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How To Own A Brand Positioning

Peter · March 4, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Ah, The Brand Positioning – How Are You Going To Own Yours?

All of the medium to small advertising, PR, design and digital agencies I work with (even network agencies) are by nature, challenger brands. As in, they are not R/GA or Droga 5 or 72andSunny or today’s hottest – pick your current digital-flavor-of-the-month specialist. I’m sure you know what challenger brand means and that is one of your potential brand positionings but… Here is a nice clear definition of challenger brand from Chron.com:

A challenger brand is a company or product brand in an industry that is not the category leader. The term denotes the fact that such companies have to play from a position behind the dominant player or leader in an industry. This makes the process of marketing significant to attracting customers.

The nurturing of challenger brands is one of the marketing agency positionings that I’ve discussed on this blog and with many of my agency clients. No, it is not a brand new proposition. But, it has power since most brands are by nature challenges and, as stated above, marketing is critical to elevating a challenger brand to brand leadership. This makes having a dedication to helping challenger brands a winning proposition.

Eat Bigger Smaller Fish

I have been following the challenger brand consultancy Eat Big Fish for years. They are without question the leading consultancy in this space and their leader Adam Morgan is the numero uno voice of the challenger brand market. I have used Eat Big Fish in my agency business development recommendations as one of the benchmark agencies that I believe represents a best of class B2B marketer. As in, how they market themselves under, inside and around their positioning umbrella.

Eat Big Fish is an excellent example of a marketing company that has a single-minded sales proposition, a well-defined market and a dedication to thought leadership that… makes them, without question, the thought leader, “I must talk to them” leader in their category.

How They Do It

I think that, no, I know that, EBF (I hope they don’t mind the abbreviation, I just don’t like typing ‘fish’ too often) can offer some direction for all agencies.

EBF nailed their approach to a large hungry market. And, they appear to be early in. Or, even better, they market themselves so well, that they look like they were early in.

They nailed their brand name and logo. Ah, the British and branding.

They nailed their messaging.

Adam Morgan established his credentials in 2009 by writing the book, “Eating The Big Fish”.
Their latest book, “A Beautiful Constraint”, speaks directly to today’s time and resource scarcity. Here is how they describe the book: “A Beautiful Constraint is a book about everyday, practical inventiveness, designed for the constrained times in which we live. It describes how to take the kinds of issues that all of us face today — lack of time, money, resources, attention, know-how — and see in them the opportunity for transformation of oneself and one’s organization’s fortunes.” Oh, they have two more books. I like ‘agencies’ that write books. Here’s is a blog post on how to do that.
EBF has a hard to resist sales proposition: “We enable ambitious brands of all shapes and sizes to do more more with less.” Um like, what client would you want that isn’t ambitious and would just love it if you offered them a high ROI?
Their Our Work section delivers on their strategic focus and client benefits. Nice, clear and concise. Like, if you were a big brand, why wouldn’t you give these guys a call? Plus, they sound like they play nice with the other children – they fit in seamlessly between the brand and the brand’s agency.
EBF’s thought-leadership is, well, thoughtful. This series is timely, thought-provoking, insightful, and fun to read. It would be of interest to any client out there: “Challengers To Watch In 2017”. Cool! I love this one — Impossible Foods. Imagine trying to challenge the all-beeeeeef burger.
They give good videos. Check out their Speeches page.
They nail client testimonials. Most agency client testimonials are — boring. These are not.

And… you should subscribe to their newsletter. You’ll see why after you get one. The pitch: “Sign up to The Challenger Project and get our monthly roundup of challenger inspiration every last Friday.”

One thing I dig about their approach is that their focus is on sharing the insights and stories from the broader world of challenger brands. Whether client or not, eatbigfish get out of the way of the story.

Inspiring in an agency world where we just cannot stop talking about ourselves. Ya know what I mean?

Podcast: 7 Tips for Ad Agency Professionals

Peter · February 24, 2017 · Leave a Comment

A Podcast Interview: My 7 Marketing Tips For Ad Agency Professionals

I’ve discussed the great value of guest posting in earlier blog posts. The primary advantage is that you get your post and thinking out to a much larger audience than you would get by just posting on your company website.

Another way to get your message out there is to be interviewed by a company that is interested in what you have to say. In a recent case, I was interviewed by Paul Wicker of the super-smart ad tech company ADSTAGE. Here is how they describe their marketing platform. Cross-channel campaign creation and performance in seconds

Identical Workflows for Cross-Network Campaign Creation

Create campaigns faster with a simplified and seamless flow across Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter Ads. We support the most popular ad formats on each network so you can make most sense for your online ad campaigns.

Bottomline is that they can help you to better manage your multi-platform campaigns…. and isn’t that a very nice thing.

My PPC Show Interview

You can listen to the PPC Show interview and see the synopsis right here on ADSTAGE’s website. Below are a couple of the more (if I do say so myself) salient points… If you have been reading my blog, you know that these are two of my major business development recommendations.

“We’re in a world where specialization wins.” If you’re looking to start your own agency, know that clients are looking for specialists. We’re no longer in the grand old days where agencies were either television, print, or radio. Know your specialty and make sure clients know it, too.
“Your website HAS to be a sales tool.” So many agencies fall into the trap of turning their websites into fun, creative projects or brochures. While that’s all well and good, if your website is not set up to make a sale, then it’s not doing much for you. Sales is a 24-7 game now and your website is doing a lot of that work for you. Make sure it’s set up that way.

I hope you enjoy the interview. And, don’t forget to take a look at ADSTAGE’s ad tech tools and dashboard. I love dashboards…

6 Business Development Referral Strategies

Peter · February 18, 2017 · 1 Comment

6 Business Development Referral Strategies To Get, Well, You Know

Most of the advertising agencies that take me up on my Corleone Offer usually tell me that the majority of their client base growth comes from a positive client, friends, and family business development referral.

Perfect! A referral is a VERY hot lead.

However, for way too many agencies, referrals are a default sales tool. They get most of their new clients via referrals because they are not doing other forms of hard core sales. Simply put, they do not have a tight manageable sales plan that includes both in and outbound marketing.

But, the issue of the paucity of sound agency sales plans is another story. This post is all about how to goose referrals so you get all of the ones your agency deserves.

The secret? Be proactive… Ask and ye shall receive.

Referral Strategies

A key to having a robust referral strategy is to make sure that your current clients are aware that you actually want referrals. Referrals from happy customers are one of best ways that B2B companies generate new business. OK, this isn’t a huge surprise. However, what is surprising how few companies have a dedicated strategy for fostering these valuable personal hand-offs.

4 Obvious, Yet Wonderful Benefits Of A Referral

A referral is a white-hot lead. If we assume that your happy customers are savvy enough to recommend you to the right potential customer then you are well on your way to establishing a valuable conversation and a new business win.

The closing ratio of referrals is higher (it has been reported that the closing-ratio of a referral is 6 times greater than an unqualified lead.)

For the obvious reason that a referred prospect is generally a very motivated buyer, the referral-generated sales cycle can be as much as 75% shorter.

A referral strategy is cost-effective and will reduce your sales expenditures – free is good. Free is a great place to start.

6 Effective ‘Active’ Referral Strategies

I’ve generated referrals from existing clients and customers using the following set of strategies. Given the fact that you are talking to happy customers or friends, these strategies will be a very efficient use of your “sales” effort.

Start with an objective. Know what increase in referrals you are targeting and what type of clients you want. Unqualified referrals are not a good thing.
Determine which of your clients or friends, these could be people you talk with or people you stay in touch with on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are contacts that might know the people or businesses on your prospect list. Do the research to help your clients help you.
Go ahead… ask for referrals. Some referrals come because your client or buddy is specifically asked if they know of a good company in a your business category. Some come because your customers love you so much they actively ‘sell’ you. Some need to be stimulated to think about how to help you. It’s OK to ask. It is also wise to let them know what type of referral you are looking for. Take away as much guess work as you can. Make it easy for them to refer you. But, do not overdo it. Clearly, you do not what your clients to feel burdened.
However, before you ask, make sure that your current clients are motivated to refer your service or products. I’ve written about how to determine which of your clients might be referral magnets. Check out: Is Your Agency Loved?
You might need a bit of time to massage your clients through the delivery of unexpected services ahead of directly asking for their help. As they say, give and ye shall receive.
A big must. If you get a referral, make sure that you keep the referrer informed about your conversations and any progress. Don’t forget to say thank you. If you actually win new business, you might want to consider sending a gift as follow-up.

Referrals are nice, but one eventually runs out of friends with friends. How to deal with this unfortunate fact? Have a broader sales plan.

Will Marijuana Get Advertising Agencies High?

Peter · January 17, 2017 · 1 Comment

Will Marijuana Get Advertising Agencies High?

This is an update to a post I wrote in July, 2015. I must admit that I was right then that marijuana will get advertising agencies high. High as in offering a brand new multi-billion dollar product category that needs agency services. All of them – product design, PR, PPC, SEM, website design, social media, print advertising and on and on. The reason for this update is the Newsweek article, “Here are the businesses taking marijuana products into the mainstream”. Here is a bit from the article. I suggest that your savvy agency will figure out how to get on board this fast moving train.

“With roughly 22 million Americans consuming marijuana on a monthly basis in 2015 and nearly 37 million people admitting to using pot at least once a year, marijuana brands and companies are increasingly looking to reach new consumers with upscale products that go beyond weed’s reputation as an easy high for people who like to wear tie-dye shirts and listen to mellow music. The push is aimed at offering a greater variety of ways for people to consume cannabis, whether they are first-time users or people who may have smoked grass back in the day and are looking to ease back into the drug now that it is legal.

“If you look at what traditionally people think of when they think of a pot shop, they’re thinking of a place with Bob Marley posters in it. There’s nothing mainstream about that. That’s not how you sell anything, but for some reason, that’s how people think you sell pot. That’s got to evolve,” Adam Bierman, CEO and co-creator of MedMen, a California-based marijuana management firm, said during a phone interview.

The marijuana industry is now a $6.7 billion business, according to Forbes. Figures this high aren’t easily achieved, especially not with down-market products sold in cramped stores covered in marijuana symbols, Bierman said.”

FYI, the photo of the Bob Marley product above is from Portland’s Bridge City Collective, a two-shop business that I invested in two years ago. I saw the marijuana train coming down the track and got on board very early. I am including the photo because it is an excellent example of where marijuana industry branding is heading.

—

So, Will Marijuana Get Advertising Agencies High?

Yes.

But, do not take my word for it. 502DATA is a website that reports on Washington State’s marijuana industry. Take a look at the sales numbers and… you tell me? Will marijuana get advertising agencies high? Um, drive advertising agency revenues higher? Seems logical.

Here are sales numbers for Washington’s producers, processors and retailers in today’s early-stage market. Then imagine that this is a national business that will inevitably experience consolidation.

But, for now just be amazed at the growth of a brand-new product and service category. A big one. Total 2015 Washington marijuana sales could go beyond $400,000,000 in 2015. [Read more…] about Will Marijuana Get Advertising Agencies High?

Death Of The Brand?

Peter · January 5, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Death Of The Brand… What Does This Mean For Your Advertising Agency?

Watch this L2 video on 2017 predictions. What does it mean for your advertising / digital / design / PR / experiential agency?

I know…. these predictions are both an opportunity and a big problem. I’d grab the opportunity (I love pain points) and I think it is huge. You?

https://www.l2inc.com/video/scott-galloway-and-maureen-mullen-predictions-for-2017