Consensio

My recent visit to a doctor ended in an interesting conversation with him about his concerns on how to grow his practice. He asked me if there was something wrong with is business attitude, because he wanted to give quality care and therefore spend more time on patients instead of chasing the dollars to see more patients in shorter time. (more…)

I experienced that the question of when to leave the safe haven of “letterhead, business card and website logo” to start using the created identity for marketing purposes, seems a mystery to many small business owners.

At first, it seems the investment in the re-branding stretches the strategic muscle to the limit of many business owners. The next step, actually using it to market, is an even bigger hurdle.

“Should we use it to express our message? What’s a campaign and what’s the difference in just saying who we are and what we do? How do we get there? Do we need to get there?”

I say to Consensio clients that corporate identity is like a passport. It identifies them on a superficial level, not on who their friends are, or what their personalities are like.

Getting to know a personality, you have to engage in dialogue. This is why we do it, when we market. How we do it, is using marketing tools.

Pressed for time and strapped for money, the call for brochures and websites is bigger than for meaningful strategy.

To resist the client pressure and develop a strategy beforehand, will benefit the client long-term, but it remains a matter of building client trust in strategy before action. Consensio has specialised in corporate identity and brand development since 2001.

Over the years I have developed a different approach to brand building. I am convinced that the old agency model of ‘we come in and give you logo, website and some marketing’ approach does not work for small/medium enterprises (SME’s).

10. Agencies don’t like to share. SME’s don’t have the same inflexible staff and strategies as large company departments. In SME’s people wear many operational hats and can often provide service components themselves. For example, graphics or programming can be provided by the client themselves. Agencies fear the uncontrollable client.

9. Agencies like to sell packages.Flexibility, tight cashflows followed by tight timeframes make the agency project management a nightmare. Agencies get often caught selling compromise instead of substance.

8. SME’s don’t have understanding of their own Marketing strategy. Agencies have a service selling strategy.

7. The brand is only as strong as the stewardship of the brand by the client who owns it. If it isn’t steered by in-house, agencies own it.

6. SME’s are too busy to care about their goals and lack in-house resources. Agency account managers are there to manage their brand project outcomes.

5. Agencies have large overheads and design competitions to win. SME’s think they need business cards.

4. Account managers listen to their clients. Account managers listen to their creatives. Creatives speak to their account managers. Creatives don’t speak to the clients.

3. “Time is money. We can only afford a limited amount on marketing. What’s the strategy again?”

2. “A website is what we need. Every business has one. What’s a web 2.0? Do we need a brand like Nike? I mean we are just a small fish in a big pond.”

1. “Two hours ago I couldn’t care less about this brand stuff. I’m just in admin. After this workshop, I have a sense of where we’re going and it’s exciting to be part of this. Can I come and see the design proposals when you’ve done them for us?”