group of your choice, 99% of the advise is universal.

So, if you are a job seeker, heed my warnings. If you are a job filler, perhaps you'll find some value in offering your own version of this list to your candidates. And, of course, if you want to work with us…

Without any further ado…here's my counsel.

If I were you and I wanted to snare a job at McLellan Marketing Group, here are some of the things I would and wouldn't do.

I would:

Read the MMG website carefully, to get a sense of culture and tone.
Sign up to receive MMG's weekly e-newsletter, the Marketing Minute.
Read Drew's blog and if I really want to stand out from the pack, I would subscribe (via e-mail or RSS reader) and within a week, make an insightful, articulate comment on a post.
Ask my friends, contacts etc. if anyone knows anyone at MMG who could make an introduction.
If the timing is right, I would attend one of MMG's monthly branding breakfasts.
Be very mindful that my cover letter/resume are the biggest demonstration of whether or not I get branding & marketing. I would ask myself…if I were a product and MMG was the target audience…how would I sell me? How would I make myself different from all the other applicants?
Download and read "Giving College Grads a Fighting Chance" not because Drew had anything to do with it, but because I love to learn.
If I have a blog, I'd link to Drew's because I know he'll check to see who I am.
Know that they're going to check my MySpace, Facebook etc. pages.
If I had no relevant job experience, I would look at the job experience I did have and figure out what elements of marketing were present there.
If I didn't get the job but still think this is the place for me…I would stay engaged. I would keep reading/commenting on the blog, I would attend the branding breakfasts. I would become someone they notice/know.

I would not:

Send a cover letter or resume that even slightly reads like everyone else's.
Rely on any cover letter/resume book. I would throw those away and refer back to my marketing text books.
Under any circumstances tout my ability to work with people (or that I like them) as a strength or skill.
Send anything that a pair (or two) of fresh eyes didn't proof. A typo will get me tossed right into the "no way" pile.
Hit send or lick the envelope until I checked and double checked the spelling of the agency, the agency owner's name and anything else (like their clients) that I might reference. (see bullet point above)
Try to BS my way in. Because I should expect that MMG will smell that a mile away and ask about it until I admit that I sent the same "I believe your agency is perfect for me" cover letter to 12 agencies.
Humiliate myself. I would double check that I put the right cover letter/resume in the right envelope. I'd hate to be the one who makes that mistake.
If I really wanted to work there, I wouldn't give up. I wouldn't be a stalker, but I would keep at it. I would look for ways to help them, even before I got a job there. Because I would believe that I am going to work there eventually and begin behaving like I already do.

You don't have to do any of this. It's your job hunt, after all.

But remember, at MMG we hire as much for "culture fit" as we do for competency. We can teach you marketing. We can't teach you to be a team player. Or curious. Or passionate about our work & our clients. We're not going to force you to be someone who believes in giving back to the community.

So along with your work and academic achievements, show us that stuff. And show us that you get why that matters. Then, we have something to talk about.

Your job is pretty straight-forward. If you're smart and creative enough to sell us you, we know you can help our clients.

Marketing Tips from a Marketing Agency: Be disruptive

June 6, 2007

It would only stand to reason that a marketing & branding agency would be pretty good at branding and marketing itself.

So I thought it might be fun to explore some branding & marketing concepts using our own agency, McLellan Marketing Group, as the guinea pig.

Be disruptive

Marketing isn’t always about the big campaign. Sometimes it is taking something simple or expected and turning it on its ear. Earlier in this series, we talked about how we approach business cards. Being disruptive seems to be an MMG given. It’s certainly what we do with our voice mail. If you call our office, while we’re transferring your call — you’re going to be asked a question.

So, let’s say you hit my extension (17 by the way) and you expect elevator music, silence or a sales pitch. Instead you’re going to hear me asking…"while we transfer your call, ponder this. What tagline best describes your personal brand? Be ready to tell us why…"

Not only do we learn quite a bit about our callers, but the Q&A helps define our brand. We ask a lot of questions, so we might as well set the expectation now.

But the biggest value in our voicemail tactic — it’s disruptive. It surprises people and it’s something they talk about. It says, "these people do things differently."

Now maybe you can’t mess with your company’s voice mail system but come on, you can be disruptive some place, some how.

How can you cause a buzzworthy disruption?

One dinner, five marketing legends and me!

June 3, 2007

Shama Hyder asked the question…if you could share a dinner with five people, who would you choose?

So, I decided to narrow the options and choose people who have had an impact on marketing and branding.

David Ogilvy: I doubt anyone in the business doesn’t respect the work and brilliance of Ogilvy. He was the master of memorable positioning and headlines that became battle cries.

Steve Jobs: Love him or hate him, love Apple or be a fool (sorry couldn’t resist) — Jobs has proven to get branding. I’d love to talk to him about how he was able to stay the course with Apple’s brand when the world was telling him to conform or hang it up.

P.T. Barnum: While he didn’t ever work at an advertising agency, he knew all about selling the steak by emphasizing the sizzle. But he despised dishonesty and exposed those who he felt were being fraudulent.

Leo Burnett: Burnett proved that you didn’t have to be in NYC to build a powerful agency. Burnett built his agency in the heart of the Chicago loop and argued that visuals appealed to the "basic emotions and primitive instincts" of consumers.

Walt Disney: No list of marketers would be complete, in my opinion, without Walt. He has some of the traits that I believe are essential to be a good marketer. He was curious, wanted to create the ultimate customer experience, tenacious, and had a vivid imagination. All of that was wrapped in a passion that could not denied.

There you have it. Can you imagine sitting around a table with these men? Wow…what a conversation that would be.

So how about you — rather than tagging anyone specifically, I invite all of you to play along. Just link back to this post and to Shama’s.

In the meantime…bon appetit!

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