There are times when, as a business owner, you can be so close to your company, your product, your people, your industry and your idea of what your company does that it can be hard to look objectively and creatively at your brand. This is an even more powerful trend the longer your company has been in business, it's easy to fall into that familiar rut of, "This is how we have always looked. This is what we always said. This is what our clients expect." The danger of that thought is if your company has been in business a long time you may be trying to talk to prospective customers who don't speak the same way, think the same way or desire the same style of service as they did 10, 15 or 20 years ago. You might be speaking to people who have moved on, in other words. They've adapted and changed while you planted a flag and stayed put.
On the other hand, if you are a fairly new company, you may have an idea of what you think people want, or want to hear without really doing the research to make sure you are on point. You know your company is great, your products are first rate and your service is top notch and it should be easy to simply say that, create a logo, hang that shingle out and wait for the money to come walking in.
The reality is it sometimes is very helpful to have an OUTSIDE perspective on what you do, why you do it, who would want it and how to tell them about it.
While it is true, as we have heard many times with our own clients, that no marketing firm will be as big of experts in your field as you are, a good marketing firm will ask a lot of questions, listen well, research astutely, brainstorm continuously, craft and hone creatively and finally give you some CHOICE when it comes to the expression of the agreed upon strategy. That means that it shouldn't ever be an issue of you as the client just getting back a regurgitation of your own ideas, you should get options, some of which will force you to expand your boundaries of what you THOUGHT was the way to go. You might be surprised at what you like better when someone objectively looks at what you are trying to say or accomplish. That is not to say that every idea is a winner, but more often than not when you have a team of people working towards a common goal with a plethora of ideas, the bad ones get weeded out, strong ones get fused to each other to become even more powerful and your idea may or may not turn out to be in the middle of the mix.
Don't be afraid of letting go of what you have traditionally considered to be the look, the feel, the words for your industry or audience and at the same time know what pieces of the message or look are non-negotiable. Once again, a good marketing firm should be able to, in listening to you and doing the research, understand which is which. I heard it said once that there is a difference between OPINIONS and PRINCIPLES. Opinions are things that we may have to compromise on a regular basis, but principles are bedrocks of who we are that we NEVER change because they make us who we are, they are in our DNA and form our character.
So it is with business.
As a marketing firm our aim in every situation, with every new client and project, is to make sure we are firmly in possession of the knowledge of which parts of a brand are "opinions" and which parts are "principles", and it varies from company to company even within the same industry. Principles are parts of the message that we do not mess with for one or more of the following reasons (among others):
- There is brand equity built into them
- They are firm expectations of a target market segment
- They are timeless facets of a product or service
- They are inherent and sustainable competitive advantages
The bottom line is this: When you make the decision to hire a marketing firm, don't be afraid to allow them to move you out of the forest of your business so you can see the trees in a new and fresh way. If you've made the right decision, and trust the team you are working with, you may be surprised at the variety of flora and fauna you see, that have grown and changed while you wandered around in the middle of things going about your day to day core business.
Xapsis Integrated Marketing strives everyday to be a team of people that you and your company can TRUST, that will provide you with CHOICE and hopefully challenge you to leave your branding ruts on some occasions, while vigorously defending and bolstering the non-negotiables of who you are and what you do. We're pledged to help you see the marketing forest for the trees, so give us a call we would love to discuss your particular hurdles, constraints and goals so, as always, we can take you from where you are to where you want to be.
Doug
