By Tim Williams
Agencies are indispensable partners in helping marketers differentiate their brand. Differentiation is, after all, the essence of branding. But when it comes to their own brands, most agencies haven’t thought through their own brand touch points to look for opportunities to stand out.
Assemble your management team and consider opportunities to differentiate your agency in the following areas:
Product
Strategic planning approach
Creative development philosophy
Production capabilities
Secondary research resources
Research approach
Project management and workflow system
Client metrics measurement, dashboards
Client relationship evaluation system
New client start-up program
Brand audits and reviews
Strategic alliances and business partnerships
People
Agency organization and structure
Recruiting approach
Approach to evaluating prospective employees
Employment agreements
New employee orientation program
Performance reviews
Approach to internal communication
Employee compensation
Employee recognition and rewards
Professional development program
Promotion
Agency brand identity
Website
Prospective client identification
Marketing materials
Agency publicity and social media program
Search marketing and optimization
Directories and listings
Speaking program
Agency search consultant contact
RFPs and questionnaires
New business presentations
Process
Compensation systems
Pricing approach
Billing system
Profit sharing
Place
Agency offices and workspace
Resources and furnishings
Intranet and extranets
Telephone and voice mail system
E-mail and other first impressions
But the point is not to be different just for the sake of being different, but rather to be different in relevant ways. You could think of these two factors – differentiation and relevance – plotted as a vertical and horizontal axis.
Obviously, it’s possible to be different without being relevant (quadrant 4). It’s also conceivable that the elements of your agency brand might be relevant to your target clients, but they’re not very differentiated, and therefore don’t look any different from any other agency (quadrant 1).
Quadrant 2 is clearly the worst place to be. The high ground is in quadrant 3, where your product, people, process, and place of business are all relevant to client needs and highly differentiated from other firms.
Engage your management team in a discussion of how to move the agency into quadrant 3 in every possible dimension you can, from the way the agency is structured to the way you bill for your services.
In the end, nothing will enhance your branding credentials more than doing a great job of branding and differentiating your own firm.