C Notes Newsletter Issue 7

Are You Comparing Apples To Apples When Sourcing A La Cart?

Companies often seek to save on marketing project costs through a la carte vendor sourcing. The hope is to realize overall savings by engaging separate, low-cost vendors and suppliers for the various elements of the job. Certainly, line-item bargains can be had through this practice. But is it true value? This question can only be answered if you are comparing apples to apples. For instance, you might locate a printer who can handle your job for 15% less than your marketing group charges. Is this a bargain? It is only if the level of services are comparable. Your marketing group’s charges include preparation of camera-ready or digital art, proof review and press check during the print run. Your designers will work hand in hand with their print press colleagues to ensure that the final product absolutely sparkles. The fees charged by job printers, on the other hand, usually are for nothing more than ink on paper. And the difference shows.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t seek the greatest value for your marketing dollar. Just be sure that you’re comparing apples to apples when promoting the fruits of your labor.

How To Select Your Marketing Communications Group

Your options run the gamut. You might choose a full-service agency, or a trusty stable of freelancers. You can even rely on the per-hour advice and assistance of copy center personnel. Price and experience vary widely. It would be a mistake to let cost be your sole deciding factor. A marketing group with the ability to offer complete hands-on consultation naturally costs more than a freelance designer who simply creates brochures and mailers to order. Either choice might be right for you, but deciding between the two should be based upon your own in-house abilities, your comfort level and methods of doing business. The good news is, it’s a buyers market, and there undoubtedly exists a marketing methodology that is a perfect fit” for your company.

After you’ve narrowed the field, it’s time to individually examine marketing communications groups. As always, the informed buyer is the one who receives utmost value. Learn as much as you can about every marketing group with whom you speak. Examine every promotional piece they send you. These samples are likely to be the most telling examples of their abilities. Ask for references, then contact them—especially the ones with expertise in your same industry. Finally…interview. Interview everyone from the group who is likely to work on your account, in depth, in order to clinch the decision. Let the interview answer the most important questions. Do they understand my business? My industry? My customers? Me?

Once you’ve found a marketing communications group, how long can you expect to work with them? Relationships change and the time may come when you’re wise to look elsewhere. Too many businesses and entrepreneurs, however, change marketing representation far too often; sometimes contracting a different group for every campaign and project. This usually is after a misguided attempt to save money that often costs more in the long run. Think about your earliest involvement with a marketing communications group: they probably spent quite a bit of time asking questions, learning about your business, perhaps even touring your facilities. Is it really worth reinvesting in this inevitable learning curve each time you break in a new group? Once your marketing communications group gains an understanding of your company, your customers and your industry, the decision to disengage them should be weighed with utmost care.

Decisions about marketing communications support—whether you’re retaining a group for the first time or considering a change—can be among the most far-reaching you’re likely to make. To make the right decision, arm yourself with information and understanding. The value you receive in return will be all the vindication. you need.

Corporate Identity

Throughout the history of business, those companies that have successfully forged a unique, recognizable and memorable identity have been the ones to survive. Look at the company logos represented on this page. Long before the term “corporate identity” was coined, the paramount importance of the concept was well understood. From the British East India Company of the swashbuckling 17th century, to the Arches and Swooshes of the breakneck 20th entrepreneurs and other visionaries have long appreciated the immeasurable value of image and how it is molded through corporate identity.

So what is corporate identity? At first glance the notion might seem so elusive as to be illusory. It is, after all, a construct of total imagination; an amalgamation of words and images, perceptions and attitudes. The issue gains its weighty prominence, though, thanks to a simple factor beyond the control of all principals: these perceptions are formed whether we want them to be, or not. This, in a nutshell, is the reason that a company must seize the initiative in crafting a favorable identity. Left to grow on its own, the perceptions that frame your identity might very well be built of rumors, innuendos and outright mistakes. And once these perceptions take root in the subconscious of customers, vendors, employees and the public, they are all but impossible to supplant.

Crafting your company’s identity circumvents this. It helps to portray the face of your company that you want the world to see. It relays the messages that you want heard. It is nothing less than seizing destiny itself.

The process, predictably, is not a simple one. More than anything else it requires tenacity. It requires relentless adherence to the standards and practices that underpin identity. For many companies, it requires the appointment of a “brand sheriff” who is tasked to oversee the thousand and one factors that build and support the corporate message. For others, it requires the engagement of professional consultants to craft and clarify perceptions. In any case, it requires an intractable commitment.

The path is arduous, but the rewards are immediate. This is why it pays to begin designing your company’s identity today, and not leave the message that it conveys to chance.